See Paris and die? No, see Paris and eat. That is, or should be, the intention of the thousands of visitors who will go to Paris this anniversary year. The treasures of the Louvre, the grandeur of the Arc de Triomphe, the majesty of Notre-Dame, the swank shops of the rue de la Paix, and the calm serenity of the Bois… all this la Ville Lumière offers, and more, much more. Paris provides today—as it did fifty, one hundred, and several hundred years ago—an inimitable hospitality, expressed practically and pleasantly by the Superb food one can depend on finding in Paris at every turn.
Fine food is the tradition of Paris and has been since … I was about to say since the founding of the city, but the Gauls of Luietia, which was the name of Paris under the Roman Empire, were no gourmets. Those gentry lived on game, fish, and fruit—raw. But for some centuries, at least, Paris has been the source and inspiration and heart of la grande cuisine. Now, in 1951, every menu, whether in one of the luxurious restaurants on the place Vendôme or in a neighborhood bistro, reflects the ancient tradition. If a dish is served with one of the great sauces, it belongs to the era of Louis XIV, le Roi Soleil, whose reign gave France the utmost in gracious living. The mayonnaise on a contemporary menu is the same mayonnaise which Ordinal Richelieu devised early in the seventeenth century. Henry IV's pot-au-feu with a chicken in it, pelite masmte Henri IV, dates back a century more.
In the time of the Louis'—quatorze, quinze, and seize—Paris knew unsurpassed opulence, an endless succession of banquets notable for the quantities of food served and for the exotic and sculptured extravagancies of the kitchen artists. But when I come to Paris as a boy. fifty years ago, reform bad begun. Then, it was fine shades of flavor and texture which spelled perfection; eye appeal had to depend upon natural beauty rather than upon artifice, and the food served at the Ritz, the Bristol, Prunier, Voisin, and such places was the finest in France.
The Paris of 1951 is not too different from the Paris I knew before the First World War. The Bois de Boulogne, the Champs-Elysées, les Halles, the gently flowing Seine. and the bridges over it are all the same. The changes wrought by the years are superficial, not basic. People dress differently, more simply, with fewer furbelows; and they go about their affairs differently, moving from place to place expeditiously in taxis and busses, instead of following the old, leisurely fashions.
Food customs have followed a similar course. Fundamentally, the cuisine of the fine restaurants of Paris has not changed. The well-known hotels and restaurants still live and still Serve the dishes that made their reputations. The perfectly seasoned soups and sauces made famous by great chefs are there—carefully, lovingly mixed and stirred, simmered, and stewed. But now they are less extravagant, have fewer flourishes, and the menus list more simple preparations and fewer elaborate ones than they did in my day.
I am sure, however, that some of the dishes which we laboriously prepared when I was learning to be a chef will never be served again. The cost of the raw materials is loo great; the labor involved, excessive. Take, for example, oeufs Reine Amélie. This dish was created in honor of the Queen of Portugal and became a favorite of royal visitors to the Bristol.
I have never seen the recipe for eggs Queen Amelia in print, so I set it down here as a matter of history. Pieces of butter were cut and shaped to resemble hen's eggs. Each butter egg was rolled in flour, in beaten egg, and in fine while bread crumbs. This process was repeated to obtain two coals à l'anglaise. A sharp culler cut out a small plug at the end of each egg, and the eggs were put away to be chilled thoroughly. They were then fried in deep hot fat. The heat melted the butter, which was then emptied out of the hole in the end of the egg. The simulated shells were filled with eggs scrambled to a delicate creaminess with finely chopped truffles.
In the meantime, the nests for the eggs were being made. Shoestring potatoes were used to line thickly the bottom and sides of a wire frying basket. A smaller frying basket set inside held the potatoes firmly until they were fried. When the baskets were separated, the crisp nest slipped out. The nests were apt to roll on the serving dish, so a supporting bed was made to hold them Steady, This was done by forming a support from noodle dough shaped to look like part of a tree. It had to be baked in the oven right on the platter to give it sufficient rigidity to hold the nest. Then, some cooked noodles, colored green and yellow and cut in fancy shapes, were arranged on the dish.
A tasty dish, this oeufs Reine Amélie. Even a small party could dispose of dozens of eggs; and there was the hazard of breakage, inevitable during the preparation of this finicking dish. to consider. In New York at today's costs for food and labor, a portion could not be served for less than twenty dollars. Needless to say, oeufs Reine Amélies is not a menu staple nowadays.
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