As chef de cuisine during the great years of New York's old Ritz-Carlton, I faced many times every day the same problem as a hostess giving a party, or, for that matter, as a housewife planning dinner. How shall I start the meal, what shall I choose as the pièce de résistance, what about the accompaniments, what kind of a dessert? In short, how shall I decide on the menu? Such decisions cannot be underestimated, because the best foods in the world, the most excellent cooking, can almost verge on failure if the dishes selected for a menu lack ambiance.
My menu making had to serve a multitude of needs. First came the long luncheon and dinner cartes du jour from which the guests ordered. Scores and scores of dishes—hors-d'oeuvre, soups, entrées, grilled foods, fish, and so on—had to be included for our patrons' choice. And don't think for one minute that the same menu could be repeated day after day. Not in any César Ritz establishment! The classic dishes of the French cuisine, everything from hors-d'oeuvre to desserts, appeared daily, but that was only the beginning. I had to think of the spécialtiés and the seasonal delicacies to be considered, and the many special occasions as well. Whether I was concerned with a method of preparation for the first strawberries of May, a wedding banquet, or one of the new dishes any important chef wants to introduce, menu planning presented a challenge every day.
In addition to the actual foods selected, the Ritz banquet menus often included the recipes for special dishes and sometimes anecdotes about their origin, notes on the wines served, guest lists, and decorative sketches. Every day there were dozens of very special menus to be put together, too. Always, late in the afternoon and early in the evening, I could depend upon answering the telephone again and again, each time to hear another voice saying, “Monsieur Louis, what would you suggest for a dinner for four”—or six or eight or maybe just un diner intime pour deux— “to be served in my apartment?” A quick mental review of our spécialtiés and of the particular preferences of our guests naturally influenced the planning of these menus.
So for many, many years I wrote menus. Great years, those that followed the turn of the century, when haute cuisine reached such high peaks of perfection. Difficult years, when wartime shortages put every chef on his mettle. Prohibition years, depression years. But the menus I recall with the greatest nostalgia were never set down on paper. They are the menus for the meals I ate in those two kitchens of my childhood, the sunny room of ma mère Annette—a combination kitchen, dining room, and sitting room in the house where I was born—and the big farm kitchen of ma petite grand-mère, an all-purpose room, too, with its high fireplace at the kitchen and the big table covered with a checkered cloth. When I watch today's trend toward shorter menus and more practical cooking and think of a lesson about menu planning, I sense the pendulum of eating habits making a great swing back to the days of my childhood and the meals served by those two wonderful cooks. A close similarity can be found between what gourmets look for today and what ma mère et ma grand-mère turned out in those so very comfortable Burgundian kitchens.
Putting together a group of dishes that will make a delectable meal is, in a sense, a very personal task. For instance, if you know that your family or guests dislike certain foods, you can't overlook the fact. You must consider, too, what foods are in good supply, and also honestly face up to your limitations as a cook. My first suggestions in menu planning, therefore, are as basic and practical as the very need for eating. Select foods that you know will be acceptable, and judge carefully whether to introduce unfamiliar or exotic dishes.
It is equally important to know how to buy food, that is, how to recognize quality. If you can market wisely and become familiar with the offerings of each season, you are off to a fine start. Always remember not to over-extend yourself. Keep your menu within the range of your capabilities and the time you can devote to the cooking. As a novice, be satisfied with two or three dishes, well prepared and attractively served.
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