Bordeaux chef dishes up the Dinner of the Three Emperors

This is a great historical story! Next time I'm asked who I want to have dinner with, dead or alive, I'm picking this trio and Gemini Chef Adolphe Dugléré. A Gemini could certainly keep up with the spin these three politicians must have been webbing. Born in Bordeaux on June 3, 1805, Chef Dugléré was a chef de cuisine to the Rothschild family until 1848. Gemini's liberal nature and quick conversational mind make them a sought after companion for all entertaining activities... especially if they're creating!

In 1866 he became the head chef of the Café Anglais which was the most famous Paris restaurant of the 19th century and where he is believed to have created the dish Pommes Anna. This looks like a quintessential Gemini dish of meticulous simplicity and duality. Richly creamy and crispy... potato perfection... the mother of all potato chips, which are an eat-on-the-go Gemini favorite. Who says Aquarians have to invent everything!

Chef Cosmo and I are in Bordeaux right now and I'm happy to report that it's not June and we can have all the foie gras we want! Enjoy this tale of gastronomical courses layered with intrigue, international politics, and a milestone in the French wine trade.

Four days after Chef Dugléré's 62nd birthday... the evening of 7 June, 1867 is reputed to have been the most magnificent ever to have occurred in any restaurant in the world. The mahogany and walnut paneling of the Grand Seize, a chambre separée (private room) in La Tour d'Argent where the greatest celebrities of the world dined, gleamed in the candle-light reflected in huge gilt mirrors. Plush red velvet seats and canopies greeted the illustrious guests.

Dugléré served a famous meal that became known as the Dîner des trois empereurs, ('Dinner of the Three Emperors') for Tsar Alexander II of Russia, his son, and King William I of Prussia, as well as Prince Otto von Bismarck who were in Paris for L'Exposition Universelle.

The three emperors and Prince Bismarck had requested of Dugléré a meal that would live in their memories and the maître de cave, Claudius Burdel, was instructed to accompany the dishes with the greatest wines in the world.

During the eight hours that this dinner of the century was served, chamber music played and cigars were smoked between courses. (Dugléré would not permit smoking while any guest was eating.) The big blow to the occasion occurred at one in the morning when Tsar Alexander II complained that he had not had any foie gras. A quick-witted Burdel responded with, "Sire, it is not the custom, in French gastronomy, to serve foie gras in the month of June." Alexander II is said to have been satisfied with this explanation. The following October, the three emperors received a gift of a terrine of foie gras specially prepared for them by the restaurant. This terrine became known as Foie Gras des Trois Empereurs.

Thanks to Wikipedia for doing the research for us! We're going shopping tomorrow for a special double baking dish made of copper called la cocotte à pommes Anna.

Salut,
paSous