The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-15

the dining-room the butler takes charge
and his assistants minutely follow his or
ders. He never leaves the dining-room
Every well regulated English home
has head cook and two assistant cooks
But. between you and me, my second as
sistant cook, when l am preparing to get
up fine dinner, will give you far better
menu than the English chef of the cuisine
AS for the assistant cooks, they don't seem
to know anything. The assistant butler
brings in everything to the dining room,
and there are two or three walters act
ing under the buffers orders to receive
all dishes and serve them. And the tables
are so beautifully decorated, the silver
CLEANS so brightly, the servants are so
swift, so noiseless, so sure; they never
make mistake. But to insure this they
are trained to the same routine day after
day. If a different item is introduced into
the menu, and they have not been pre-
pared for it by the butler, they are at
once at a loss what to do. Take, for in
stance, the item coffee, for the English do
not serve coffee every day. Now, when l
have dinner in hand, l know that we
must have coffee, and that l must
send it to the drawing room. If YOU
have coffee one day in England and omit
it the next, the servant will not know
what to do with it until he is told. And
regular routine
must not be broken without entailing con-
fusion.
But the English know how to serve tea:
they drink so much of it, no wonder. The
first thing they do is to offer YOU a Gun
of tea. And they serve it beautifully. But
1t is no wonder they have such pretty
waiting in the dining room, when they
Keep so many servants. Fancy a newly
married person I know, who has at least
eight servants just for two people. 1t is
very embarrassing to a Louisianian. for
here, since the war, one good servant can
do the work of three. l used to often look
at the buffers and their number of wait
ers and wonder if New Orleans servants
would put up with another servant who
required as much waiting on as the Eng
lish butler.
IF we kept as many servants in the
dining room, with our wonderful knack
of serving, Louisiana would far ostshine
England. AT great dinners in England
there must be at least two head hltlers
and five under buffers. And the under
buffers do nothing in the world but wait
on the head ones.
In Germany the cooking is good but
it is after the German style. For those
who like this style the cooking is very
good. They make very good bread in
germany In austria, too, the cooking
is tolerable, but they do know how 70
make the lovliest coffee in Austria. And
they serve 1t deliciously with Whipped
cream. The bread is also good bnt
neither the Germans nor Austrians pride
themselves on being a nation of good
cooks. They do not cater to the stomach
Everything is good, solid; but few fancy
fripperies. The Germans are great on
noodles. In Munich we had some very
good cooking; also at Bayreuth and SaIz-
bury. At the little town of Innisbruck
l was surprised at the good fare We
stopped at a nice little inn kept by a
peasant woman and her husband. This
lady and her two daughters did all the
work of the hotel; the mother did the
cooking and the husband served. We
had some fine dishes, of which l took the
recipes; good vegetables and lovely fruit
but talk of cooking" said Nellie. my
child, you must go to Paris for that
My mouth waters every time I think Of
Paris and her kitchens It was so like
New Orleans. I could see New Orleans
and her people in everything that was
said and done ahd-cooked. Especially
cooked. In Paris the people know how
to live. 1 am in love with Paris and her
dishes. There you have the loveliest
ragouts, the most delicious entrees, the
finest game, the sweetest meats, the
creme de la creme of deserts and the
costhest and best wines. For a simple
everyday dinner they will give you de-
salads, desserts, coffee and wine. The
servants fare like their masters. Down
in the servant hall in Paris we had claret
white wine (the Parisians drink a great
deal of white wiue), champagne. coenac
and coffee. tell you, we lived royalty.
And the bread; the Parisians make the
most beautiful bread you ever tasted any
where but In Virginia and louisiana The
serving is beautiful, each waiter knowing
his or her duty and never getting con-
fused, no matter what dish is introduced
unawares. I saw them serve pheasant
in Paris. You know we have no pheas-
ants here. Well, they serve the bird lust
as though 1t Is going to fly away, feathers
head, wings and all. 1t is brought upon
the table, and you would think that IL
was fighting cock, but in moment the
butler takes 1t to one side, the feathers
are stripped off, for the cooked bird is be-
meath and you have the most delightful
dish you ever tasted. / brought home
with me the head, wings and breast of a
pheasant served at one dinner for a SOU
venir of Paris kitchens There is no place
in the world outside Of Paris where people
know how to cook. except in New Orleans.
1 saw New Orleans gentleman at one
dinner, and he said to me en- PEASANT Mel
lie this is all very good, but have not
yet eaten anything better than the old
Creole cooks prepared in my kitchen in
New Orleans. 1 would put you alongside
of Partisan cook any day.
"Of course. I learned to prepare many
new dishes, for 1 had my eyes open"
continued Nellie. For instance. last
winter a lady came to me and asked me
TO prepare 'Ffllets de Sole Now. we have
no such FISH as sole in New Orleans. when
/ was In England / ate sole for the flrst
time. examined the fish. 1t looked vsr.
much like our hounder Few people eat
founders here In New Orleans. The neo-
pie over the lake sometimes eat them
The sole Is Of a darker meat than the
founder caught IA our lakea wei