In my day at the Ritz hotels in Paris and London, and in my early years at the New York Ritz, we always had a special refrigerator for our most highly prized foodstuff, the fresh Molossol caviar, ordered by the hundred pounds from Russia. It was gray in color, large grained, and not very salty because a little benzoate of soda had been added to it as a preservative. The use of this chemical is now strictly limited by law, and caviar, which now must be preserved only with salt, is sometimes too salty for true connoisseurs.
Caviar at the buffet is properly served in its original container set in a large bowl of crushed ice, although for special festive occasions. a fancy ice mold, shaped, for example, in the form of a swan, can be used. A porcelain or ivory spoon for service will spare the grains from being crushed. Chopped hard-cooked eggs, chives, onions, or sour cream, always in separate dishes, are appropriate garnishes for caviar. And of course, freshly made toast or rye or whole-wheat bread should be provided. At the dining table, caviar can be served with melted butter and blinis, small thin Russian buckwheat pancakes similar to our French crêpes. On French menus this dish is called crêpes de Sarrasin. At the old Ritz we often baked special tiny brioches, éclairs, or puff paste shells for caviar. Or we placed the delicate roe in a cleaned oyster shell and decorated the edge with mimosa, a mixture of finely chopped hard-cooked egg and parsley. What is the most suitable beverage with caviar? Many gourmets, including Mr. Robert Goelet, who owned the Ritz, believe that the only fitting wine for such a rare delicacy is the driest of champagnes, In my early days in this country, when the Ritz was considered the last word in sophistication. small fortunes were spent at New Year's Eve festivities in our various dining rooms for thousands of servings of fresh caviar and champagne. But c'est fini—those days are gone; nowadays, little fresh caviar is served in America. Instead you see the glistening black, small-grained, salty variety, which comes in tins and jars and is mostly used for canapés. And more and more use is made of the red salmon caviar, a more gelatinous roe than that of the sturgeon. This red caviar is less expensive than the black, since it is packed here and in Canada, and there is plenty of it to be had.
The plover's egg, a favorite hors-d'oeuvre in the very best Parisian restaurants, is even more unusual than caviar. Years ago, we used to serve them to the guests of the Ritz hotels in London and New York, but I have not seen them in America since the first World War. These tiny eggs are always served in little baskets, where they nestle on a decorative bed of fresh green water cress. Because the whites become almost transparent when they are cooked, half of the shell is removed from each to permit the bright yolk to shine through its white covering.
But let us leave these recherché hors-d'ocuvre and turn to a popular—and inexpensive—favorite, the oyster. Every country has its own variety of a particular size and flavor, and every oyster lover has his own special preference. To derive the choicest flavor from an oyster, it is essential that it be opened just before it is served. As a cold hors-d'oeuvre, oysters may be treated in the American manner, the freshly opened half shells placed on cracked ice and accompanied with lemon juice, horseradish, or a spicy tomato cocktail sauce. Or one can follow the French method of accompanying the oysters with buttered whole-wheat bread and mignonette sauce, compounded of mild wine vinegar, finely chopped shallots, and a liberal amount of finely crushed black pepper. Many people enjoy hot oyster hors-d'oeuvre and others like oysters cooked, chilled, and marinated as a kind of salad. But whichever way you prepare them, let me advise you not to rink hard liquor with oysters. The alcohol will harden them, and they will be indigestible. A dry white wine is the perfect taste complement for oysters and poses no such problem.
The gastronomic specialties we have just been discussing are but a very few of the limitless possibilities for the hors-d'oeuvre tray. Willi a piquant salad dressing or marinade one can create many savory foodstuffs from odds and ends of vegetables and little bits of fish and meat. Be artful with your seasonings and colorful with your garnishes and you can produce literally hundreds of combinations of attractive and delicious hors-d'oeuvre. Pâtés of game, pork liver, or combined veal and pork, headcheese, rillettes of pork, and many other famous preparations, once made, will fortunately stay fresh for a long time in the refrigerator so that the makings of hors-d'oeuvre are always ready at hand. Bring forth one of these specialties, add a marinated fish or vegetable, a tinned product such as sardines, a few olives, and pimientos, all in their separate raviers, and you will have hors-d'oeuvre varies as flavorsome and attractive as any fine restaurant could provide.
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