The bachelor and the chafing dish

A salad can be made of almost anything — from tomatoes and cucumbers to sardines, or veal in place of chicken. A great deal in mixing and dressing must be left to the judgment of the salad-master, and any one with good taste and love of feasting stands an equally good chance with Dumas in hitting upon something tasty in the way of an original juxtaposition of condiments and meats. 74 The Bachelor and the Chafing-dish. My last injunction is to remember the old Spanish proverb : “A spendthrift for oil ; a miser for vinegar; a barrister for salt, and a madman to stir it up.” But you mustn’t be a madman when you stir up lettuce or other dainty leaves. The story of the salad had its most famous register in a Frenchman of Limousin, who made his fortune in London by his skill in mixing a salad. Savarin tells it as follows : Although his means were very limited, Albignac (so he was called if I remember aright) went one day to dine in one of the most famous taverns in London. Whilst he was finishing his succulent beefsteak there were five or six young dandies of good family regaling themselves at a neighboring table. One of them came to him and said very politely : “ Sir, it is said that your nation excels in the art of making salads. Will you be so good as to oblige us by making one ? ” D’Albignac consenting after a little hesitation, ordered all that he thought necessary for the expected masterpiece, used his best endeavors, and had the good luck to succeed. Whilst studying the ingredients he answered frankly all questions about himself. He said he was an emigrant, and Salads and Sauces. admitted, not without some natural shame, that he was receiving assistance from the English Government— a circumstance which no doubt authorized one of the young men to slip into the exile’s hand a five-pound note and insist upon his keeping it. He had given his address, and some time after he received a very civil note requesting him to go and mix a salad in one of the finest houses in Grosvenor Square. D’Albignac arrived punctually, after furnishing himself with some special seasonings and maturing his plans. He had the good luck to succeed again. The first party for whom he had manipulated had exaggerated the merits of his salad, and the second company made so much more noise about it that d’Albignac’s reputation was already made. He was known as the fashionable salad-maker, and soon had a gig in order to keep his appointments, with a servant to bring in his mahogany case, containing all the ingredients, such as vinegar of different flavors, oils with or without a fruity taste, soy, caviare, truffles, anchovies, ketchups, gravies, and even hard-boiled eggs. Later he got cases made to order, furnished them completely, and sold them by the hundreds. In short, having diligently carried out his plans with sense and discretion, he came to realize a fortune of more than eighty thousand 75 The Bachelor and the Chafing-dish. francs ; and, returning to his own country when peace was restored, he invested sixty thousand in the public funds — then selling at fifty per cent. — and the rest in a small estate in Limousin, his native country.