Tom Hebert, president of Calcutta Club Products, first met Jules D'Anjac after World War I. All these years he has remembered the wonderful dinners this Frenchman prepared in his Fontainebleau restaurant. Last spring he bargained with the chef for the onion soup formula.
The salad dressing is also from Jules D'Anjac's kitchen made with 55 per cent oil and 45 per cent vinegar, the flavor well balanced with spices. It's a translucent liquid, paprika-colored, tangy and good as any commercial French dressing we ever have tasted. It can, however, stand additional herbs and a good dash of onion juice.
The chutney, in case you haven't sampled, is East Indian style, a brown spicy sauce, thick with little pieces of mango, of citron, of preserved Jamaica ginger, seeded raisins, candied lemon peel. Mild Texas onions and hot chili peppers give flavor and fire.
The sauce has a cider vinegar base and lime juice in its blending. It's a chutney cool in the mouth, yet hot. It's fiery, yet bland. It is sweet, yet pleasing with an acid undertone. This chutney spread on Melba toast makes a perfect canapé to accompany a sweet cocktail such as an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan.
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