The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-04
IN MONARCHS' KITCHENS.
Culinary Regime Below Stairs in
Many Royal Palaces.
Casselrs Saturday Journal.

Casselrs Saturday Journal
The German Emperor is disposed to be
rather officious in the supervision OF his
kitchen. He has been known to make a
special tour of inspection under the guild
ance Of the marshal of the court and TO
harangue the scullions to give them les
sons in the art of making coffee. As a rule
he gets his meals zen pension, there being
a regular sum allotted per head for the
board of the imperial family, and within
these limits the cooks have free hand.
The chief cook is German, and under
him are a German and Frenchnan, al
though the use of the French language
upon the menus Is strictly forbidden. The
chef has to get through about four hun
dredweight of butchers meat on ordinary
days for the meals of the court and OH
great occasions he usually begins his prep
arationS a week beforehand and calls in
the services of the cooks at the other pal
aces, besides utilizing the services of the
dainty confectioners in Inter den Linden.
William III believes in dishes en- masse.
The Joints appear in the dining saloon and
the cakes are frequently fashioned into the
shape of temples, minarets and castles.
The chef in the household Of the Car is
an Alsatian, an ex-soldier, who is paid a
very high salary. He is an adept in the
fabrication of appetizing Russian soups,
which are much liked by Nicholas III, and
the treatment of caviare. He has had 10
overcome the nuisance of having two
three Circassians always lowering about
the kitchen on the lookout for suspicious
themselves to the task of tasting the i'm
perial viands with greater zeal than the
occasion demands. The Empress often con-
veys to the kitchen a wish for a dainty
dish to be prepared "a fAnglais,'' and,
apart from the national dishes, the compo-
sition of the imperial menu zen famille"
is as much English French. The EN-
peror Francis Joseph is said to spend
$4,000 per annum upon this table. although
he him self is of the most abstmeious
monarchs in Europe. The staff consists of
hal llv III
vided as to sex, and a committee of the
heads of each department is held on the
occasion Of a state banquet. All the cary
ing is done in an apartment reserved for
the purpose, TO which the comestibles are
conveyed from the kitchen. The custom OF
perquisites is probably more firmly estab-
lished in the Austrian imperial kitchen
than anywhere else in royal Europe.
At some of the smaller courts native
chefs are preferred. as. for example. in
Rome. Madrid and Stockholm. At the Sub
lime Porte Abdul Hamid formerly con-
tented himself with French chefs, but after
the visit of the German Emperor to Con-
stantinople he engaged three German COOKS
who assist him in dispensing the enormous
daily sum of &i.000 upon the pleasures of
the table for his vast este b.ishment All
the SutanS personal dishes are prepared
In silver vessels and are sealed by the
grand vizier before they leave the kitchen
The seal Is broken in the presence OF the
monarch, and il is the duty of the cham
berlain to taste The first mouthful if so
commanded. The decoration of a chef by
his royal master is a rare event, even the
Royal Victorian Order was not considered
by her late Majesty TO be a suitable meth
cd OF acknowledging the services Of her Gu
linary artists. When a famous chef re-
tired from the service OF the imperial
kitchen in Berlin he was rewarded by the
Empress with the Gold Cross of Merit, but
even In the fatherland this distinction was
unique. Perhaps the most curious kitchen
department in any imperial palace ia the
world is that OF the Emperor of China
The STAN consists of no fewer than sev-
enty-six experts, whose duties require
them to be acquainted with the daintlest
methods of serving up bears paws or an
telope tails, cells eggs, or monkeys lips.
while there Is a special department which
concerns itself with the sci ious tasks of
producing bird's-nest soup.