Fernand Point, Ma Gastronomie (Theoretical)

    After one cocktail or, worse yet, two, the palate can no moredistinguish a bottle of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from abottle of ink !

Fernand Point

Note:  I suspect M. Pointhas a point.  But if so, then what?

Recipes from a Lost Classic 2 -- Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point

La Dombes, Ain, France

Veloutéde Gaudes

(CornMeal Velouté)

Inthe Bressan dialect, “gaudes” refers to corn flour or corn meal.  The natives of the region of Ain eat a great deal of cornmeal, one of the reasons they’re often called “ventres jaunes”– yellow bellies.

Slicethreeonions veryfinely and cook them in butter until they are slightly golden.  Mix a small amount of chicken broth into a ladleful of corn meal to make a paste and add tothe onions with more chicken broth.  Beat vigorously and simmer for one-halfhour.  Add sixteen ounces of crème frâiche, correct the seasoning andserve veryhot.   

This recipe will make four servings.

La Pyramide, Vienne, France

Evenif certain guests make a “frown soup,” always keep a smile.

Onemust be able to withstand a disagreeable remark.  Strong spirits hold no grudges.

 --   Fernand Point 

 Part One : Please See HERE

My Delicate Childhood (Blue Trout and Black Truffles)

Joseph Wechsberg in Ostrava at 2 years old

        "The food in our home was distinguished only for its monotony.   The menu for the noon meal was planned for weeks ahead.  Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we had consommé and boiled beef with vegetables (Monday: carrots; Tuesday: spinach; Wednesday: cabbage; Thursday: peas), followed by a dessert.  Friday we had fish and on Saturday a roast.

Hoop-Cheese Dumplings

Bohemian Dalken

        Today I know that the cooked Mehlspeisen of my delicate childhood are gastronomic delights.  I can think of nothing better than povidla-tascherln, hoop-cheese dumplings, Bohemian Dalken, Palatschinken (pancakes), Kaiserschmarren, Apfel im Schalfrock (“apples in dressing gown,” fried apple slices), Schusterbuben (“shoemaker’s boys”, a sort of potato noodles).  But at home I hated them.  I would have hated Sevluga caviar and Chateau Margaux 1899 if I’d had them five times a week.

Apfel im Schalfrock

Kaiserschmarren

 

        On Fridays we had fish and I was afraid of fish.  I’d almost choked to death on a carp bone, an episode known in our house as the-day-he-got-blue-in-his-face.  On Sundays the main dish was Wiener Schnitzel.  The religious split in town ran straight through the populace’s Sunday menu:  the Jews had Wiener Schnitzel, the Gentiles had roast pork with sauerkraut and dumplings. 

        It was customary to have five meals a day.   Breakfast was at half-past seven in the morning.  At ten-o’clock, children had their dejeuner a la fourchette, sandwiches, sausages, hard-boiled eggs, fruit.  Many men would go for half an hour to the beerhouse for a goulash or a dish of calf’s lungs and a glass of beer.  Between ten and ten-thirty little work was done in offices and shops; everyone was out eating. Two hours later, people were having lunch – at home, since eating lunch in a restaurant was unknown – and afterward they had a nap. Then to the coffeehouse for a demitasse and a game of whist or bridge, and back to the saltmines for an hour’s work.

Jause

        It was a strenuous life and around four-thirty in the afternoon most people were hungry again and had to have their Jause.  A genuine central-European Jause consists of several large cups of coffee, topped up with whipped cream, of bread and butter, Torte or Guglhupf (the bizarre Viennese variation of a pound cake shaped like a derby on which several people have been sitting), and assorted patisserie.  It is a feminine institution and my mother didn’t mind skipping lunch and dinner but she had to have her Jause.  She would often complain that she gained weight “practically from nothing”, but it couldn’t be the Jause, she said; you didn’t gain weight from the Jause.

Gugelhupf

Karlsbad Spa, 1910 postcard 

        What with appetizers and hors d’oeuvres and a sumptuous dinner, many people had to go to Karlsbad once a year to take the cure, lose fifteen pounds, and get in shape again for another year of arduous eating."

Text excerpted from Joseph Wechsberg, Blue Trout and Black Truffles. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1954

 
        Reader Note:  I have been aware of Joseph Wechsberg's memoir, Blue Trout and Black Truffles, and the affection that many people have for it, since I was very young.  The book was in my parents' library and my mother discussed it with me, but I had never read any part of it until recently.  It really is marvelous.

        The excerpt above, taken from the chapter My Delicate Childhood, appealed to me because it reminded me of things my friend Ulrich Pendl (who would have been one of the Gentiles living in the same area of German-speaking Czechoslovakia as Wechsberg, who was Jewish) has told me over the years about  aspects of his own childhood, particularly the happy times before the Second World War, which brought ruin, misery and permanent dislocation to so many.  The fond and detailed food memories -- the abundance, the richness, the elegance and the fantastic-sounding names of the various dishes -- inform the mind, delight the inward eye and lift the spirits.  (Readers' outward eyes will need to rely on enticing photographs like those illustrating this article, including the food and the "exotic" travel photos below, for their uplifting and delight.)

        Wechsberg's biography is fascinating and instructive also.  Schooled and qualified as a lawyer in Czechoslovakia, with solid and serious musical training (and eventually owning a Stradivarius violin and a Peccate bow),  Wechsberg came to the United States ahead of World War II  following extensive travels in Asia during the 1930s.   After fulfilling his ambition of securing a journalist's berth at the New Yorker magazine, where he wrote on a variety of subjects, he served with distinction in the United States Army and later on the U.S. War Crimes Commission and in OSS intelligence. In some ways, Wechsberg's life brings to (my) mind Casablanca (Paul Henried, Claude Rains, Humphrey Bogart and all), The Third Man and foggy and sunny Central Europe.

        Wechsberg also wrote The Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Memoirs, considered important for the early details it provided about how much of the Nazi political machine was preserved in Germany, and also through asylum overseas in Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay.

         Joseph Wechsberg's work and his life story fills corporate mouse lawyers like myself with admiration, a little jealousy and a lot of appreciation.  I suggest that you visit the excellent Joseph Wechsberg tribute website to gain a fuller picture of the man.

Masarykplatz, Ostrava, 1910 

Djibouti marketplace, 1930 

Washing an elephant, Colombo, Ceylon, May 1930 (click on photo to enlarge)

Der Bund, Shanghai, June 6, 1930

Oran, Easter Sunday, 1939 

"Theodore Kaghan (l.) and J.Wechsberg meet furtively in a dark corner of Arlberg-Orient Express before Wechsberg’s departure for Budapest and Bucharest where he was invited by Red Rumanian government. Content of conversation was not overheard. Presumably further strategy was being discussed. Kaghan has admitted to living for nine months with known Communist (male), in early thirties. Wechsberg admits to like Malosol caviar and boeuf Stroganoff, in early fifties. Picture was snapped by State Department’s “mystery” photographer. "

With Clark Gable

 With Fernand Point

With Henri Soulé (middle) and Mr.O’Connor, manager of the Ritz Carlton, prior to a party given for the publication of Dining at the Pavillon in 1962

Recipes from a Lost Classic -- Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point

Vienne, La Pyramide

“I try to make every meal une petite merveille.” 

– Fernand Point

“Fernand Point was just 25 when he opened the Restaurant de la Pyramide in the old Roman town of Vienne, halfway between Paris and the Cote d’Azur.  He had served apprenticeships at some of France’s best restaurants and hotels and was considered a cuisinier of ability and imagination, but no one could have imagined the extent of his culinary accomplishments to come.  Within ten years La Pyramide was recognized as one of the finest restaurants in France.  Point never had to advertise; his table and his dedicated clientele spoke for him more eloquently than any advertisement.”  --  From the Introduction, Ma Gastronomie

Chausson Aux Truffes Andre Pic

Peel some medium-size truffles and season them with salt and pepper.  Wrap each truffle in a very thin piece of pork fat and place on a circle of puff pastry dough.  Moisten the edges of the dough with water, fold into a turnover and seal.  Place the turnovers on a baking sheet, brush lightly with beaten egg, and bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes.  Serve hot.

Salade De Truffes

Brush and clean thoroughly some fresh truffles from Perigord. Slice them on a mandoline and marinate them for ten minutes in a mixture of lemon juice, salad oil, salt and pepper.  Serve immediately with some foie gras on the side.

Truffes Aux Chateuneuf

Brush and peel some truffles.  Crush the peelings in a mortar with a little olive oil and strain through a sieve.   Slice the truffles and put them in an earthenware  pot with a carrot, the white part of a leek, an onion, some finely minced thyme, the pureed truffle peelings, and some thick, well-seasoned veal broth.  Cook gently over low heat.  Add eight ounces of Chateauneuf-du-Pape during cooking.  Serve with a fried-in-butter crouton under each truffle slice.

Ouefs A La Coque Aux Truffes (Soft-Boiled Eggs With Truffles)

Put six large truffles in a bowl with some raw eggs in their shells.  Cover the bowl tightly with a damp cloth and keep it in a cool place for four or five days.  Remove the eggs and cook the truffles for thirty minutes.  Set the truffles aside for another use.  Soft-boil the unshelled eggs in the water in which the truffles have cooked and serve with small pieces of deep-fried potatoes to dip into them.

 

Ouefs Sur Le Plat (Fried Eggs)

"Fernand Point judged the merit of a cook by the way he made fried eggs.  That is why, despite his kindness and understanding, he would thunder out, “Stop, you wretch, that’s a farce!”, whenever one of his apprentices did not fry eggs according to the method indicated below."

Melt some butter in a small skillet but do not let it sizzle.  Break fresh eggs onto a plate and slip them into the skillet.  Cook over very low heat so that the whites of the eggs become creamy and the yolks are hot.  In another pan melt some unsalted butter very gently.  Salt and pepper it lightly and pour it over the eggs at the last moment.

Please See Also Part Two (Link)