Evening star., 1938-11-10
Gournets Feast in Tribute
To Sultan of the Sauces
Friends of Escoffier Run Riot
Of Tastes in Annual Bunouet
BY JOHN ]. DAILY.

BY JOHN j. DAILY.
Now that the dreams of a gour-
NETS paradise are dissipated, it may
be told that last night in the west
ballroom of the Shoreham Hotel the
Friends of Escoffier-or, as they call
themselves in French, Les Amis
Escof1er-held their second an
nual banquet-a banquet to start
more and better banquets, eventually
to end all banquets in the garden of
the gods.
Hotel managers, chefs, lovers of
good food, good dining, good living,
sat themselves down to repast the
like of which this town never has
seen since Papa" Claude Jarrin,
who concocted the first dinner at
the Raleigh, went into a tailspin
over souffle that wins first prize in
Grover Whalen's World Fair in New
York come next Michaelmas.
Out Of the guests assembled, only
one man-outside of the chefs who
worked for hin-had ever tasted a
morsel of food prepared by the great
chef, A. Escoffler, who is sometimes
called the sultan of the sauces. He
passed into the heavenly abode of
chefs sometime ago, five years, to
be exact, and in that time a society
has arisen to do him culinary honors
Les Amis dEscoffier. These were
the lads who gathered last night in
the Shoreham Hotel, and the man
who had the honor of having A.
Escoffler cook him a cheese omelet
was Tony Muto, the big motion pic
ture and butter and egg man of
Washington. It happened in mid
ocean, vars and vars ago.
Lid Put On Smoking.
With L. Gardner Moore, manager
OF the hotel, as their host, the gour-
NETS started the festivities promptly
at o'clock with a series of Dubon-
net, Byrrh, sherry and vermouth
cocktails in an anteroom just abaft
Of the main banquet hall, where
smokes were permitted. Once they
arrived at the banquet tables they
divorced the Lady Nicotine until
coffee and liqueuor.
AS for le menu. it got started with
what the French would call lie
caviar d'astrakhan q la creme sigre
Bellevue" but which was nothing
more nor less than an old-fashioned
Southern pancake, like Nanny
used to make, upon which reposed
a lusious helping of caviar, from the
Caviars of the Steppes
Then came the consomme. Now the
consomme at an EScoer banquet is
work of art. reproducing either a
Persian sunset. an eclipse of the
moon like we had the other night,
or an aerial bombardment in Bar
celona. This consomme was none
Of these. 1t took on the form of a
meeting of astral bodies-Lucifer
meeting St. Michael. 1t was so gor-
geous that even the music was sub
dued in the presence of such food
a bull fiddle that submerged its bull
tones, clarinet and a steel guitar.
Care for the Cerfueille.
Came the third course: Les Nous
ees de Hamard Cardinal, where the
cerfueille-or, in English, the sher-
vii, a precious herb-was plucked
instead of being cut. because out
ting the cerfueille bruises the tender
tendrils and causes the essential
juices to lose their natural f1avors
1t took 16 bellboys 16 days to pluck
these cerfueilles. All, monster, you
do not know what plucking, as
against cutting, means.
On the fourth course the boys
had fillet of sole, which is founder
In this mans country; but last night
at the Shoreham they really had file
of sole imported from the Straits
Of Dover, where only fillet of sole
swins in its native waters, There
was a touch. too. of Lobster of
Mousse along with the fillet of sole,
and that came from Eastport, Me
Since Col C. c. Schiller, who
started the Escoffier Society in
Washington and who is permanent
chairman of the board, also origi-
mated the first venison dinner in
the Nations Capital, the gourmets
had a saddle of venison in his honor,
a bit of game meat done in honor
of the grand hunter. Along with
that went green beans smothered
In butter. tomatoes stuffed with lit
tie French peas, wild rice and po-
tatoes chatelaine-in honor of Rob-
ert, maitre de hotel of the Shore
ham.
With these two later courses were
served wines from the vats of
France, Neuchatel and Pommard
1925, which was the best vintage
since the World War.
Chicken BY Another Name.
To get back to the dinner: They
served then what was called. in the
vernacular, Les Supremes de Pou-
larde froide Insullus." To translate,
1t meant a chicken breast served in
a jelled condition. cold. after the
fashion of the Roman Emperor Lu-
cullus, who liked his fowl that way,
with layer of Smithfield ham un-
der the piece de resistance.
OF course, you could go on this
way all night. and into the next day.
So the curtain is rung down after a
luscious dessert that is called "Su-
preme Caprice" which is nothing
more than a slab of spongecake
with ice cream and chopped fruits
laid on it in tubular fashion, one
half raspberry ice and the other half
pistachio. laid over with chocolate
sauce which was put in the oven and
Drowned, then taken out hastily pip
Ing cold.
Figure that one out and you have