Evening journal., 1904-07-06
WHIMS OF EPICURES
DISHES OF FABULOUS COST AND
QUESTIONABLE TASTE.

The vast susus That We're Lavished
Jpon Fcnsts by tho Luxurious
Homans-soyrr's Hundred Guinea
Dish--One Way of Cooking an olive.
Whatever criticism the forms and
expense Of modern entertainment may
still invite, we have at least escaped
from the Objectionable feature of cost
lness for it's own sake which charac.
torzed so many Of the hanquets Of
century ago. AS VIC an very wcil know,
there is cookery and cookery, and the
best must ncod be expensive, But there
IS an obvious distinction between the
regardless Of expense principle and
the mere desire so stand sponsor TO the
cosuiest dish or dinner. as such, chat
money can pay for ana the perverted
ingenuity Of cooks can achieve. The
first may bc the legitimate ambition
of a Croesus intent upon social adj
vanccmcnt. but the second is "A more
vulgar aim and one, indeed, that often
defeats It's own ends
According to Ihackeray's philosophy.
ga man can only be hungry and eat
ana Doe hnppy," but there Is clearly u
great deal more i'm it than that Be
tween such a primitive canon Of gas
tronomy and the well founded tastos
and preferences of the genuine con-
noisscur there Is q distinction as broad
ns 1t is reasonable. Good. better, best,
apply as fully ana inevitably to mat
ters of the table as TO any other de-
parimcnt OF life, and It must always
bc difficult for those who have gradu-
ated in the higher schools of the cuil-
nary art not TO accept the very cordial
maxim, "The best OF everything is good
enough for the likes Of us"
when the Count of Monte Christie
showed his guests how easy it was to
spend q thousand pounds on a dinner
for ten persons he gave them also an
insight into the rationale of the ex-
pcnditure. Among the dishes was a
sterlet brought alive from the Yolga,
and the count then replies TO the com
ments it provoked: Il am Ike Nero-I
wish for the impossible This fish,
which seems so excellent TO you, is
very likely no better than carp or salm-
on, but 10 seemed impossible to procure
it. and here it is" There IS not even
originality i'm this, for it IS only an
adaptation Of the old Roman idea, and
the cost of Monte-Christo's dinner has
often been exceeded by that of a sim
gle dish
History IS silent as to the sum ok
pended upon the enormous entree call
ed by Vitelius the "shlcld OF Minerva" ="
but as IL was composed of nm incrcdi-
bic variety of the rarest and incest
kinds Of meat IT'S cost was certainly in
proportion TO its size. Nor could a
dish of nightlngales' tongues have been
made for trilc, though it could have
been worth very little whom it was
made. The vast sums layished upon
the feasts Of the luxurlous Romans
/ must be accepted with some hesita-
tion, and the $4,000 said TO have been
the daily amount expended by Yitcl
lius upon his supper seems almost fab
ulous.
But then he, too, was devoured by Q
desire to attain The impossible" ant
employed a far reaching organization
in order TO realize it, According tr
Josephus, his food was OF the mos
rare ana exquisite nature, "thc deserts
Of Libya, the shores Of Spain, the wa
ters of the Carpathian sen. and ever
the coasts ana forests OF Britain wcr,
diligently searched for daintcs to sup
ply his table" Dut even this Is
oclipsed by the story Of a single disl
provided for q banquet given by he
liogabalus which Is said TO have cos
no loss sum than $1,000 of Englsl
money
The waste and utter futlity Of sucl
lavish expenditure may be said. il
some sense. TO have been counterhal
anccd by the idea Of splenlor and lux
urious opulenCe which it was though
70 express. But we find records OF
dishes Of quite inordinate cost mucl
nearer our own times for which n,
such plea can be urged.
IN his "City Madam" Massinge
scourges the extravagant method o
/ preparing many dishes then in fashion
and ridiculcs "their pies Of carps
tongues and their pheasants drenche'
with ambergris." And he is especially
severe perhaps such an Incident ha,
/ actually occurred upon "the carcassc
OF three fat wothors bruised for gray.
10 make sauce fer a single turkey.
This. of course. is a simple barbarlsu
for which there can be no possible pal
hation and, though 1t may be regard
ed as an exceptional instance Of prince
~ magnificence, one instinctiyer
shrinks at the statement that at th
banquet given by Louis XIV. ut Yer
sanles on the occasion OF the marriag
Of Mile De Blois and the Prince g
Cont in 1868 the ortolans alone COS
10000 francs.
Napoleon himself IS reported to hav
said that more fortunate treaties
more happy arrangements and recon
citations were due to the cook of hi
Chancellor Camhacercs than TO th
crowds OF diplomatic nonenu,ies VIII
thronged the antechambers OF the Tui
leries." That cook could scarcely com
plain OF his "raw material" FOR on