The record-union., 1898-01-30
PARISIAR COOKING.
AN ERA OF GASTRONOMIC RE-
NAIssANCE BEGUN.

L
| NAISSANCE BEGUN.
Simplicity Insisted Upon at the
Jockey Club and the Cercle de
L'Union-Joseph Frederic, the
! Chef of President FauTe, ana
the Chefs of the Leading Res
taurants, Welcome the Reform
| alton and Proclaim Classical
Purity in the Art Of Dining.
| The year 1897 will be memorable IN
| the annals of French cookery. Tor IL
| marks the entry into what may be
called its period of renaissance. just
as the revival of the classical purity IN
painting, sculpture, literature and ar
| chitecture was effected in the sixteenth
century under the influence of the Med
| lei, so is the art of cooking accomplish
/ ing at the close of the nineteenth CEN
tury a similar regeneration under the
| inspiration and patronage OF Such mas
ter gourmets as the Due de Rohan, the
/ Due de Doudeauville, the Marquis de
Jaucourt, NJ. Bisch0ffsheim and a Sc
| lect coterie of their disciples, whose
| kitchens to-day are acknowledged to be
| the standard of the highest modern de-
velopment of the gastronomic art. The
| new departure already impaired TO
| French cooking cannot fail before long
to make itself felt in New York, and
will eventually penetrate to every corn
| er of Christendom where well-cooked
| and well ll-served dinners are appreciat-
| ed.
The far-reaching Importance of this
movement may be made clearer by a
brief reference to French culinary his
tory. Records preserved in the French
National Library, some of which are
! embodied in the works of Grimod de la
Reyniere, Brillat-Savarin, Balzac The
odore Child and Charles Monselet con-
| clusively show that of all the cookery
ever achieved that which prevailed dur
ing the Regency OF the Due d'Orleans
came the nearest to absolute perfection
A contemporary OF the 'petits soupers"
of the eighteenth century, Grimm, the
| author of the famous CORES spondence
| Litteraire," has expressed his belief
that the sumptuousness of the Roman
| tables of the days of Lucullus was not
to be compared with the refinement re-
sulting in that classical simplicity
which characterized the cooking of the
Regency. The culinary efforts Of the
first quarter of the eighteenth century
were directed toward developing the
natural predominating flavor of each
element and preventing its taste from
being vitiated or neutralized by a pro-
fusion of discordant condiments and
seasonings. 1t was under the Regency
that the science of roasting reached its
apogee-''the joint submitted to the
heat of an intense but open fire, which
coagulated the surface, thereby retain
ing the juice during continuance of
the roasting process before q more mod
crate fire.
1t was during the Regency that intel
ligent research, infinite care, labor and
costly sacrifice evolved from primary
| bases sauces never since rivalled in
purity and fineness of taste. 1t was
the time when grands seigneurs like the
Marquis de Bechamel. the Due de Sou
bise, the Due de Richelieu, Marechal
| Villeroy, Prince de Conde and the Due
de Montmorency immortaliZed them
selves by combining those fundamental
sauces and dishes whose names remain
to-day household words throughout
Europe and America. The Regent him
self invented the famous pain de foie
gras a d'Orleans," the 'mahonnaise, .
now familiar as the mayonnaise, and
also the sauce a la regence." COM
pounded by the slow reduction and pull
verization of tender poultry. The Re-
gency, whatever else may be said Of
it, certainly constituted the Augustan
era of the gastronomic art.
Under Louis XIV. cookery remained
stationary, with slight tendency tow
| ard complexity. With Louis' XVI.
came a change toward profusion and
| incongruity. During the First En-
pire there was a slight Improvement
which continued with the Restoration
and until Louis Philippe. But with
the Third Empire exotic tastes set in,
| which eliminated in pretentious exag-
geration and in the culinary gymnastics
| and tours de force which characterize
the restaurant dinners during the pres
! ent Republic, and which can only be
| compared to the polychromatic archi-
| tectural incongruitieS of the Byzantine
| decadence.
| The well-known views of the Due de
| Rohan and the Due de Doudeauyiiie,
| and the result of long conversations
| with such eminent authorities as Jo-
seph of the Rue Marivaux; Frederic Of
| the Tour d'Argent; l.. Collas, chef de
| cuisine of the Cercle de PUnion; Georges
| Delafoy, che de cuisine of the Jockey
| Club; with Leon Letain, chef at the
! Cafe Anglais; Edouard Nignon, chef
| at the Restaurant Pallard; Georges
| Bouton, chef at the Restaurant Voisin,
and with Tesch, the chef of NJ. Felix
Faure, President of the French Repub-
! lie. point TO the conclusion that the
present movement toward simplicity IS
nothing less than the renaissance of the
| classic cuisine of the Regency.
| The artists above mentioned are at
the summit of their profession. Their
proved knowledge, skill and the high
positions they occupy lend to them d
prestige like that of a tribunal of final
jurisdiction, and their judgments in ali
| matters relating to the cuisine have the
| weight and authority which in legal
affairs pertain to the decisions of the
Court of Cessation in France or TO tne
| rulings of the Supreme Court of the
| United States.
| In the course of a conversation with
| Joseph, who, it may be remembered.
was induced to leave Paris a few years
| ago for New York and Newport, where
| he served as chef to a well-known
American railway magnate at salary
of S1OfUtO a wear and who now is his