Dinner of the Three Emperors, Berry-Caramel Ice Cream Bombe and other delights...

On June 7, 1867,  a dinner was held at Café Anglais in Paris that came to be known as the "Dinner of the Century".  It was called the Dîner des Trois Empereurs  (Dinner of the Three Emperors). Those emperors were:  Tsar Alexander II  (1818-1881), his son Alexander, the Tsarevitch
(1845-94), Kaiser Wilhelm I  (1797-1888), and the powerful, if not royal, Otto von Bismark (1815-1898).

The great men had come to Paris for the Exposition Universelle –– a world’s fair put on by Napoleon III  that was meant to impress (he was inspired by England’s Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851). It showcased exotic cultures (the Japanese exhibit had an enormous influence on artists of the day, especially van Gogh), and new achievements in science and industry and of course fashion and food of the 2^nd Empire of France.

So what was this Café Anglais that it should host such a dinner?  Aside from being the restaurant mentioned in my favorite food movie, Babette’s Feast, it was one of the great restaurants of L’Age d’Or of the 2^nd Empire, mentioned in Proust, Dumas, Zola, Oscar Wilde –– even Edward VII of England was a fan –– well, everyone went there or wished they had.

Café Anglais may have had humble beginnings as a tradesmen's stop at the opening of the 19^th century, but as the century wore on, it became one of the most fashionable restaurants in Paris (it was located at the corner of the Boulevard des Italiens and the Rue de Marivaux). It was noted in the article I read on the restaurant that it was not impressive on the outside, but within there was to be found over-the-top red velvet, gilded-mirrored opulence and 22 exclusive, private rooms.

The most prized location in the restaurant (if not all Paris) was the private dining room called “Le Grand Seize” (sadly, the restaurant was demolished in 1913 and the only photo of the interior that I could find was from 1912 –– past its prime). It was in Le Grand Seize that the dinner was held.

A charming book, Paris: the Turbulent City 1783-1871,  by Andre Castelot, said that Ludovic, Duc de Gramont-Caderousse was the king of the “Great 16” from 1855 to 1865 as well as being “the sovereign of the boulevard and the dandies.” He oversaw a group that included Prince of Orange, Prince Paul Demidoff, Prince d’Arenberg, Duc de Rivoli, Marquis de Modéne, Prince Galitzine, Prince Lubomirski, financier Raphael Bishoffsheim, Khali Bey and Mustapha Pasha, Duc de Brunswick, the ruby-covered Comte Germain.

“When King Gramont-Caderrousse and his “court” left their Great Sixteen and crossed the rooms papered in red with gold hieroglyphics, the clients of Café Anglais watched them with respect and envy.  The lorettes would be there with their “apprentices’ the biches being taken out by rich lovers.  There were also the fops (petits crevés), degenerate dandies, their faces anointed with cream and their beardless chins nestling in their wide collars.  There were also the cocodés –– a more distinguished variety of petit crevé –– and their companions, the cocodettes, who were to the cocotte what the amateur is to the professional.”

Le Miroir Parisien, 1867, Women at a Ball

Worth, 1860’s

Worth day dress, 1867

As you can see, the women of the day (newly freed from stiff hoop skirts) were like bare-shouldered floating clouds of gorgeous fabric in the evening (dressing more conservatively in the afternoon) and even the men of the day had a great flamboyance of dress, influenced by artists, writers and wealthy eccentrics).

Charles Worth in Costume –– his calling card

Englishman Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895) came to prominence during this time, virtually inventing the idea of the Parisian couturier and selling dresses to the upper classes of Europe and America as well as French clientele, all in the thrall of his magnificent design and workmanship. 

Worth Label Leeds Museum

He was the first to sew his label into his clothes and fit everyone from the Empress Eugenie to the queen of the courtesans, Cora Pearl (he was very popular with the reigning ladies of the evening).


Cora Pearl
His gowns started at 300 francs and went up from there (as he created jeweled coronation gowns, I imagine some gowns cost 1000s of francs).

You can imagine the dining rooms at Café Anglais would have been a riot of colored silk –– bright in the reflected fire of diamonds and crystal, candlelight and mirrors –– what a show it must have been.

Copy of the Original Menu at the Tour d’Argent Museum

Adolphe Dugléré, the chef of Café Anglais and student of the great Câreme,  pulled out all the stops for the the dinner.

In honor of the Emperors,  Dugléré served a banquet consisting of 16 courses with 8 wines served over eight hours at a cost of 400 francs person, around €8,800 today (when an Australian chef tried to recreate the dinner in 2002, he found it cost around $7500 per person with comparable wines).

It was expected that the meal would be one for the history books –– and it was –– accompanied by the greatest wines in the world arranged by the owner of Café Anglais, Claudius Burdel.

A standout on the heavenly wine list was Roederer’s champagne, served in a custom-made clear crystal bottle for the occasion so that the color and bubbles could be seen.  Alexander II loved it so much he was nearly reciting love poems to the champagne at the dinner and then ordered it to be sent to Russia made in the same way (although with a flat bottom so that explosives couldn’t be concealed in the hollow of the base –– he was already concerned for bomb threats).  This is where Roederer Cristal was born.

Although Dugléré would not permit smoking while a guest was eating, there were cigars between courses and music was played… it was an 8-hour dinner, after all.

Evidently, the only hitch to the proceedings came when the Tsar complained at the dearth of foie gras for the dinner.  Burdel responded “Sire, it is not the custom of French gastronomy to serve foie gras in June, if you can wait until October, you will certainly not regret it.” Alexander II was appeased.  In October, the 3 emperors received a gift of a truffled terrine that became known as Foie Gras des Trois Empereurs.  It is still served at La Tour d’Argent with scoops of port and sauterne aspic with brioche.

Petit Musée de la Table photo by Flicker

Restaurant La Tour d’Argent inherited many things from Café Anglais when it closed its doors in 1911 since there had been a marriage between the daughter of Café Anglais owner, Claudius Burdel,  and a son of the Terrail family, the new owners of La Tour d’Argent.  The vast wine cellar came over of course, and Dugléré’ s recipes, but some of Café Anglais’ table dressing was also saved. It found a new home in a charming mini-museum at the base of La Tour d’Argent called Petit Musee de la Table (15-17 Quai de la Tournelle).  In it, the table dressing that would have been used at the dinner of the 3 Emperors is on display (many thanks to Virginie Guyonnet at La Tour d’Argent for sending me some photos for this post). I also include an original menu from the restaurant.

And what did they eat?  As you can see from the menu below, it was quite a dinner. I included descriptions of the courses from Wikipedia at the end of the post so you have an idea of the meal since many of the dishes are unfamiliar to those of born in the 20^th century (I had to look up quite a few!). 

Cold Lobster Presentations

Meat Presentation

Fowl Presentation

Remember, dishes were presented rather differently in those days… there was a lot of pomp and circumstance for a dinner like this.  Urbain Dubois’ 1864 La Cuisine Classique's engravings will give you an idea of what was being done.

Ice Cream Bombe

VINS

Madère retour de l'Inde 1810


Xérès 1821


Châteaux d'Yquem 1847


Chambertin 1846


Châteaux Margaux 1847


Château Latour 1847


Châteaux Lafite 1848


Champagne Roederer frappe

                    La Duchesse de Fontanges

I wanted to try a few things from this menu and decided to start with the soup, named after a mistress of Louis XIV, Marie Angelique de Scorailles, La Duchesse de Fontanges (1661-81).  Her other claim to fame was a loose hairstyle that was the rage for a time that was created by a happy accident. Her hair had been caught in a branch during a hunt in the forest of Fountainebleau and her coiffure came undone. She left it down, tied simply in a ribbon for the rest of the day and Louis found the "rustic" style charming, the next day everyone was doing it.  Perhaps it is the green of the forest that made her a fashion icon that connected her to the soup.  Whatever the connection, Potage Fontanges is made of fresh peas and sorrel for a lyrically green beginning to my mini-feast.  It takes about 5 minutes to make with a blender. 

Next, I thought the Poulet a la Portugaise would be a perfect entrée.  Knowing about his famous Sole Dugléré, it was obvious the chef was known for his skill with tomatoes and this dish shows them off nicely. You may think it is a bit pedestrian for such a meal since it is a sort of proto-barbeque sauce but remember tomatoes would have been rather rare in June in Paris.   I found quite a few recipes for the dish, and discovered that they vary considerably. I could find none in the old recipe books like the one mentioned in the descriptions at the end of the post –– certainly not in Escoffier. Also, most of the old recipes call for the chicken being cut into pieces –– not a whole chicken. Tomatoes are always there and usually rice somewhere but the rest is up to the chef. I used a combination of recipes from Escoffier, Adolphe Meyer and Charles Ranhoffer.  It's a killer sauce, enriched by demiglace... the rice-filled tomatoes are perfect foils for the dark sauce.

As for the bombe glacée… the world was my oyster, Escoffier has a million combinations for them in his cookbook.  I decided on a mulberry-lavender/caramel with Benedictine bombe.  It’s truly an iced dream of subtle flavors and gorgeous to boot (reminded me of the colors of Worth’s lovely lavender dress above). I had a bag of mulberries but the recipe would be great with blueberries or blackberries.  May I say, Benedictine is really a forgotten treasure, it is delicious and this caramel ice cream has the most voluptuous texture imaginable.

Potage Frontanges

4 c peas, cooked in salted water for a few moments and sieved

3 c chicken stock
salt to taste (I used a few pinches)
4 T butter (optional)

4 T fresh cooked peas
1/4 c cream (optional)

1/2 c chiffonade of sorrel cooked in1 T butter till soft

handful of chervil leaves for garnish

Add the peas to the chicken stock and boil for a moment with salt, add 4 T fresh butter and  puree the peas, using only enough stock to allow the blender to do its job for a smooth puree.  Add the puree back into the pot with the stock and combine, add the peas and the sorrel and warm though.

To the fresh pea soup, add the chiffonade of sorrel and warm, garnish with chervil leaves and dots of cream if desired.

Poulet à la portugaise

1 4 lb chicken cut into serving pieces

salt and pepper

1 T butter

2 T olive oil

small onion diced

2 cloves garlic

¼ c white wine

1 t paprika

1 t brown sugar

½ c demi-glace or very reduced chicken stock (you can get the demi-glace from D'Artganan HERE)

1 c diced tomatoes

parsley, herbs for garnish (marjoram, chervil and chives)

2 tomatoes halved and baked until softened (350º for 20 min to ½ an hour)

1 c salted cooked rice, tossed with 1 T butter (bread crumbs, parmesan and butter, optional)

Sauté the chicken in the butter and oil until browned then turn and cover and cook through.  Remove from skillet and pour off extra oil.

Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent.  Add the wine and reduce to a syrup.  Put in the paprika and brown sugar and stir.  Add the stock and tomatoes and cook until reduced to a thick sauce.

Put the chicken back in the pan and heat through.

After removing some of the pulp from the tomato, put the rice in the roasted tomato halves and warm in the oven if necessary. You can also top the rice with bread crumbs and parmesan and a pat of butter and place in the oven for 20 minutes to crisp the crumbs.

Serve the tomatoes with the chicken, have the sauce poured over the chicken.

Berry Caramel Benedictine Bombe
Berry Lavender Ice Cream

1 c milk

1 c cream

4 egg yolks

½ t vanilla

¾ c sugar

2 c pureed berries with 1 t lavender flowers (mulberries, blueberries or blackberries) strained, pressing/scraping hard on the solids to get as much as possible (save some puree for the bombe and for serving if you would like, ½ c to a cup- I sweetened my extra puree with lilac jelly for serving, you can use sugar to taste).

Heat the milk in a saucepan and whisk the cream and egg yolks.  Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture and then return to the pan with the sugar.  Heat gently till the mixture coats the back of a spoon (around 180º over low heat - never get above 185º or it will curdle), remove from heat and add the berries.  Taste for sugar and add if necessary.  Refrigerate till chilled and then put into ice cream maker.

Caramel Benedictine Ice Cream  (with a little help from Epicurious)

1 ¼ c sugar

2 ¼ c heavy cream

½ to 1 t flaky sea salt

½ t vanilla

1 c whole milk

3 large eggs.

1-2 T Benedictine

Heat 1 c sugar in skillet, stirring till it melts.  Then stop and let it turn to dark amber… do not overcook, it turns quickly.  If you are using a cast iron skillet it will retain heat.  Add  1 ¼ c cream slowly, stirring.  Add the salt and vanilla

Bring milk, the rest of the cream and ¼ cup sugar just to a boil. Whisk eggs and pour the hot milk in a stream.  Pour back into a saucepan and heat to 180º over low heat never get above 185º or it will curdle).  Strain.  Add to cooled caramel and Benedictine and chill 3 hours. Use in ice cream maker… it will still be a soft ice cream.

To make Bombe

Pour some of the berry ice cream into the mold and freeze.  Pour some of the reserved puree into the mold and freeze.  Pour the caramel into the mold and freeze.

Unmold the bombe when frozen by using a warm towel over the mold, you may have to rewarm the towel but usually holding it with your hands will help release the cream-- do not warm too long or the ice cream mold will lose its sharp edges, just long enough to release the ice cream onto a sheet of parchment on a plate. Wipe off any melted ice cream and put back in the freezer till ready to serve (so that you don't have to do it with your guests waiting at the table and can smooth out any ruffles in the mold before serving). Carefully remove the ice cream from the parchment and serve with additional sauce.

Descriptions of Menu Dishes from Wikipedia:

"Potage impératrice consists of a chicken stock thickened with tapioca and finished with egg yolks and cream to which poached rounds of chicken forcemeat, cockscombs, cocks' kidneys and green peas are added.

Potage fontanges is a purée of fresh peas diluted with consommé with the addition of a chiffonade of sorrel and sprigs of chervil.

Soufflé à la reine is a chicken soufflé with truffles


Sauce vénitienne is a sauce of white wine, tarragon vinegar, shallots and chervil, mounted with butter and finished with chopped chervil and tarragon.

Selle de mouton purée Bretonne is saddle of mutton with a purée of broad beans bound with Breton sauce.

Poulet à la portugaise is whole chicken roasted with a covering of adobo paste consisting of tomato, red bell pepper, garlic, origanum, paprika, cayenne, brown sugar, lemon juice, white wine, chicken stock and olive oil, stuffed with tomato flavoured rice.

Pâté chaud de cailles is warm pâté of quail.

Homard à la parisienne is lobster cooked in court bouillon, cut into slices and glazed with aspic, with a garnish of tomatoes stuffed with a macédoine of vegetables, dressed with a mixture of mayonnaise and aspic and garnished with sliced truffle.

Canetons à la rouennaise is a dish of roast duckling stuffed with forcemeat. The legs and breasts are removed, the legs are grilled and the breasts are thinly sliced and arranged around the stuffing. The remaining carcass is pressed in a poultry press to extract all the juices and this is added to a Rouennaise sauce (a Bordelaise sauce with the addition of puréed duck liver) which is poured over the sliced duck. (This dish is today the speciality of the house at La Tour d'Argent [although it is no longer stuffed, there have been more than a million sold –– each with a numbered card].)


Ortolans sur canapés, Ortolans (now a protected species) on toast.

Aubergines à l'espagnole is a dish of aubergine shells filled with chopped aubergine, tomato and ham, gratinéed with gruyère.


Cassolette princesse, (a.k.a. Cassolette argenteuil), A cassolette with a border of duchesse potatoes and an asparagus filling in cream sauce.

Bombe glacée is an ice-cream dessert."

This is part of Castles Crowns and Cottage's trip to Paris, visit her blog to see many other interpretations of the city of lights!!