Evening star., 1948-08-26
SeIossie's Ex-Steword Spurns
Luxury for Chefs Job Here
Erwin H. FuIIer
I Recalls High Spots
OF Ethiopion Doys
By Hemon r. Sehoden

making friends daily as chef OF the
Harrington Hotels new "kitch-
eteria."
Mr.. Faller reluctantly wrote his
old boss, the Emperor of Ethiopia
that things have changed since the
day the Italians chased then both
out of Africa. Mr.. Faller, who was
born in Switzerland, 80 years ago
is now naturalized American with
an American wife and an American
mother -in-law.
That combination is enough to
keep him home, no matter how
hungry the little Lion Of Judah
is getting for his victuals, Mr.. Fallel
wrote.
Musing Between Meals.
Nevertheless, musing in his
kitchen between meals, Mr.. Fallel
could not repress a sigh for 1933-36
when he was keeping the royal
family happy with dinners OF FIVE
meat courses.
A high spot was November 8
1885, when he whipped up little
thing for 1900 royal guests includ-
ing Crown Prince Gustav Adolf
of Sweden. Everybody seemed sat-
isfied, so Selassie clapped his lead
ing hired hand solidly on the back
and dropped an $500 tip in his
plate.
The rest Of the two weeks of the
princes visit was a little trouble
some Selassie ordered Mr.. Faller
to come UP with breakfast. lunch
con and dinner menus for IA days
without duplicating a dish.
'It took a great deal of thinking
but I made it," he remembered
Once the royal printer threw out a
whole set of gold-engraved menus
because of the entry "ravioli ala mil
lanaise." The Italians were COM
ing, on their way, and it wasn't
patriotic. said the palace adjutant
Mr.. Faller invented another name
and served the leading Italian dish
anyway.
Picked From Among 500.
The chief steward had been Sc
.lected by a special emissary from
among 500 applicants in SwitZer-
land. Selassie was after a neutral
who would keep his plotting to
himself when the next war came.
In time, Mr.. Faller became more
than cook. He was given free
hand in running the affairs of the
palace of SO rooms and so baths. He
had charge of outfitting, assembling
and parking the camel caravans
He bought the groceries and kept
the servants on the hop.
Sometimes things got little
rough. One banquet was running
along in good shape when a clattel
arose from the palace grounds
Looking out, the guests saw three
lions on the loose. They were hun
CRY lions. as two natives soon
learned.
While the animals were gamboling
an investigation was started. 1t was
learned they had escaped from the
royal cage, largely because o. one
of the three keepers was in jail for
killing a man, (2) another was
AWOL and 60 the third had gone
on binge and forgotten to feed the
beasts.
= Quits Jail for Round up.
1t didn't seem discreet to shoot
the creatures, since they symbolized
all that Selassie, THE Lion OF
Judah" stood for. So somebody
thought of the Jailed keeper, sprane
him from the bastille and put him
to work. The keeper calmly rounded
up the lions without aid of gun or
raw meat and thrust them back
into their cage.
For this bit Of handiwork, the
numbering keeper was reprieveo
without trial.
Things got even tougher when
Mussolini's gang started taking ovel
the country. Mr.. Faller was sur.
prised to find himself in the unac-
customed role of press secretary
with about so news-hungry cor
respondents to feed. He tried tc
feed them news off the cuff and
served them his best cooking a;
Swiss hotel and a night club he
had bought in his spare time.
The correspondents liked the food
better than the news. Selassie
wishing no responsibility for bullet
punctured newsmen, forbade them
tO cover the war front Ope in =
genius, if somewhat unethical fel-
low, took picture Of home that
had burned in Adds Ababa five
years before and captioned it "An
Italian Bomb Hit"
$500 Punctuated Plea.
This chicanery, said Mr.. Faller,
was too much for the other news
men to take. but he didn't know
that when some of them asked ,1se