Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-07-20
as John BULL SEES HIMSELF.
Something of Ills Cooking and HIS
AE1usementS-TheD Dinners of
Two Nations.

Every nation has the government ana
the cooking which it deserves. Thus.
the French are the worst governed ana
| the best fed people in Europe, for the
reason that the ma ority of Frenchmen
are perfectly Indifferent to politics and
keenly interested in food. The Eng
lish are the worst fed and the best gov
erned people in the world, because, with
few exceptions, they care great deal
more about the programme uf the gov
eminent than the menu of the cook. In
the "Vierx Marcheur' there is a scene
! in the cabinet of Partisan restaurant
| which illustrates the anxious dellbera-
ton with which French party debate
their bill of fare. what are you going
to give US, Adrien?" asks the host. ''Jai
pense a differences choses," replies the
waiter. Fancy asking an English waiter
what he was going to give you for
| Luz ,cheon and his answering: Il have
| been thinking of several things!"
! Adrien then proposes potage Jeanne
| dare, whereupon young gentleman
asks, Indignantly: DE la soupe a
! deieuner?'' Adrien's rebuEe is mag
! nificent: Non, monsieur, pas de ia
soupe, du potage. C'est la vielle ecole,
ct j'y suis fidele. L'homme ne Sc main
:ient que par les potages- lie grand
| "areme, qui ecrit I'M tres beau hvre
sur les potages, les appelle les Portiques
| du Temple
| French women do quite as much as
j French men to keep up the standard
of cookery; and English women are
quite as much to blame as English men
for the absence of any standard in this
country. Ask any lady of your &C.
uuaintance what she thinks of a certain
restaurant, and she will say: 'Such
lovely room. I like those dark red
hangings by Waring so much" ''But
the dinner, my dear lady, what about
the dinner?'' "Oh, the dinner! I don't
think | remember much about that"
| This fatal Indifference filters down
from the table through the service to
, the kitchen. The experiment is con-
stantly tried of getting oTer-celebra-
ted chefs from Paris, and those who
know these artists on their native
heath are at loss to account for their
cold and careless performances in Lon
don. The reasons are not far to seek.
The foreign chef is badly served in the
distresses him at first, until he learns
that his patrons are too busy admirints
the furniture and one another to know
whether his dinner is hot or cold. For
the truth is that so long as the uF-
holstery is magnificent and the com
pany numerous and smart English peo-
pie are quite happy. Given alabaster
pillars, saddlebag settees, plenty OF
electric light and the restaurant Or
notel is voted charming. The garbage
which we placidly swallow at our very
expensive hotels and on board our
crack steamers is horrible to think of. |
Nor are our clubs much better. In 1856 |
Abraham Hayward wrote: ''The beet |
judges are agreed that it is utterly ina |
possible to dine better than at the Carl |
tom Would the members of that H. !
stitution indorse this statement now?
In private houses there is the same |
Indifference above stairs, the same care |
lessness below. Even among the upper /
class, where money is no object, the |
contrast is too painful between the !
splendor of the table and the common
place, addressed fare. With the excep-
ton of one or two of our great mobiles !
who entertain royalty, the best cooking
is to be found. as might be expected, in !
the houses of the cosmopolitan fnan
ciers. In the upper middle class the |
difficulty of obtaining a decent cock is
notorious, because the working English
woman regards serious interest in the
preparation of food as derogatory. To
produce a good dinner at eight o'clock
the cook should begin thinking of diff
ferent things" like Adriea, at an early
period of the afternoon; whereas she
never dreams of beginning her duty
until about an hour and a half before
the time. After all, why should she
bother, if master and mistress don't
mind? Below the upper middle class
cooking and dining disappear, and you
get boiling, baking and feeding. Things
will never mend until the majority rec
ognize that good cooking is an impor-
tant factor in happiness, and insist
upon getting it. Nothing is so difficult
as to force taste upon a people; hut
we really think that reso1ute effort
migth be made by English travellers to
raise the culinary standard in their own
hotels, which in this respect are simply
scandalous. Verify. we are great and
good nation; but at the bare magma
ton of our national cookery the ssom.
ach weeps-London Saturday Review