England is in a state of transition. As the London "Times" (October
29, 1910) remarked, there are in that country many women who would be
proud, and even consider it rather smart, to cook a dish of savory
eggs in a chafing-dish on a silver-strewn sideboard, but who would
nevertheless be ashamed to say that they could knead and bake a loaf
of bread which could rival that made by their cooks.
A change is, however, impending, and the good example comes from those
socially highest up. Queen Victoria's daughters had to spend many hours
in the kitchen, and the present Queen also is, as the "Times" informs
us, an expert cook, and altogether "a pattern mother and a skilled
housekeeper, who would put many middle-class mistresses to shame by her
accurate and up-to-date knowledge of details."
Queen Alexandra was the chief patroness of the Universal Cookery and
Food Association, founded in 1885.
_Noblesse oblige._ The English royal family feels that it is its
duty to set a good example to the women of the whole country in this
matter, and the example is being followed widely. There is, indeed, a
nationwide awakening in the United Kingdom regarding the importance
of the culinary art, as we shall see in a moment, in considering the
subject of cooking in schools.
Sarah baked and cooked for Abraham, though she could command as many
servants as a queen.
It would be easy to give a long list of queens and other women of the
highest nobility who recognized the nobility of the art of cooking by
their interest and participation in it.
Kings, too, have not held it beneath their dignity to prepare savory
dishes with their own hands. Louis XVIII invented the _truffes à la
purée d'ortolans_, and always prepared the dish himself, assisted by
the Duc d'Escars.
Frederick the Great was too busy with his political work and his flute
to spend his time in the kitchen, but he wrote a poem in praise of his
cook.
In Germany, as in England, it is obligatory on the princesses of the
Empire to learn how to cook a good meal; and the daughters of the
aristocracy of all grades follow their example.
Louis XIII prepared his own game, and prided himself on his preserves,
while Louis XV also was an amateur cook. He was particularly fond of
making rich sauces.
Under Louis XIV Condé won international fame as inventor of an improved
bean soup. A Papal Cook Book was printed in Venice in 1570 by order of
Pope Pius V. Richelieu and Mazarin invented dishes still named after
them. The philosopher Montaigne wrote a book on the science of eating
(_Science de la gueule_). Sauce Colbert is named after the statesman
who originated it. Béchamel was immortalized by a new sauce of his
concoction. When Carême went with Lord Stuart, the English Ambassador
to Vienna, he was treated as a personal friend. Louis XVIII, George IV
and other crowned heads vied for his allegiance but he preferred to
bestow the benefit of his supreme art on Rothschild in Paris to whom he
had been presented by Prince Louis Rohan.
Volumes might be written regarding the personal interest in culinary
art taken by rulers of all kinds. The highest form of royalty is genius.
In France, particularly, the rulers in the world of science, art, and
literature have been as devoted gastronomes as the political rulers;
and with astonishing frequency these great men have taken not merely an
epicurean interest in the pleasures of the table, but have endeavored
to multiply them.
Striking confirmation of this statement may be found in "L'Art du Bien
Manger," by Gustave Geffroy and Edmond Richardin, 375 pages of which
are devoted, under the heading "Ecrivains Cuisiniers," to the recipes
of dishes originated and promulgated by well-known men of letters,
among them such eminent writers as Alexandre Dumas, father and son,
André Theuriet, Jules Claretie, Edmond Rostand, etc.
Lord Bacon thought it no shame, as Frederick W. Hackwood recalls, "to
bend his mighty intellect to the problems of the kitchen."
David Hume, on retiring from public life, declared that he would devote
the remaining years of his life to the science of cooking.
Henry VIII made a gift of a manor to his cook for originating a good
pudding, and royal honors have been paid to many culinary inventors.
By the ancient Romans Apicius was "almost deified for discovering how
to maintain oysters fresh and alive during long journeys." In Athens
Dionysos was highly esteemed as the inventor of bread; in his honor
there were street processions of men carrying loaves.
[Illustration: A fifteenth century kitchen in France]