Death was already knocking at the door. Arrived at Wilna, thy
generous prince was lavish with his gold to save you, but thy
dying body could no longer take nourishment.
" Oh, my master ! thou hast lived persecuted and, to com-
plete the sorrowful chapter, thou hast died in agony a thousand
times more cruel than hunger, or the icy cold of the north.
" 0 grand Laguipiere ! upon this solemn day, accept the
public homage of a faithful pupil. Yes, in spite of thy enviers,
I will associate your name with my works. Already, in my
works I have quoted you with pride, and this day, so dear to my
heart, I league with your memory the best of them all. This
will bear witness in the future to the elegance and sumptuosity
of the culinary art in the eighteenth century ; and, if Vatel is
rendered illustrious, by a sense of honour dear to every man of
merit, thy unhappy end, 0 Laguipiere, renders thee well worthy
of being also illustrious. It was due to thy sense of honour
that made you willing to follow your prince into Russia,
and you were then a witness to the disasters by which you
yourself were struck down. But, alas 1 you of all people ought
to have died in Paris. Thy white hairs seemed to ensure for
you a better fate ; yet you shared the sad lot of our veterans,
and the honour of our martial ranks, perishing of hunger and of
cold under the frigid sky of Russia.
" u Laguipiere ! may thy remain* rest peacefully in the
tomb ; thy renown has revenged all thy injuries."
Careme adds to this elegy the following note : — " In the
frightful campaign of 1812 we lost a great number of cooks
belonging to the marshals of France and ministers of Napoleon.
Of more than twenty men who composed the personal domestic
staff of the Duke de Narbonne only two escaped from this
terrible catastrophe."
This pitiful story of Laguipiere is worth recording, but to
what Careme alludes as the infamous calumnies and persecution
that drove him from his country we are unable to discover.
Apparently cooks are quite as subject to scandal as their masters,
and often more so, and that probably with greater justice than
it would at all times be convenient to acknowledge.
We are told that Careme was illustrious by descent, " for his
ancestors had served in the household of a Pope, who himself
made more sauces than saints, Leo X." But Careme was one of
so poor and so numerous a family, that when he came into the
world he was no more welcome than Oliver Goldsmith was.
Careme, it is said, studied under various great masters of the
kitchen, but perfected his studies under Boucher, the chef to
Prince Talleyrand. The glory of Careme was crowned with that
of Napoleon. Those two individuals were great men at the same
time, but the glory of one will, perhaps, be a little more enduring
than that of the other. In the days of the Empire — "the era of
FAMOUS CHEFS AND EPICURES 853
Page 395
Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
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Death was already knocking at the door. Arrived at Wilna, thy
generous prince was lavish with his gold to save you, but thy
dying body could no longer take nourishment.
" Oh, my master ! thou hast lived persecuted and, to com-
plete the sorrowful chapter, thou hast died in agony a thousand
times more cruel than hunger, or the icy cold of the north.
" 0 grand Laguipiere ! upon this solemn day, accept the
public homage of a faithful pupil. Yes, in spite of thy enviers,
I will associate your name with my works. Already, in my
works I have quoted you with pride, and this day, so dear to my
heart, I league with your memory the best of them all. This
will bear witness in the future to the elegance and sumptuosity
of the culinary art in the eighteenth century ; and, if Vatel is
rendered illustrious, by a sense of honour dear to every man of
merit, thy unhappy end, 0 Laguipiere, renders thee well worthy
of being also illustrious. It was due to thy sense of honour
that made you willing to follow your prince into Russia,
and you were then a witness to the disasters by which you
yourself were struck down. But, alas 1 you of all people ought
to have died in Paris. Thy white hairs seemed to ensure for
you a better fate ; yet you shared the sad lot of our veterans,
and the honour of our martial ranks, perishing of hunger and of
cold under the frigid sky of Russia.
" u Laguipiere ! may thy remain* rest peacefully in the
tomb ; thy renown has revenged all thy injuries."
Careme adds to this elegy the following note : — " In the
frightful campaign of 1812 we lost a great number of cooks
belonging to the marshals of France and ministers of Napoleon.
Of more than twenty men who composed the personal domestic
staff of the Duke de Narbonne only two escaped from this
terrible catastrophe."
This pitiful story of Laguipiere is worth recording, but to
what Careme alludes as the infamous calumnies and persecution
that drove him from his country we are unable to discover.
Apparently cooks are quite as subject to scandal as their masters,
and often more so, and that probably with greater justice than
it would at all times be convenient to acknowledge.
We are told that Careme was illustrious by descent, " for his
ancestors had served in the household of a Pope, who himself
made more sauces than saints, Leo X." But Careme was one of
so poor and so numerous a family, that when he came into the
world he was no more welcome than Oliver Goldsmith was.
Careme, it is said, studied under various great masters of the
kitchen, but perfected his studies under Boucher, the chef to
Prince Talleyrand. The glory of Careme was crowned with that
of Napoleon. Those two individuals were great men at the same
time, but the glory of one will, perhaps, be a little more enduring
than that of the other. In the days of the Empire — "the era of
FAMOUS CHEFS AND EPICURES 853