I think a sam/war with a good deal of (in this order) parry, evasion, defense, vit, attk/acc, str gear would make excellent tanks for VT and lower tier INCs.
If I were to try this, I'd play it much like war/mnk is played. As far as hate goes, thf/ and post 60 /thf would fix any possible drawbacks.
Hard to say on food in my opinion, I think that would be the tricky part if I were to try this.
Pld obviously just go for defense food
Ninja go for jackos, sushi, attk food depending on lvl/gear/etc.
A tanking sam and war? That'd be tricky.
The thought of defense boosting food occured to me for sams, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose? If sam was truely meant to be a tank, I personally imagined them to be a tank geared for speed parties; parties rapidily meant to chain VT-lower INC.
Damage and acc would actually be importent to a samurai tanking I imagine if one was to be a samurai tank. Unlike say pld were attk/acc are clearly very 2ndary to defense/vit/hate control. Ninjas clearly rely on evasion/attk/acc.
So the food choices for nin-pld are a bit obvious while tanking.