i8o FOOD AND COOKERY 



enterprise in " catering," and to a monopoly which has 

 driven out of existence the smaller establishments, where 

 alone the artist-cook can flourish. But it seems that the 

 neglect of decent cooking is also due in this country to a 

 racial incapacity and indifference which leads both men 

 and women to despise " taking pains " about small things, 

 and brings them into the world devoid of the desire to 

 carry out with skill those small enterprises on which much 

 of the sweetness and gaiety of life depends. 



Even in the time of Charles II the skill and seriousness 

 of French cookery as compared with our own was 

 recognised. The high reputation of Scotch cooks at the 

 present day seems to be due to an inheritance of traditions 

 from the days of close association of the Scotch and 

 French Courts. Up to nearly i oo years ago roasting was 

 as usual a method of cooking meat in Paris as in London 

 There were " r6tisseries " in Paris in the old days. High 

 prices and thrift have led to the decadence of roasting as a 

 popular method of cooking meat in France, but the great 

 " chef " in a private house in Paris still produces the most 

 perfect roast beef and roast saddle of mutton (better than 

 you will find in England) in the old-fashioned way. So 

 indifferent, or perhaps hopeless, are Englishmen in regard 

 to cookery that they drink a strong champagne through- 

 out dinner, content to drown the insipid taste of the food 

 in the fine flavour of a drink upon which they can rely. 

 An Englishman dining at a first-rate restaurant will usually 

 spend twice as much for wine as for food, whilst a French- 

 man will reverse the proportions. Another difference is 

 one for which women are responsible. In Paris a party 

 of French men and women at a table in a good restaurant 

 enjoy their food, laugh and talk with one another, and do 

 not concern themselves with the company at other tables. 

 It would be bad manners to do so. But English-speaking 

 women, when dining in public, seem to be chiefly interested, 



