The Washington times., 1917-02-12
MENUS LIMITED BY
WARRING POWERS
AWeSome Course Dinners of
France Have Been Barred
by Government.
MAIN DISHES RESTRICTED
Greater Simplicity in Eating En-
forced in England, France,
and Italy.

The government of France a few
days ago followed the example OF
England and Italy in restricting the
number of courses OF restaurant
meals. The formidable continental
table d'hote, which before the war
pursued the wealthy but still hungry
American tourist all over Europe, has
IN France and Italy at least been re-
duced from a staggering succession
of dishes to a mere collation.. The
diner in restaurants in France from
February 15 on must content himself
with a choice of hors d'oeuvres or
soup, two other dishes and cheese or
dessert.
Limit Now IL Nine.
In preparing a choice of main
dishes, moreover, the restaurant keep
ers are limited to a maximum OF nine
items, instead of the long list of sixty
or seventy ways Of preparing meat
and fish and vegetables. The nine
may at present consist of one egg
dish, two fish, three meat, and three
vegetables. Limiting the courses of
the table d'hote, which might be a
hardship to the Frenchman were he
not willing to sacrifice all things for
France, would even under ordinary
conditions seem to the American
rather a sensible and intelligent
change. Despite the increasing luxury
of city life and the almost pagan
pleasure that we are supposed to take
in the business of eating, the aver
age New Yorker is growing, on the
word of hotel men and restaurant
keepers and club stewards, each year
more simple and chaste anu ascetic
in his culinary tastes.
Twelve Course Dinner No More.
The formidable course dinner, like
the even more formidable large fam
fly, has quite gone out. Even the
formal banquet. which twenty years
ago, when one ate twelve courses.
and had to choose at that between
sheepshead a la sauce cardinal and
blanchaille frite a la diable in order
to eat fish, has now reduced itself
to a simple eight courses in the mod
ern hotel where the chefs fancy is
checked somewhat by the hard prin-
ciples Of dietetical chemistry.
The necessity of balance is the es-
sential fact that American chefs have
leatned. according to NJ. Panchard.
the authority who presides over the
Hotel McAlpin, and 1t is this recogni-
tion of what the system needs that is
sending the science of cooking in this
country far ahead Of even European
standards. Even in the daily O Ia
carte menu of the modern hotel the
same tendency to avoid waste and
duplication may be noticed.
Seek the Average Taste.
The underlying aim is to hit the
average appetite as often as possible
in preparing the days menu and to
omit the staggering and superfIuous,
elaborately prepared dishes that one
in a hundred men will order. Any
thing edible can be made to order,
but the average taste can so easily
be defined, is so restricted and can
be. so easily educated that the more
fundamental and simple the food Of
fered the healthier the nation.
The element OF time has had much
to do with the simplifaction of the
table-the informal dinner as we'll as
the banquet. A half hour more for
a superfluous entree means time off
for the speakers and a little less
sleep on which to start the race
again tomorrow. The downtown
luncheon, according to the steward
of a well-known club, is never a lott
ering meal unless one party to ii
has some scheme into which the 9TH
er is to be cajoled. All the pleasures
of life must have a pragmatic and
monetary value.
Loss of Color Regretted.
This scientific pairing down of the
table is an excellent thing for the
future and the figure, but there are
some philosophical souls who might
regret the loss of the old lavish but
romantic school of cookery, even as |
they fear the coming of prohibition.
For prohibition to them is not the |
disappearance of a poison, not the |
invasion Of a mans inalienable right |
to be as foolish as he pIeases, but II |
entails the cutting of a great slice |
of atmosphere and color out of the |
life that without it's decorations is
a drab enough affair. The wine that
is stored in the literature of the |
past, that in the memory of every |
one who reads is remembered as a |
symbol of fellowship, somethine |
magic that browns sorrow even as |
IL makes for Joy, will seem a color /
less but curious thing to the future
generations who have been raised |
within liquorless borders.
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