Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-17
IN MoNARcHs KITCHENS.
Culinary Regime Below Stairs in Many
Royal Palaces.


From Casselrs Saturday Journal.
The German emperor Is disposed to be
rather offcious in the supervision of his
kitchen. He has been known to make
special tour of inspection, under the guid-
ance Of the marshal Of the court, and to
harangue the scullions, or give them les
sons in the art Of making coffee. AS 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 a German, and under
him are German and a Frenchman, 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 on
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 II 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 appet1Zing Russian soups,
which are much liked by Nicholas II, and
he has regular dictionary of recipes for
the treatment Of caviare He has had to
overcome the nuisance Of having two or
three Circassians always lowering about
the kitchen on the lookout for suspicious
underlings, although these gentry apply
themselves to the task Of tasting the i'm
occasion demands. The empress often
conveys to the kitchen wish for a dainty
dish to be prepared "a PAnglais" and
apart from the national dishes the compo-
sition of the imperial menu zen famille'
is as much English as French. The EN-
peror Francis Joseph is said to spend
10000 per annum upon his table, although
he himself Is one Of the most abstemious
monarchs In Europe. The staff consists Of
half hundred trained cooks, equally dt-
vided as to sex, and committee Of the
heads Of each department is held on the
occasion of a state banquet. All the cary
ing Is done ia an apartment reserved for
the purpose, to which the comestibles are
conveyed from the kitchen. The custom Of
perquisites is probably more firmly estab-
7lished in the Austrian imperial kitchen
than anywhere else in royal Europe.
At some of the smaller courts native
Rome, Madrid and Stockholm. At the
Sublime 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 f1,OOO upon the
pleasures Of the table for his vast estab-
lishment. All the sultan's 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 it is the duty
of the chamberlain to taste the first mouth
full II 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 method of acknowledging the serv-
ices of her culinary artists. When q famous
chef retired from the service Of the I'M
per1al 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
In the world is that of the Emperor Of Chi
ma. The staff consists Of no fewer than
seventy-six experts. whose duties require
them to be acquainted with the dainttest
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 serious task Of pro-
duc1ng bird Snest soup.