Monsieur Carême, The Prince of Cooks.

On entering Grignon's a few weeks ago, I was surprised by the very novel spectacle of the 'Carte en deuil.' I looked eagerly round the room for some one to solve this enigma, when I espied, in a corner, reading La Quotidienne, an old Carlisle and an accomplished gastronome, with whom I had scraped a coffee- house acquaintance, and who, on ray requesting an explanation of the cause of my surprise, exclaimed, in a most doleful tone, 'Helas, mon cher Monsieur Carême est mort. More than one royal and diplomatic stomach will groan at this immense loss; but thanks to the productions of his genius, he will live in his excellent works, and the sacred fire of the French kitchen will not yel be extinguished.'

'But who was this Monsieur Carême, whose death you so eloquently deplore,' I enquired; 'for, to confess the truth, his fame has never reached me.'--he look the old fellow gave me shewed pretty plainly that he thought me a downright Vandal; but like all Frenchmen of the old school, he prided himself upon the art, 'de bien Raconter.'Throwing aside the journal he had been reading, and assuming the tone and manner of a Member of the Institut, he immediately began satisfying my curiosity.

'What eminently distinguished Carême was his universality. An elegant and exquisite "Patissier"-- correct "Rotesseur"-- superb "Potagisfe"-- superior "Friturier:" he excelled in the oven, was great at the spit, and sublime before his stoves. Since Voltaire, no man has ever united sueh varied talents. He treated with the same skill, the same facility, the hot and the cold departments ; the entree, the eatremet; game, fish, the kors d'crurre, and the dessert: the most elevated functions of the government of the mouth never found him at fault. He wore, with equal distinction, the white apron of the cook and the black coat and sword of the matire d'hotil. In short, Carême was one of those privileged beings, whom avaricious Nature sends into the world at "intervals long and far between." He was, perhaps, the only man of his age capable of executing a dinner without a fault.

'But, mon cher Monsieur, what a fund of knowledge do not the qualities I have just enumerated suppose ! Is it possible to become a great cook without being at the same time a profound chemist? A great cook, can he embrace, in the infinite circle of his labours, so many productions of the air, of the water, and of the earth, if he be not a naturalist? An illustrious pastrycook, could he construct those ingenious and noble edifices, the speaking emblems of the profession, or the taste of a rich Amphytrion, if he were not at the same time a painter, a sculptor, a mathematician, an architect, an engineer? Well then, Carême was all these: a Vauquelin before his stoves, he was a Laccpede and a Cuvier in his larder, a Perrauet, a Canova, a Vauban in the pantry. How many times did he not present to M. de Talleyrand the Temple of Glory in filagree work, with the figures of de 1'Hopetal and Sully'en sucnfU; and when he died, he was meditating, as an hommage to the two young Princes, the plan of the Lunette de St Laurent, en massepain, and of the Citadel of Antwerp, en pate gauffree.

'But what will give Carême an eternal claim to our gratitude is the alliance that his vast genius had established between the culinary art and physic ; for since the days on which "votre Prince Regent," in a tone of tender reproach, said to him, "Carême, you will be my death," his great mind had applied itself to the discovery of the important desideratum of satisfying the appetite and the palate without deranging the health, by assisting, at the same time, the digestive functions. His success surpassed even his most sanguine hopes. During the whole eighteen months that he presided over the sumptuous kitchen of Corkon House, his Royal patron had not a single attack

of the gout--n infirmity which "La Cuitixt Anglaise" had prematurely developed in him. This Prince, as you well know, ate, and lived to ascend the throne of Great Britain. But, far from imitating those illustrious "Ingraft" who wear a crown, he ten years afterwards offered to Carême "Le Ministere" of his kitchen, with immense advantages. But Carême, devoted solely to his art and to his country, refused on honour that might have circumscribed his labours, and arrested the development of the vast plans he bad conceived.

" Dea Cuisiuicrs Francau tel est le caractere."

'What distinguished this man, at once theoretical and practical, was his passion for the art of cookery, and its rational progress, founded upoa the traditions of the past, ameliorated by all that the experience and the talents of (he most celebrated modern gastronomers have acknowledged as savoury and delicate ; but he wished to bring about a logical amelioration. He sought to bring back the aristocratic feasts of the 17th century, and the philosophical ones of the 18th, to the ton* of simplicity, elegance, and, above all, of equality, of those of the 19th, by bringing the art to its perfection, and by introducing a greater variety. The basis of "/," haute Cuisine," according to him, are internal peace and tranquillity, commercial prosperity, a perfect uniformity of opinion; of everything, in short, that may constitute an opulent family, the nursery of great cooks. Carême was the pillar of the French gostronomical school. He had a horror for -all foreign methods, and always maintained that the French Cm'sinr, enriched by so many centuries of experience, was sufficient for our happiness.

'Carême's talent was eminently monarchical, but favourable, at the same time, to a generous and polite spirit of liberty. With what delight, bordering upon exstacy, he used to describe the great dinners of the old XoUessr, of "La Financt," and the rich Parliamentary families, the suppers of the Palais Royal, but more especially the magnificent fete* of the empire, among which, those of Talleyrand took the lead. It is at this period that he fixes the revival of the art, to which the Revolution had struck a mortal blow, by substituting for those Royal, diplomatic, and princely repasts, the vulgarity of clubs and publie dinners, l>orrowed from England. Napoleon ate fast and ungracefully, but he wished that in his dominions there should reign a splendid and noble spirit of hospitality. Under the Imperial regime, therefore, France learnt how to eat, a science not less important than that of cookery, 'lliis period, aa a necessary consequence, produced both great eaters and illustrious cooks.

'Carême always did justice to the Restoration. If the kitchen of charters and treaties, the work of doctrinaires were slender and imperfect, the feasts of the Congress of Vienna and of Aix-la-Chapelle, the dinners of Talleyrand, the taste of the Court under Louis the XVIIIth, the tables of several 'tliplomates^ marshals, dignitaries, and bankers, offered to the great masters of the art fine subjects tor meditation, and a rich harvest of exquisite discoveries. The Restoration never presented, at any time, the ancient magnificence of Chantilly, or the epicurean refinements of the House of Orleans during the Regency and under Louis the XVth. But it generalised enjoyments, which peace and commercial prosperity rendered, more accessible to moderate fortunes. Franco. therefore,ateundcrthe safeguardof a principle, the essential condition of a good digestion. She maw be said to have really restored herself under the Restoration.

'You will naturally conceive,'continuedmy liste friend, 'that with these dispositions Carême was an enemy to all revolution, and sympathised but little with the principle of the sovereignty of the people. Like Caesar, he had a horror of republicans, and deplored the parsimony of men of the "Juste-Milieu," In speaking of the trivial proceeding of a vulgar "homme de boudu," who filled his saucepan with boiling water after bating taken out the piece of beef, he makes this reflection, which displays the mind of the man. Economy is now carried so fur, that it is impossible not to reflect upon the fate of cooks, and upon the ruin of the French kitchen. However, we hire still great fortunes in France, and I yet hope that we have left some noble Amphytrions, who will be sufficiently national to make their houses ihe sanctuary of good cheer, and then the alimentary science, which our fine country has always honoured, will be saved. Honour to those generous Frenchmen who will live to eat, and not eat to live, the worst of all conditions for a rich nan."

Noble and generous Carême I'exclaimed mm futraume, with a melancholy enthusiasm, 'You flatter yourself in vain. In uttering those eloquent words, you resemble the dying swan singing 'as own elegy. Ah, how contrary is the new order of things with the spirit of conviviality. Ho* this great refrigeration of kitchens, this batbttnement which has changed our dining halls into vast solitudes, this sordid and inhospitable sntera, this struggle of two opinions, united during three days, and now separated by the bitterest antipathy, must have affected your pauiotic and culinary mind. Ah ! I am tempted to shed nc more tears upon your premature death, nieh has saved you the mournful spectacle you fcresaw. Where are those patriotic men whose splendid tables were founded upon a large fortune and hereditary consideration ? They still exist, it if true, but expelled from the banquet of political rights, fallen from that rank which once public eonfidence assigned them, isolated by party spirit, pursued by the hatred of factions who know not how to eat themselves, nor will allow others to do so. They can do nothing for the country or the art. The table itself, formerly the altar of frankness and concord, is now but a vast arena, where struggle the fiercest passions of our nature.'

Here, the pauvre gastronome sank back in his (tair, overcome by the poignancy of his grief; but a glass of 'Liqueur a la Duchesse 'recalled his Heeling spirits, and he resumed his discourse.

'But it is now time to make you acquainted "ith the last work of the illustrious Carême. This great cook, attached to France by his patriotic, deprived by jealousy of the rank which belonged to him bv right in the Royal household, &d not think it beneath his dignity to devote his 'vied talents and his zeal to a celebrated banker, "ho has become the resource and tho support of ilmost all the Sovereigns of Europe.

'In entering the establishment of le Baron dc Rothschild, Carême must have thought himself ike pivot upon which the destiny of empires would Ira, In fact, by alimenting that opulent house, liich itself aliments the Sovereigns of Europe by its credit, his philosophical mind must have been raised in its own estimation, and every diner which he executed must have appeared to him the repast of twenty crowned heads. The Rothchilds owed, undoubtedly, to this circumstance, the privilege of possessing a man who bad refused from foreign Princes the most brilliant offers. Carême, on his side, found in their large fortune the most powerful auxiliary to talents like his. It was there that he found the image of the grandeur and dignity of the Prince Talleyrand's dinners; and if he had not often to reproduce the fortyright entree* of the Rue de Varennes, he found, at least, in the kitchens of le Rue d'Artois, a theatre where his genius was not held captive ithin the bounds of a rigid parsimony.

'The work is dedicated to Madame la Baronne de Rothschild. Carême possessed an extensive knowledge of literature. He was aware that Ricine dedicated his works to Louis the XlVth; Corncille to the Cardinal de Richelieu; Boileau to Dangeau.toLamoignon,toMoliere. Thus, in his dedicatory epistle he says, "In all ages, men who have devoted themselves to the development of the arts, have dedicated the fruits of their labours to persons whose delicate and refined tastes could appreciate their meditations." It was impossible to convey, indirectly, a higher eulogium to Madame Rothschild. Her delicate and refined taste appreciated his sublime meditations; nay, she did more, she contributed to the aggrandizement of his renown. Carême was not ungrateful. He proved his gratitude by dedicating to her his book, and his Potage de quenelles de Volaille ・l'essence de Champignons, named the Potage ・la Sotlischild.

'But I fear that Carême wished to make his court to Madame la Baronne, at the expense of some contemporary reputations. In a letter to Lady Morgan, he relates some curious anecdotes concerning the table and the kitchens of the ArchChancellor Cambaceres, that appear to be fabricated, in order to raise the "ecrat" of the house of Rothschild. There is something of the courtier in this, and, consequently, there may be some injustice. But if wo cnn believe Carême, it would appear, from the testimony of his friend, M. Grand-Manche, chef de cuisine of Cambaceres, that out of sixteen entrees, eight were always kept back, and that the servants had strict orders to turn a deaf ear to the calls of the guests for these dishes, begrudged by avarice. The Prince had a large "garde manger," into which entered all the most rare comestibles sent from different parts of the empire. He kept a note of them himself, and only allowed them to appear when their freshness was passed. "Let grosses pieces de patisserie de fond" merely appeared for show on his table; and his cook was never able to obtain from the cellar of his Highness wine for the sauces. In short, I should never have done, were I to enumerate all the crimes of lese-gastronomy related by Carême of a man who was considered the Apicius of the age. Would you believe it, that he used to order to be served up, as a hors doeuvre, the crust of the pastry, "passee sur le gril," that bad figured for two months on his table; and that the remains of a ham often reappeared upon a "puree de lentilles." "Horresco referent!" But I think there must lbe some exaggeration in this. It proves, nevertheless, that Carême could not conciliate the principle of a distinguished kitchen with mean and sordid habits. It is said, that in his last moments, having heard that the cook of one of our Ministers had substituted for real cocks'combs fictitious ones made of bullocks* tongues, he despaired of the glory of his art.

Et vet a cum gemltu fugit iadignata sub umbras.

'Ever since the foundation of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, he had been a prey to the deepest melancholy. He saw in this event the wreck of his fondest hopes__he creation of an Academy of Alimentary Science. He thought that the art of cookery, depending as it does upon so many branches of science, so important its nature to the preservation and happiness of the human race, was a science as moral and as political as those of the founders of the new Academy. Alas, poor Carême ! When too late he discovered that men know not, omnivorous as they are, what they eat.

It is impossible to read Carême's works without feeling reflected upon the palate that agreeable sensation produced by a savoury morsel. For the rich gastronome it is classical; and to the poor one, without money or invitations, it is a romance full of illusions and charms, that will console his stomach. Study Carême, mou cher ami,1 he added, with great animation, 'study Carême, and you will learn how to eat with dignity, and to think that,

"L'homme riche qui donne a diner est un Dieu sur la terre."