Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin
Carême, the First Celebrity Chef
by
Ian Kelly
Before Emeril, before Julia, and even before Escoffier, there
was Carême. Antonin Carême, baptized Marie-Antoine,
was abandoned as a child in Paris during the Revolution in 1792.
He was taken in by a cook, who put the poor boy to work in order
to earn his keep. From this humble beginning, Carême eventually
rose to a position of international celebrity, cooking for emperors,
kings, princes and other royalty. His lofty clientele included
Napoleon, the Romanovs, the Rothschilds, Rossini and King George
IV. He gained fortune and fame by publishing his recipes in
cookbooks (a novel concept at the time), and in doing so, codified
the classic French recipes that are still executed to this day
by chefs all over the world. Writer and actor Ian Kelly is the
first to publish an English biography of Carême. He has
also created a one-man play about this legendary chef, with
a US tour in the works.
Petits Croustades de Cailles (Small Bread Croustades with
Quails)
From Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême,
the First Celebrity Chef by Ian Kelly (Walker, 2003)
Adapted by StarChefs
Yield: 6 Servings
Ingredients:
Quails:
- 1 loaf stale French bread
- 6 ounces clarified butter
- 6 quails, boned
- ½ pound forcemeat
- 12 slices unsmoked bacon
Sauce espagnol:
- 2 ounces butter
- 1 ounce flour
- 1 pint dark meat stock Bouquet garni
- 1 ounce tomato puree
Method:
For quails:
Take a stale French loaf and cut it into two-inch slices. Cut
a hole in the middle of about two inches diameter. The same
number of slices as quails. Fry these croustades in clarified
butter and drain on a napkin. Lay
them on a baking tray and place first a spoonful of good forcemeat
and then a boned quail, chest upwards, into each.
Lay bacon over them and cover with parchment
paper. Let them bake in a moderate oven for an hour and a
half. Let them drain on a napkin, after which pour over them
a good sauce Espagnol.
Instead of quails you may use larks or other
small game. A claw may be retained to garnish each. Quails
may be similarly baked all together in a croustade made from
a large fluted loaf from which the crumbs have been removed.
For sauce espagnol:
Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook gently on a low
heat until well browned. Add the stock and stir until it thickens.
Add the bouquet garni and simmer half an hour. By this time
the sauce will have reduced. Remove the bouquet garni, add
the tomato puree and simmer another five minutes. Makes one
pint. (Carême - and this recipe – were instrumental
in bringing the tomato into the culinary mainstream).
INTERVIEW WITH IAN KELLY
continued >>
Carême is generally considered
the founder and architect of French haute cuisine, and his
legacy is immeasurable. Is there a chef who you think has
the potential to be as influential in the 21st Century as
Carême has been for the last two centuries?
IK: In short, no! Carême
was the first. The first to become rich and famous publishing
cookbooks. The first to write down many recipes which have
become, as a result, attributed to him, which doubtless pre-date
him. He came at the right time: people wanted to know about
food, and wanted a chef-hero and Carême played up to
that, possibly inventing or at least embroidering his dramatic
background (left wandering the streets of Paris in the Revolution,
taken in by a cook). He said he'd lived 40 years of revolution
by his death, but he may have meant food-revolution as well,
so it was a chance to write the rules, which to a great extent
he did. Although food is evolving fast at the moment, I don’t
think any one chef could have quite the same impact now that
there is no orthodoxy and so many different cuisines are (rightly)
respected.
What is it like to play
Carême on the stage? As an actor, what do
you do to get inside the character?
IK: It was naturally a very
different experience from that of living with the character
as his biographer, and to some extent the play answers the
questions that were left hanging for me as an historian: 'What
is the pressure like before a great banquet? What inspired
him to be quite so driven? What went so wrong with his relationship
with his only child that she destroyed all his writings and
effects after his death? So it’s a play about passion
for food and passion in families, as well all the great stories
from history. (This tended to turn Carême into something
of a gossip, whereas in real life he was relatively discreet!)
So I based the stage character on all I knew of Carême
from his writings: his single-mindedness, his dark turn of
mind, his wit, but added a lot from what I have observed of
chefs both writing this book, and more anciently from when
I waited tables! We know Carême was very difficult to
work with and for, and his temper, and the soldier's vocabulary
of the professional kitchen are on display in the play in
ways one misses in the biography. I cook on stage in the play,
so the half hour before 'curtain' felt like the half hour
before service: checking pots and pans and ingredients and
mise en place. And then the music began and on I walk with
my 18th century giant copper jelly mould...and off we'd go...
Anything else you'd like
to share with us?
IK: Only the hope that I can
share the play with a wider audience. There are plans to tour
in the US if we can find the right producer and theatres and
enough good pastry chefs to reproduce the profiterole swans
that we give to the audience at the end of the show. I have
never tired of Carême: he still fascinates even after
these several years in his company, first as biographer and
then as biographer/actor: his passion and determination, his
love of food and of the theatricality of entertaining cannot
fail to impress and inspire, and that, along with stories
funny, sad and illuminating I hope make for an evening, and
a book, that feeds hearts and minds and stomachs!
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