Your 8 October food & drink takeaways
An iconic dish from a culinary legend, the dos and don’ts of dining etiquette and an artist’s demonstration of ‘both the complexity and the unity of the plant world’.
Just some of food & drink delights that 8 October brings to the table.
Click on the links for extra helpings.
A curated taster menu of every day’s food & drink associations
Food and drink birthdays
1935
French-born restaurateur, operated Le Gavroche – the first restaurant in the UK to gain three Michelin stars – with brother Michel
After years working in French and British embassies and as a private chef for various members of the British high society, in 1967 he opened Le Gavroche in London with his brother Michel. The restaurant was the first in the UK to win one, two and – in 1982 – three Michelin stars.
One of his most iconic dishes – which has been on the menu at Le Gavroche since 1967 and remains there to this day under the proprietorship of Michel Roux Jr – is the Soufflé Suissesse {header photo}.
The perfect marriage of French and British cheese, butter, eggs and cream in a light and airy but decadent dish, Michel Roux Jr – who can be seen here preparing the treat – told France Televisions that he daren't ever take it off the menu, as "even the British, who are quite docile, would be out on the streets. There would be a revolution!"
1965
Italian chef and TV personality
Food in writing
In 1952 – the foodreference.com site pins it down to this day – American author Amy Vanderbilt's seminal The Complete Book of Etiquette was first published.
The etiquette encyclopaedia and history blog Etiquipedea highlights some of the standards she laid down regarding dining.
Drinking Beverages at the Table
In drinking any beverage at table, a sip is never taken until the mouth is empty and has been wiped with the napkin. This keeps cup and glass rims free from food marks.
"Stirring food"
Nothing should ever be stirred up or mashed into a conglomerate heap on the plate. Gravy unless it is a gravy in which meat, fish or other protein is incorporated (rarebits, curries, blanquettes, chilis, etc.) is never poured or ladled onto rice, noodles, or other than meat on the plate. It is an insult to the cuisine to inundate everything on your plate with gravy or with that American favorite, catsup. If you want to eat your potatoes with gravy, you dip a forkful into the gravy that has escaped from the meat.
Tasting another's food
Sometimes a couple dining in a restaurant wish to taste each other's food. This is informal but permissible, though only if a fresh fork or spoon is used, with the possessor of the dish then handing the "taste" implement, handle first, to the other person. The other must not reach across the table and eat from a companion's plate, no matter how many years they have been married. If one of the two has had included some item say French fried potatoes in his order and doesn't wish them, he asks the waiter to serve them to the other."
Food art of the day
The Three Apples by Canadian painter Ozias Leduc, born on this day in 1864.
"By choosing to show the apples as perfectly spherical, and grouping them in the bowl so that their base, stalk, and stem are visible, Leduc demonstrates both the complexity and the unity of the plant world."
