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Show STORIES OF FAMOUS DISHES Fifty Hams Into One Small Bottle Famous Chef and His Dream of Music. Cookery, never prosaic, has Its own romances. Prosaic, on the other hand, are those to whom Soubise merely conveys a suggestion of glorified onions; Crecy, a soup of carrots; Colbert, Col-bert, a consomme with poached eggs. The entree or the farce with a name is. however, the dish or flavoring flavor-ing with a history of its own. Although Al-though all are not as quaint and original orig-inal as the famous story of Mme. de Maintenon's curl papers and the cutlets cut-lets en' papillotes which bear her name, a story attaches itself to many of them. Round the famous Soubise sauce Itself It-self the gossip of the kitchen has woven wov-en a romance. It was the cook of the Prince de Soubise, says the London Evening Standard, whose talent invented in-vented the famous sauce which we retain re-tain today, although Bertrand's fashion fash-ion of larding the gigot of mutton it accompanied has gone out of fashion. The chef had his own princely ideas on what kitchen economy in a prince's household should be. His master once ordered him to prepare a menu for a dainty little supper. He was a little electrified to find that one item on the bill consisted of fifty hams. .This allowance al-lowance when the supper was small and select must have been a little astonishing as-tonishing even in those prodigal days. "Do you Intend to feast my whole regiment regi-ment are you mad?" demanded Soubise Sou-bise of his cook. Bertrand replied that he could, if he chose, get the fifty hams into a glass bottle, like the genii in the "Arabian Nights," the bottle being no larger than his thumb. Thus were flavorings made In the kitchens of the great chefs. " Sause a la Chambord, which Is a modern accompaniment to many fish dishes, has come to mean a sauce tasting tast-ing of mushrooms, of crayfish and truffles,, and made of all these good things with the addition of sweetbreads, sweet-breads, sofe roes and, other delicacies. Originally, however, "Chambord" merely Implied larded fish, and was applied to carp In particular. When Francois I. married his Bon to Catherine Cathe-rine de Medici her Italian suite Introduced Intro-duced the French chefs of the day to many Florentine dishes, among them being the fricandeau de veau, which has remained a French dish ever Bince. At Chambord, whose ponds, like the famous one at Versailles, teemed with historic carp, the idea came to the Italian maitre de cuisine to lard the fattened carp as well as the calf, and "a la Chambord" soon spread all over France. Napoleon is said to have made the remark that more reconciliations and happy arrangements were due to the cook of his famous chancellor than to the nonentities of the corps dlpll-matique dlpll-matique of nations who thronged the antechambers of the Tuilerles. Cam-baceres Cam-baceres was once the recipient on the part of fce town of Geneva ot a monster mon-ster trout caught in the lake, which was at that time famous for its fish. The trout and the sauce a la Gene-voise. Gene-voise. which accompanied the gift, cost the municipality about 6,000 francs which even in those days of reckless prodigality was looked upon as a feast in culinary extravagance. Filets de boeuf a la Montgolfier have, as can be well understood, lost their prestige in those days of aeroplane, aero-plane, although no maker of flying machines ma-chines today seems to have had his name coupled with beef or any other filet. They were so named, however because the shape of the CletB when dressed resembling balloons. Filets de volaille a la Bellevur, as well ai other dishes named in the same way. originated, or were supposed to do so at the Cheteau de Bellevue. Here It was that Mme. de Pompadour inaugurated inaugu-rated the "petlts soupers du roi," to do honor to which her chef strained every nerve. English cookery, although far behind be-hind that of France or Italy, has had Its romances. It Is related of a duke of Beaufort, a century or more ago, that he gained great reputation for his dinners. This was due to his Italian Ital-ian chef, whose Imagination and powers pow-ers of origination made him compose many a cymphony in food. The chef was also. In his own way. sometMng of a musician, and one night, bo tha story goes, he went to hear one of Donizetti's operas. It was very late in the evening when his master was aroused by a knocking at his bedroom door. "It Is only I, Sig. Duca," the Italian Is reported re-ported to have whispered. "I hava been dreaming of the music and have Invented a sorbet. It Bhall be named the sorbet a la Donizetti, and I could not resist coming to tell your grace." |