The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-11

save the prince the price of two red null
lets a month";" His hand fell on his rapier
hilt, he rushes upstairs, falls on the blade.
As he expired the cart loaded with turbot
came into the yard. Viola
Times have changed. Cooks now pre-
fer living on their masters to dying for
them.
The Prince de Soubise. inventor of a
sauce, the discovery of which has made
him more glorious than twenty victories,
asked his cook TO draw him up bill of
fare. sort of rough estimate for supner
Bertrand's hrst estimate was fifty hams. -
What, Bertrand. are you going TO feast
the whole army of the Rhine? Your
brains are surely turning" Bertrand was
blanily contemptuous. ''Mv brains are
surely turning? No, moIse!gneur. on v
one ham will appear on the table, but the
rest are indisp, nsable for my espdqaoies,
my chickens and my garnlshing."
Bertrand, you are plundering me,
stormed the prince. This article shall
not pass" The blood of the cook was
up. MY lord" SAID he, sternly, you
do not understand the resources of our
art. Give the word and | will so melt
down these hams, that they will go into
little glass bottle no bigger than my
thumb"
The prince was abashed by the genius
of the spit, and the fifty hams were
purchased.
The Duke of Wellington liked good
dinner, and employed an artist named
Felix, Lord Seton finding Felix too ex-
pensive allowed him to go to the Iron
Duke, but Felix came back with tears in
his eyes.
What is the matter ?" said Lord Seton,
''has the duke turned rusty? ?"
mo, no, my Lord but serve him a
dinner which would make Francatelli or
Ude die of envy, and he says nothing. L
go to the country and leave him to try a
dinner cooked by stupid, dirty cook
maid, and he says nothing; that is what
hurt my feelings"
Felix lived on appreciation. He would
have been capable OF dying like vatel.
Going last winter to see ''le Bourgeois
Gentilhomme" at Coincide Franchise. l
was struck with the novelty of the dinner
served by this hero of Moliere, who is SO
anxious to get rid of his money.
All the dishes were brought in by little
fellows dressed as cooks, who danced to
the minuet. In later faithful chronicle
/ learned that a certain marquis of the
days of Louis XIV. invented a musical
spit which caused all the snowy-garbed
cooks to move in rythmical steps.
All was melody and order. The fish
simmered in six-eight time, the ponderous
roasts circied gravely, the stews blended
their essences to solemn anthems. The
=
This was an idea worthy of Apecius.
So Moliere, true to the spirit of his time,
paid his compliment to the marquis.
Bechamel was cook to Louis XIV, and
invented a famous sauce.
Durand, who was cook to the great Ma
| poleon, has left curious record of his
tempestuous eating. Francatelh sue
ceeded Ude in England; was the chef at
Chesterfield house, at Lord Kinnaird's,
and at the Melton Club. He held the post
| of maitre d'hotel for awhile, but was dis
missed by cabal.
The gay writer from whose pages we
have gathered these desultory facts, winds
up with an advice to all who keep French
| cooks: make your chef your friend.
| Take care of him. Watch over the health
| of this man of genius. Send for the physi-
| clan when he is ill"
Imagine the descent from these poets to
| the "good plain cook" (you can depend
| upon the truth of this description) with a
| six weeks reference from her last place.
| lets hard as a board, the few hard green
| peas, the soggy potatoes, alas! How awful
| these recollections when we implored one
| to come in "a week on trial!' Whose
! trial? Those who had to eat her food. 1t
| is bad to be without a cook, but ten times
| worse to have a bad one.
| But if Louis Eustache Ude, the cook par
| excellence of all this little study. lamented
| over the waste in great kitchens, how
much more should he revolt at that whole
| sale destruction of food which might go to
| feed the hungry, nourish and sustain the
| sick and perhaps save many a child's life
| What should be done with the broken
| meats of great household? The cook is
| too apt to toss all into a tub or basket to
| swell her own Ubiquitous profits. The half
| tongues, ends of ham, roast beef chicken
| legs, the real honest relics OF generous
| kitchen, would feed four or five poor fami-
| lies a week. In New York at one opulent
| mansion the tea grounds, after the family
are served, are dried and go to some poor
| woman; the ends of toast, the cleanly
| clearings of the table go to another and
| every morsel of untouched meat goes to
some valued old retainer, or should do so.
What gifts of mercy to hospitals, the
| half of form of jelly, the pudding, the
blanc mango, which is by the careless
| thrown away
| In France the little sisters of the poor
| go about with clean dishes and clean bas-
| kets to collect these morsels, which tall
from the rich mans table. 1t is worthy
| custom.
And while studying the names of these
| great men like Ude and Careme, Vatel and
| Francatelli, what shades of dead pats
| sieres spirits of extinct coafseurs. rise
| around us in savory streams and-for us
| the past of gastronomic pleasure!
| MANY Frenchman will tell YOU of the
! iced meringues of the Palais ROYAL, and
salads de fraises au marasquin of the
"Grand Seize as if they were things of the
past. The French, gayer and lighter
handed at the molding of pastry, are apt
| to exceed all nations in this delicate. de-
| licious entremet The ''vol au vent de
volatile" or chicken pie, with its delicate
filling OF chicken, mushroom truffies, and
its enveloping pastry, is never better than
| at the Grand hotel at AK les Bains,
where one finds the perfection of good eat
ing ''Aix les Bains," says a resident ply
stefan, lilies halfway between Paris and
Rome, vito its famous curative baths. to
correct the good dinners of the one and
the good wines of the other" AK adds a
temptation of its own. 1t is the prettiest
place in the world.
The French have ever been fond of the
playthings of the Kitchen the tarts. Gus
tards, the frothy nothlngs, which are FASH
ion ed out of the cvanescent union of whip
ped cream and refined sugar. Their polite
ness, their accomplishments, their love of
the external, all lead 10 such dainties. 1t
was observed even so long ago as 1915.
when the allies were in Paris. that the Is.
600 pates, which Nine. Felix sold daily in
the Passage des Panoramas. were begin
ming To affect the foreign bayonets. and no
doubt the German invasion may have been
checked by the same dulcet influence.
There is romance and history even about
pastry. The baba species of sayory biseuit.
colored with saffron, was introduced into
France by Stanislaus, the first king of
Poland, when that unlucKy country was
alternately the scourge and the victim of
Russia. The dish was perhaps original in