There are many claimants to the honour of having _
discovered the method of squeezing the last drop of
juice out of a duck, but the real discoverers were the
poor peasants of the Midi, who smashed with stones
the carcases of their tough and skinny ducks to extract
all the essences. One of the great maitres d* hotel
whom Paillard’s has sent forth — whether it was
Frederic or Joseph or Charles or another matters
little — remembered this custom of his pays , and
the silver turnscrew was the result. Joseph, whose
carving and squeezing of the duck was quite a sacri-
ficial ceremony, generally used two ducks, one well-
cooked for the meat and the other part-cooked for the
juices. Frederic gives on his leaflet wild ducks, wood-
cock, Le Poulet Belgrand , La Langouste Winterthur ,
and Pieds de Mouton Poulette as the dishes which have
made the fame of the house ; but the Filet de Sole
Cardinal , little fillets pressed into crayfish tails and
served with a red crayfish sauce, is the best known of
'-Paris 31
all Frederic’s creations . Frederic is a believer, as
all great maitres d’hotel are, in a very short dinner.
When the Secretary to the Behring Sea Conference
interviewed Frederic, at Lord Hannen’s request, told
him that the members of the two Missions would
dine at the Tour d’Argent, and sketched out a
twelve-course dinner with two soups, two entrees,
and a sorbet in the middle of it, Frederic asked him
very politely to take his diplomatists elsewhere, for
such a barbarous meal would never be served on the
Quai de la Tourelle.
Frederic has a short way with all Philistines, even
if they be of the gentler sex. I once took a lady to
breakfast at the Tour — she had selected it as being
close to the Morgue, and thought that a good lunch
would be a cheerful beginning to her sight-seeing —
and Frederic himself had come to take the order.
“ Eggs, a bird, a vegetable, an entremet I had said,
as if I were inventing a new drawing-room game,
and Frederic had run his fingers through his wave
of hair and had gone into a reverie — the reverie
which precedes some wonderful combination. I in-
sinuatingly said, “For the eggs,” as the cue for his
first pronouncement. Frederic breathed hard and
looked at the ceiling. “ Uffs a la plat” said the lady,
who fancied we were both at a loss as to how eggs
could be cooked. Frederic came back from the clouds
and gave the lady one look. It was not a look of
anger or contempt, but simply an expression of pity
for the whole of her sex.
The Restaurant de Laperouse on the Quai de
St. Augustine is old-fashioned in appearance, and its
first floor is a rabbit warren of little Laperouse
dining-rooms decorated with scenes Quai St. Augus-
of rural merrymaking and landscapes. tme
This restaurant is a favourite lunching-place of the
lawyers whose business lies hard by in the Palais de
32 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe
Page 19
Presented as published in 1903. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
There are many claimants to the honour of having _ discovered the method of squeezing the last drop of juice out of a duck, but the real discoverers were the poor peasants of the Midi, who smashed with stones the carcases of their tough and skinny ducks to extract all the essences. One of the great maitres d* hotel whom Paillard’s has sent forth — whether it was Frederic or Joseph or Charles or another matters little — remembered this custom of his pays , and the silver turnscrew was the result. Joseph, whose carving and squeezing of the duck was quite a sacrificial ceremony, generally used two ducks, one wellcooked for the meat and the other part-cooked for the juices. Frederic gives on his leaflet wild ducks, woodcock, Le Poulet Belgrand , La Langouste Winterthur , and Pieds de Mouton Poulette as the dishes which have made the fame of the house ; but the Filet de Sole Cardinal , little fillets pressed into crayfish tails and served with a red crayfish sauce, is the best known of
'-Paris 31
all Frederic’s creations . Frederic is a believer, as
all great maitres d’hotel are, in a very short dinner. When the Secretary to the Behring Sea Conference interviewed Frederic, at Lord Hannen’s request, told him that the members of the two Missions would dine at the Tour d’Argent, and sketched out a twelve-course dinner with two soups, two entrees, and a sorbet in the middle of it, Frederic asked him very politely to take his diplomatists elsewhere, for such a barbarous meal would never be served on the Quai de la Tourelle.
Frederic has a short way with all Philistines, even if they be of the gentler sex. I once took a lady to breakfast at the Tour — she had selected it as being close to the Morgue, and thought that a good lunch would be a cheerful beginning to her sight-seeing — and Frederic himself had come to take the order. “ Eggs, a bird, a vegetable, an entremet I had said, as if I were inventing a new drawing-room game, and Frederic had run his fingers through his wave of hair and had gone into a reverie — the reverie which precedes some wonderful combination. I insinuatingly said, “For the eggs,” as the cue for his first pronouncement. Frederic breathed hard and looked at the ceiling. “ Uffs a la plat” said the lady, who fancied we were both at a loss as to how eggs could be cooked. Frederic came back from the clouds and gave the lady one look. It was not a look of anger or contempt, but simply an expression of pity for the whole of her sex.
The Restaurant de Laperouse on the Quai de St. Augustine is old-fashioned in appearance, and its first floor is a rabbit warren of little Laperouse dining-rooms decorated with scenes Quai St. Augusof rural merrymaking and landscapes. tme This restaurant is a favourite lunching-place of the lawyers whose business lies hard by in the Palais de
32 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe