Long before I started my apprenticeship as a chef, I learned from my mother that in the kitchen ingenuity is as useful as money. My mother, like other housewives of modest means, could not afford to throw away what you in America call leftovers. The remains of one meal would be cleverly disguised to appear at the beginning of a following meal. So it was in my humble home in France that I first knew hors-d'oeuvre. Since then, I have seen hors-d'oeuvre in many wealthy homes. Their ingredients are the delicacies of the world, and they are served with great ceremony. But it is not necessary to have imported Molossol caviar or genuine pâté de foie gras. All that my mother had were her leftovers, a bit of creative genius, and a feeling for food, and I assure you, her hors-d'oeuvre were excellent.
In most countries of Europe, it is the custom to start luncheon or dinner with hors-d'oeuvre variés, a variety of avory foodstuffs which are literally “outside of the work” and not a regular course of the meal. In America, where cocktail parties are so much the mode, hors-d'oeuvre are often removed from the province of the dining room entirely and passed with the cocktails to guests. Different countries, of course, use their own favorite delicacies and culinary arts to prepare these savories. In Italy, they are known as antipasto; in Sweden, the world-famous smörgåsbord are eaten everywhere; in Russia they are zakouski. But hors-d'oeuvre is the word most generally used and the one understood wherever you may be.
Once I tried to translate this international word to some youngsters i was showing through the kitchens of the old Ritz. I told them it was something that started a meal. One of them immediately asked, “Then is soup an hors-d'oeuvre?” And another boy, of French parentage, added, “On Saturdays our whole lunch is hors-d'oeuvre.” You see how a couple of enfants terribles can trip up even an old-timer. And, to give the little devils their due, it is true that large portions of the heartier hors-d'oeuvre may constitute the whole of a light lunch or supper. Anyone who has lived in France Will recall the leisurely lunches of saucissons, salads, pâté, marinated fish, deviled eggs, and the like, eaten with plenty of fresh, crusty French bread, and washed down with a light, dry wine, usually a vin blanc that has been nicely chilled. And nothing, I might add. tastes better in warm weather, especially folly when eaten, as the French love to ear. on a shady terrace. Hut here in America, the dining room is always pleasantly warm, and I could enjoy this kind of meal even in midwinter.
In France, the ravier is the dish universally employed in restaurants and in homes for serving hors-d'oeuvre. It is a shallow dish made of heavy porcelain or pottery and is usually square or oblong, a convenient shape which makes it possible to line up a number of these raviers on the rolling table or car used in restaurants or on the tray which is more customary in home service Of course, the number of foodsruffs which can be used on the hors-d'oeuvre tray is limitless, and each country has its own preferred specialties. Many of the marinated vegetables, salads, and other appetizers are made up in the kitchen for immediate serving. Hut there are great numbers of savories packed in tin or glass, or stuffed into skins, and shipped all over the world. Famous the world over are the caviar from Russia, the pâtés from France, the sausages and hams from France, Italy, and Germany. From all over Europe, but especially from Scandinavia, come many delicious fish preparations, while England contributes its pressed beef and relishes. And here in the United States we pack our own excellent domestic varieties of fine relishes, fish, and meat products. Most of them are ready to serve.
In the days of the Czars, the Russian nobility made famous the zakouski, with which they often began their regal repasts. Zakouski were not served in the dining room proper, but were splendidly arrayed in another salon, where the assembled guests could choose from a sumptuous display of meat and fish specialties. unusual salads, and savory, exotic hot foods. Champagne in elegant silver coolers, grand vins, and bottle upon bottle of their beloved vodka kept appetites piqued for the banquets that followed. The greatest delicacies were, as they are still, the fresh sturgeon caviar and the smoked sturgeon, although by some gourmets the pâté de foie gras of Alsace is even more prized.
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