Evening star., 1937-10-17
| October ~, 1887

- - u
~ BELONG to the school of eaters wholike
sauces, hashes and ragouts = stews,
if you prefer plain American = what's
made out of what we had last night
says Phillips Holiness the actor who makes
French, Italian and English pictures, as we'll
as American ones.
'And then there is lamb" he goes on. II
love lamb in every form, from Russian shaslik
to cold slices from yesterdays hot roast"
Like most travellers who have found their
way to Antoine's in New Orleans Phillips
cannot speak too highly of the famous oyster
dish, known as Oysters Rockefeller. The
exact seasoning is a secret of the place; but
some of your own favorite seasonings will
turn out very satisfactorily and you can ap-
proximate this de luxe dish by bedding your
oysters on the -half-shell in damp rock salt
and baking them in very hot oven, with the
result that they are steamed as well as baked
in the moist hot salt.
"A friend of mine did the same thing with
clans" Phillips says. land it turned out to be
most marvellous dish never liked CLAIMS un-
til then. but could eat those clans anytime"
The things that Phillips likes best are
specialties of various countries, though he
also includes number of simple American
favorites, especially when he speaks OF des-
serts Hungarian food appeals to him and he
recommends heartily the paprika chicken.
At Alfredo's in Rome, Phillips orders one of
the great specialties of the house, noodles
and-cheese dish that is rich. tangy and subtle.
"Alfredo's,' Phillips explains, lis tiny little
place but - oh, the cooking! 1t is superb. And
Alfredo makes ceremony of his celebrated
dishes. Sometimes he serves them himself,
since no one else could quite do justice to the
wonderful dish he has created.
when that happens. all the lights in the
place are dimn,ed, while Alfredo makes his
way from the kitchen to your table; and then
when he stands beside you, holding the mas
terpiece in his hands, the lights flood on again
and the ritual of the actual serving begins.
For years, he used gold fork and spoon
which Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks
had given him.
But it is not only Alfredos cooking that
enjoy in Italy. like all Italian food, though
there seems to me to be real difference be-
tween the dishes cooked in Italy itself and
the same thing cooked in the United States,
no matter how clever the American cook is"
England is not always. nor even usually,
praised for her food Yet many who know
her well, and have pried into the hooks and
corners of her countryside, come away with
something like homesickness for meals they
have had there in some historical inn. Phillips
recalls Rotting Dean.
1T used to be monastery, he says. Then
a hotel was started there and, though the
place has been mOdemized, it keeps the old
world charm, and the smell of pine burning in
the fireplace seems to have permeated the
very walls and tables, for it has
burned there on the great open 4
hearth for hundreds of years.
That was where had one ~
of the gandest dinners ever
ate inmy life. 1t was completely
English, with its fish course,
followed by the juiciest of roast
beef, salad, pudding and sa-
worry. And what a savory-a
cheese concoction served piping
hot from the chatting dish.
That atmealmakesalu ludcrous
contrast to another that ate
with gusto. In the second case
W2C him