Délices de Sterlet.
Blinis de Sarrasin.
Consommé de Terrapine en Tasse. Kapusniack.
Suprême de Sole Divine.
Diablotin Cancalaise.
Filet de Perdreau Bonne Bouche.
Croquettes de Marrons.
Noisette d'Agneau de Galles Eldorado.
Fond d'Artichaut Clamart.
Poularde soufflée Savoy.
Salade Cornelia.
Poire de Paris Tosca.
Frivolités.
Canapé Esperanza.
—and as the accompanying wine I had ordered some sherry with the caviar, a magnum of Pommery and some Mattoni water.
A most admirable dinner it was, rather long, perhaps, to my taste, but it would have been difficult to get enough distinctive dishes into a shorter menu. The sterlet caviar on the little Russian pancakes made an admirable hors d'œuvre; the consommé was of turtle, but much lighter than the usual turtle soup; the kapusniack is a Russian soup, in which leeks, celery, turnips, onions, mushrooms, pig's ear, crushed tomatoes and cabbage seasoned with vinegar play a part, and it is served with cream stirred into it, and with those little pâtés of which the Russians are so fond when broken into the soup. The sole was garnished with fried oysters covered with bread-crumbs, and the filet de perdreau, which was the supreme triumph of the dinner, consisted of grilled suprêmes of partridges and grilled rashers of bacon dipped in poivrade sauce. The noisettes were the one plain dish of the dinner, but the asparagus ends tucked away in the hearts of artichokes gave it its cachet. The cold chicken filled with a mousse of foie gras was a very noble dish, and tiny mushrooms, formed from some kind of mousse, which apparently grew amidst the truffles, and slices of chicken breast which surrounded the white bird adorned with Pompeiian drawings, were a very happy idea. The nuts soaked in Kummel which we found in the interior of the pears, which were served with a red currant ice, was another happy idea much appreciated by the ladies, and the canapé esperanza proved to be soft roes on toast.
This dinner takes a very high place amongst the many good dinners I have eaten in my time in the Savoy Restaurant. My bill came to £5, 2s.
Some of the Savoy specialities for which there were not room in one dinner menu are huîtres Baltimore, which are oysters grilled with bacon; bortsch Polonaise, homard Miramar, sylphide Savoy, which is a very attractive way of serving lamb sweetbreads; mignonettes d'agneau à la Delhi, soufflés belle de nuit, which is a variant of the soufflé surprise, peaches and strawberry and vanilla ice being used in it; and the noble bécasse à la Soi, an invention of M. Soi, which is the breast of a woodcock served with a most delightful sauce on toast covered with foie gras.
I have mentioned the ballroom which has taken the place of the old courtyard and its fountain, and in which many of the great banquets given at the Savoy are held. It is a fine room, light grey in colour, splendidly spacious, and when lighted up its colour shows off the ladies' dresses to perfection. My only objection to it as a banqueting-room was that the white light, which is admirable for a ballroom, was rather too glary for a dining-room. This has now been obviated by lessening the light when dinners are given in the room. If the Savoy could find some means of shading the lamps with pink or putting on pink glasses to the lamps on the occasion of banquets, it would, I think, please those like myself who think that the best light for a dining-room is a pink one.
I asked M. Blond to give me the menu of any recent Savoy banquet of which the management was especially proud, not that I have not preserved many menus of many great dinners, but that I wished to shift the responsibility of selection on to his shoulders. This is the menu of the banquet and wines he has sent me as being typical of great Savoy feasts:
Caviar de Bélouga.
Blinis à la Gouriew.
Queue de Bœuf à la Française.
Crème Germiny.
Filets de Sole à l'Aiglon.
Suprême de Volaille à l'Aurore.
Côte d'Agneau de Lait au Beurre Noisette.
Pommes Lorette.
Velouté Forestière.
Délice de Strasbourg à la Gelée de Vin du Rhin.
Bécassine Double Flambée à l'Armagnac.
Perles du Perigord.
Cœurs de Laitues Suzette.
Asperges Vertes de Paris.
Comices Toscane.
Soufflé Pont l'Évêque.
Corbeilles de Fruits.
Wines.
Schloss Johannisberg Cabinet, 1893.
Veuve Clicquot, 1904.
Magnums Pommery and Greno (Nature), 1904.
Chât. Haut Brion "Cachet du Château," 1888.
Cockburn's 1890 (Bottled 1893).
Croft's 1881 (Bottled 1884).
Hennessey's 70 year old Cognac.
Many of the dishes included in this great dinner I hope I may meet at a future time at Savoy banquets.