The San Francisco call., 1908-05-10
By NJ. G.. Maury

you turn 10 your leIt aIter de-
scending the broad stairs leading
from the pantry to the kitchen Of
the new Hotel st. Francis you will
discover a celebrity l found him stand
ing in the little wooden box that serves
for his Office and from which he waves
a dire ling arm to the hundred and odd
underlings who prepare the fool for the
big dining room above.
Everybody in the hotel and many Of
its famous guests know him only as
Victor. He has another name-Hirtz-
Ier-bUt there be many of these and
only the one Victor. His authority.
typihed by the long bladed kitchen
knife ne wieIds as scepter of his below
stairs kingdom. is absolute-as abso-
lutte as that of the Roman centurion.
for is he not the chef. lord OF all the
kitchen?
Little. but with broad shoulders. a
vAndyck beard and sparkling eyes.
Victor is far from being the sort of
person usually pictured by that word
cook He is an artist A composer
with q soul for the music of the sput-
tering roast or the delicious staccato
OF a broil. man full of the artistic
temperament, alive to the possibilities
the eethetic possibilities-in an
entree or q sauce or the rich blending
Of harmonies IN a masterpiece from the
soup pot
he Affects the uniform Of his art,
does Victor. He wears the white cap
and apron of his craft as a sculptor
wears the skull cap and clay spattered
gown Of his. That the uniform shall
be epeckless is part, and an i'm
portant part. of that craft, even as the
apotiesSness Of the kitchen is another
OF the canons OF the artist de cuisine.
Nothing out OF the ordinary about
the mans externals. yet upon those
broad shoulders there rests the re-
Eponsibiiity for many deeds that have
become historic. Not his own but
others. for who can guess the effect
OF q dish on the digestion and policy
OF q king7
Who can say. for instance. what part
the famous-or infamous-Ia mousse
faisan LucuIlus over which Victor and
the late Don Carlos of Portugal labored
fer 90 long. played in the ultimate
downfall Of that monarch2 There are
other instances Of this. for Victor has
spent many years in the service of
royalty Ia Europe and is a master of
his art.
Also, he loves it and reveres it, be-
neving with all his soul that had Ma
poleon had but a Victor. an Oscar, a
Du Bois or a Bernard, the fatal nalady
that lost him Waterloo would have
been warded of. There would have
been no cancer of the stomach to sap
the energies of the emperor; therefore
no Waterloo nor the train of miseries
that followed that French disaster
See, then. how highly Victor values the
skill and learning. Thirty years 1
have been at it. and know it all not
yet" he'll tell you himself. What he
does know makes him worth $4,000
year to the big hotel
Beginning with Emperor Wilhelm
Of Germany, grandfather of the present
kaiser. Victor has been chef in more
than one royal kitchen of Europe. and
to him king or a grand duke is sim
ply man who needs his victuals three
times a day. This queer little. black
bearded, white aproned man whose soul
seems wrapped up in the creation of
his delicious entrees, and the compost
ton OF symphonies in sweets. can tell
you fantastic stories of the doings of
royalty as seen from the back stairs.
Stories of crrelty, OF craft and of cum
ming, relieved by little warm touches Of
life that show the tender, human side
OF kings and grand dukes and their
royal households, come bubbling spon-
taneousIy from this Alsatian French
man, each point emphasized by viva
cious 3abs Of his sceptre, the kitchen
knife.
victor's favOrite story is linked with