XIII 



TALKING of the proper need of appreciation that might be 

 rendered to some of nature's goodly gifts, if only they were 

 presented to us as something rare and novel what of the 

 humble but invaluable onion ? " The onion/ 7 as Stevenson 

 says in his masterpiece, Prince Otto <and great was my 

 satisfaction when I first read the pronouncement), "which 

 ranks with the truffle and the nectarine in the chief place 

 of honour of earth's fruit/' 



Truffle and nectarine are doubtless honourable terms of 

 comparison, but I make bold to believe that any well- 

 constituted jury of epicures would not hesitate to award 

 the humble onion the place paramount among all the 

 savours of civilized cookery. There are a certain number 

 of curiously constituted people who absolutely refuse to 

 countenance the onion in any connexion, however sub- 

 dued and distant,- who profess, whether in aesthetic affecta- 

 tion or through some innate queasiness, to look upon it as 

 pure abomination. There are also those who assume a 

 similar intolerant attitude towards tobacco. But who shall 

 deny that, even as tobacco to the meditative and restful 

 moments, the savoury onion has not added through the 

 ages an incalculable zest to the hour of physical restora- 

 tion? There could be no cuisine, on any varied scale, 

 without it. 



"If the onion did not exist," said a great cordon-bleu, 

 paraphrasing a well-known philosophical pronouncement, 

 " it would have to be invented/' 



Discreetly introduced, and subdued by happy blendings, it 

 holds the finest of fumets for your gastronomist's palate : 



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