num_pages: 341
description: Based on a true story this is the unforgettable heartwarming tale of the French pauper who overcame all odds to become the world's first celebrity chef. From the author of The Ming Storytellers. PARIS 1792. Antonin Carme is eight years old when he is left to fend for himself in a city about to enter the darkest days of the French revolution. The imaginative boy who yearns for a fairy tale come true soon discovers his talent for making cakes.When he meets the mysterious Boucheseiche matre dhtel for Napoleons minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Prigord Carmes world is turned upside down. Boucheseiche promises that one day he will reveal to him the secret of Chantilly.Appointed chef at the chteau of Valenay Carme falls under the spell of the enigmatic Talleyrand. He is soon swept up in his own fairy tale  a whirlwind of princes princesses and chteaux with ptisserie and scandal along the way. Then comes Napoleons downfall and everything changes. Can Carme place his trust in the elusive Talleyrand that limping devil for whom no one seems to matter?Orphan of the Terror genius crippled by self-doubt it will take years for Carme to finally discover the secret of Chantilly. This is the story of a child who defied his birth to become a legend of French gastronomy and of the unimaginable friendship between two men from entirely different worlds. From the streets of Paris to the chteau of Valenay from the congress of Vienna to the dazzling ballrooms of Frances richest man Carme recounts adventures colored with spice humor and tenderness but always rich with Frances history its heritage and its great culinary art.
language: English
title: The Secret of Chantilly
publisher: Independently Published