The Perfect Meal (34 page)

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Authors: John Baxter

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Europe, #Travel, #France, #Culinary, #History

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pigs’feet, 241

Porter, Cole, 202, 206, 208

porters (
forts
), 281–82

Potage Gentilhomme
, 269–70

potage printanier
, 246–47

potage St. Germain
, 239–40

potatoes:

Pommes de Terre à la Crème
, 36–37
Potage Gentilhomme
, 269–70

potted meats, 300

Pottery: Home Made Potted Foods, Meat and Fish Pastes, Savoury Butters and others
, 295

poulet chasseur
, 36

Poulet String Quartet, 36–37

poultry, 125–26

chicken, 20, 125, 162–63
tikka masala, 190
duck, 8, 21, 125
canard
Montmorency, 239, 240
Guinea Hen à la Escoffier, 272
recipe for, 360–62
lark, 125, 177
ortolan, 126–27,
126
, 181

Powell, Michael, 200

Pride and Prejudice
(Austen), 145

Procacci, 103–4

prostitutes, 282–83, 288

Proust, Marcel, 29, 36, 55, 56, 82–89, 91–93, 272

Provence, 202–4, 209–10

Cannes, 211–12
Côte d’Azur, 199–209
herbes de Provence, 210–11, 212, 216

Provence
(Sarton), 199

Prussia, 14, 166, 174, 267,
268
, 292–93

Psalm 78, 343

Pulp Fiction
, 219

Pump Room, 184, 188

rascasse, 151, 153, 155–56

rat meat, 168, 176

Real Barbecue
(Staten and Johnson), 179

recipes, 357–66

Boeuf Bourguignon, 364–66
Bouillabaisse, 358–60
Gentleman’s Relish, 357–58
Guinea Hen à l’Escoffier, 360–62
Kir Royal Florian, 357
Parfait Swann, 363–64
Sautéed Figs as a Vegetable, 362–63

Red Shoes, The
, 29, 38, 200

Renaissance, 95–96

repas
, 10–13, 166

restaurant
, origin of word, 249

restaurants, 21, 230

Auberge du Vieux Château, 214–15
Café au Chai de l’Abbaye, 67–68
Café Croissant, 33–34
cafés, 23, 35,
35
, 285–86
Chandelle Verte, 31–33
coffee in, 319, 320
fast-food, 224
McDonald’s, 223–26
Léon de Bruxelles, 193
losing temper in, 250–52
Ma Maison, 230
Mine au Poivre, 252–58
Minipalais, 2–6
Moulin de Mougins, 212
Petite Cour, 108
Petit Vatel, 139
Pump Room, 184, 188
Rhumerie, 318–19
on Sunday, 243–48
Voisin, 170–71, 173–78

Rhumerie, La, 318–19

Ritz, César, 170, 259–60, 265–66, 268

Ritz-Carlton, 266, 271–72

Ritz Hotel, 36, 265–66

Ritz Hotel Development Company, 265–66

Riviera, 199–209

Rorem, Ned, 141, 207, 304

rosolio, 47

rouille
, 155

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
(Fitzgerald), 60

Russian service, 128, 268

Saint-Éxupéry, Antoine de, 214, 216, 218, 340

Saint-Germain, 238, 239

Saint Simon, Duc de, 131

salads:

mixed, 224–25
Niçoise, 210

Salt
(Kurlansky), 306

sandwiches, 297–99

cucumber, 298
sugar, 299

sappers, 164

Sarkozy, Nicolas, 11

Sarton, May, 199

Sartre, Jean-Paul, 322

Satyricon
(Petronius), 179–80

sauces:

Choron, 178
tartare, 233

Saucier’s Apprentice, The
(Perelman), 41

sausage, 24

Sautéed Figs as a Vegetable, 362–63

Savoy Hotel, 170, 260–61, 265–66

Sax, Adolphe, 253

scorpion fish (rascasse), 151, 153, 155–56

siege of Paris, 166–76

service à la Russe
, 128, 269

service française
, 269

Sète, 146–52, 237

Seven Deadly Sins, The
, 246

Sévigné, Madame de, 136–37

shashlik
, 184

Shearer, Moira, 200

siege of Paris, 166–76, 321

Smollett, Tobias, 249

snails, 7–8

socca
, 217–18, 237

Soufflé de Volaille Talleyrand
, 20, 21

soup, 243, 248

asparagus, 5–6, 252
bouillabaisse, 142–44, 150–58,
150
,
152
, 202, 237
recipe for, 358–60
bouillon, 248–50, 252, 258, 275–77, 288–89
powdered, 293
cabbage, 32–33
onion, 241–42, 244, 247–48, 252, 255–56, 274–75, 279, 286–87,
287
making of, 288–92
wine in, 287
Potage Gentilhomme
, 269–70
potage printanier
, 246–47
potage St. Germain
, 239–40

spaghetti sauce, 141–42

Spain, 312

Star Wars
, 87, 114

Staten, Vince, 179

Stein, Gertrude, 27

Stoppard, Tom, 137

Street, Julian, 261, 283, 286

sturgeon, 62–66, 69–74

Swann’s Way
(
Du Côté de Chez Swann
) (Proust), 82–84, 92–93

sweetbreads, 164

tablier de sapeur
, 164

Tacitus, 123

tapioca, 66

Tarantino, Quentin, 219

tartare, 226–35

tarts, 76–77

tea, 323

tea, afternoon, 296–99

Tender Is the Night
(Fitzgerald), 208–9

testicles, 164–65

Texas caviar, 66

Thanksgiving, 181

theatre and spectacle, 179–97

tikka masala, 190

Tim, 153–57

Toklas, Alice B., 162–63, 292

Tolkien, J. R. R., 1

Toujours Provence
(Mayle), 203

Train Bleu, Le
, 199–201, 209

tripe, 164, 170

truffles, 95, 97, 103–9

beef and, 108
hunting of, 104–5, 109

Tschirky, Oscar, 273

tzimmes
, 246

Ulysses
(Joyce), 22

UNESCO, 10–13, 18, 25, 37

Utrillo, Maurice, 287

Valéry, Paul, 148–49

Van Damme, Jean-Claude, 190–91

Vanity Fair
, 273

Van Lancker, Léon, 193

Vatel
, 137

Vatel, François, 122–24,
123
, 128, 132–33, 135–39, 179, 261

Vaugirard, 238, 239

veal, 164, 219

Vegemite, 299, 310

vegetables, 160, 170, 221–22

vegetarianism, 160, 221

Vendôme Table Delicacies, 62–63

Versailles, 132

Victoria, Queen, 105

Vie Sexuelle de Catherine M., La
(Millet), 303

Villa America, 206, 208

Villain, Raoul, 33

Voisin, 170–71, 173–78

von Liebig, Justus, 293

Walbrook, Anton, 29,
30

Waldorf-Astoria, 273

wedding cakes, 76, 181

Wharton, Edith, 49–50

whitefish, 67

Wilhelm II, Kaiser, 14–15

Willan, Anne, 239, 241

Wilson, Robert Forrest, 78–79

wine, 43, 174, 287–88

in onion soup, 287

wolf, 176–77

Worcestershire sauce, 310

Wordsworth, William, 207

“Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, The” (Benjamin), 303

World War I, 50, 85, 333

Wren, Christopher, 122

Year in Provence, A
(Mayle), 203

Young, Terence, 298

Zeus, 113

Zola, Émile, 280, 285

zoo animals, 171–72,
171

zucchini flowers, 111, 216

About the Author

© Rudy Gelenter

John Baxter has lived in Paris for more than twenty years. He is the author of three acclaimed memoirs about his life in France:
The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris
;
Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas
; and
We’ll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light
. Baxter, who gives literary walking tours through Paris, is also a film critic and biographer whose subjects have included the directors Fellini, Kubrick, Woody Allen, and most recently, Josef von Sternberg. Born in Australia, he lives with his wife and daughter in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, in the same building Sylvia Beach called home.

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Other Works

Also by John Baxter

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World

Von Sternberg

Carnal Knowledge

Immoveable Feast

We’ll Always Have Paris

A Pound of Paper

Science Fiction in the Cinema

The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg

Buñuel

Fellini

Stanley Kubrick

Steven Spielberg

Woody Allen

George Lucas

Robert DeNiro

Translated by John Baxter

My Lady Opium
by Claude Farrère

Morphine
by Jean-Louis Dubut de Laforest

The Diary of a Chambermaid
by Octave Mirbeau

Gamiani, or Two Night of Excess
by Alfred de Musset

Copyright

Cover design by Milan Bozic

Cover illustration by Joe Ciardiello

All images from the collection of the author.

THE PERFECT MEAL.
Copyright © 2013 by John Baxter. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 9780062088062

EPUB Edition March 2013 ISBN 9780062088079

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*
For anyone who harbors such low intentions, the recipe (among others) is included at the back of this book.

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