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The Second Day

Wednesday's luncheon was anticipated with some curiosity, or even
searchings of heart, as in it would appear the first-fruits of the
hand of the amateur.  The Marchesa wisely restricted it to two
dishes, for the compounding of which she requisitioned the services
of Lady Considine, Mrs. Sinclair, and the Colonel.  The others she
sent to watch Angelina and her circle while they were preparing the
vegetables and the dinner entrees.  After the luncheon dishes had
been discussed, they were both proclaimed admirable.  It was a true
bit of Italian finesse on the part of the Marchesa to lay a share
of the responsibility of the first meal upon the Colonel, who was
notoriously the most captious and the hardest to please of all the
company; and she did even more than make him jointly responsible,
for she authorised him to see to the production of a special curry
of his own invention, the recipe for which he always carried in his
pocket-book, thus letting India share with Italy in the honours of
the first luncheon.

"My congratulations to you on your curry, Colonel Trestrail," said
Miss Macdonnell. "You haven't followed the English fashion of
flavouring a curry by emptying the pepper-pot into the dish?"

"Pepper properly used is the most admirable of condiments," the
Colonel said.

"Why this association of the Colonel and pepper?" said Van der
Roet.  "In this society we ought to be as nice in our phraseology
as in our flavourings, and be careful to eschew the incongruous.
You are coughing, Mrs. Wilding.  Let me give you some water."

"I think it must have been one of those rare grains of the
Colonel's pepper, for you must have a little pepper in a curry,
mustn't you, Colonel?  Though, as Miss Macdonnell says, English
cooks generally overdo it."

"Vander is in one of his pleasant witty moods," said the Colonel,
"but I fancy I know as much about the use of pepper as he does
about the use of oil colours; and now we have, got upon art
criticism, I may remark, my dear Vander, I have been reminded that
you have been poaching on my ground.  I saw a landscape of yours
the other day, which looked as if some of my curry powder had got
into the sunset.  I mean the one poor blind old Wilkins bought at
your last show."

"Ah, but that sunset was an inspiration, Colonel, and consequently
beyond your comprehension."

"It is easy to talk of inspiration," said Sir John, "and, perhaps,
now that we are debating a matter of real importance, we might
spend our time more profitably than in discussing what is and what
is not a good picture.  Some inspiration has been brought into our
symposium, I venture to affirm that the brain which devised and the
hand which executed the Tenerumi di Vitello we have just tasted,
were both of them inspired.  In the construction of this dish there
is to be recognised a breath of the same afflatus which gave us the
Florentine campanile, and the Medici tombs, and the portrait of
Monna Lisa.  When we stand before any one of these masterpieces, we
realise at a glance how keen must have been the primal insight, and
how strenuous the effort necessary for the evolution of so
consummate an achievement; and, with the savour of the Tenerumi di
Vitello still fresh, I feel that it deserves to be added to the
list of Italian capo lavori.  Now, as I was not fortunate enough to
be included in the pupils' class this morning, I must beg the next
time the dish is presented to us -- and I imagine all present will
hail its renaissance with joy -- that I may be allowed to lend a
hand, or even a finger, in its preparation."

"Veal, with the possible exception of Lombard beef, is the best
meat we get in Italy," said the Marchesa, "so an Italian cook, when
he wants to produce a meat dish of the highest excellence,
generally turns to veal as a basis.  I must say that the breast of
veal, which is the part we had for lunch today, is a somewhat
insipid dish when cooked English fashion.  That we have been able
to put it before you in more palatable form, and to win for it the
approval of such a connoisseur as Sir John Oglethorpe, is largely
owing to the judicious use of that Italian terror--more dire to
many English than paper-money or brigands--garlic."

"The quantity used was infinitesimal," said Mrs. Sinclair, "but it
seems to have been enough to subdue what I once heard Sir John
describe as the pallid solidity of the innocent calf."

"I fear the vein of incongruity in our discourse, lately noted by
Van der Roet, is not quite exhausted," said Sir John.  "The Colonel
was up in arms on account of a too intimate association of his name
with pepper, and now Mrs. Sinclair has bracketed me with the calf,
a most useful animal, I grant, but scarcely one I should have
chosen as a yokefellow; but this is a digression.  To return to our
veal. I had a notion that garlic had something to do with the
triumph of the Tenerumi, and, this being the case, I think it would
be well if the Marchesa were to give us a dissertation on the use
of this invaluable product."

"As Mrs. Sinclair says, the admixture of garlic in the dish in
question was a very small one, and English people somehow never
seem to realise that garlic must always be used sparingly.  The
chief positive idea they have of its characteristics is that which
they gather from the odour of a French or Italian crowd of peasants
at a railway station.  The effect of garlic, eaten in lumps as an
accompaniment to bread and cheese, is naturally awful, but garlic
used as it should be used is the soul, the divine essence, of
cookery.  The palate delights in it without being able to identify
it, and the surest proof of its charm is manifested by the flatness
and insipidity which will infallibly characterise any dish usually
flavoured with it, if by chance this dish should be prepared
without it.  The cook who can employ it successfully will be found
to possess the delicacy of perception, the accuracy of judgment,
and the dexterity of hand, which go to the formation of a great
artist.  It is a primary maxim, and one which cannot be repeated
too often, that garlic must never be cut up and used as part of the
material of any dish.  One small incision should be made in the
clove, which should be put into the dish during the process of
cooking, and allowed to remain there until the cook's palate gives
warning that flavour enough has been extracted.  Then it must be
taken out at once.  This rule does not apply in equal degree to the
use of the onion, the large mild varieties of which may be cooked
and eaten in many excellent bourgeois dishes; but in all fine
cooking, where the onion flavour is wanted, the same treatment
which I have prescribed for garlic must be followed."

The Marchesa gave the Colonel and Lady Considine a holiday that
afternoon, and requested Mrs. Gradinger and Van der Roet to attend
in the kitchen to help with the dinner.  In the first few days of
the session the main portion of the work naturally fell upon the
Marchesa and Angelina, and in spite of the inroads made upon their
time by the necessary directions to the neophytes, and of the
occasional eccentricities of the neophytes' energies, the dinners
and luncheons were all that could be desired.  The Colonel was not
quite satisfied with the flavour of one particular soup, and Mrs.
Gradinger was of opinion that one of the entrees, which she wanted
to superintend herself, but which the Marchesa handed over to Mrs.
Sinclair, had a great deal too much butter in its composition.
Her conscience revolted at the  action of consuming in one dish
enough butter to solace the  breakfast-table of an  honest working
man for two or three days; but the faintness of these criticisms
seemed to prove that every one was well satisfied with the
rendering of the menu of the day.



  Menu -- Lunch

  Tenerumi di Vitello.  Breast of veal.
  Piccione alla minute.  Pigeons, braized with liver, &c.
  Curry

  Menu -- Dinner

  Zuppa alla nazionale.  Soup alla nazionale.
  Salmone alla Genovese.  Salmon alla Genovese.
  Costolette alla Costanza.  Mutton cutlets alla Costanza.
  Fritto misto alla Villeroy.  Lamb's fry alla Villeroy.
  Lattughe al sugo.  Stuffed Lettuce.
  Dindo arrosto alla Milanese.  Roast turkey alla Milanese.
  Crema montata alle fragole.  Strawberry cream.
  Tartufi alla Dino.  Truffles alla Dino.