Duncan Hines

by Louis Hatchett

  Once outside of Paris, they quickly forgot the city’s congested turmoil. In fact, they grew quite fond of everything they encountered. While the Hines and Mrs. Palmer spent a little time between meals visiting the usual tourist attractions that Americans frequent, they primarily concentrated their energies on eating the rich food for which French cooks are so famous. For the most part, they avoided eating establishments that were well known to American tourists in favor of the small, native restaurants “where unusual food was to be found.”654

  After exploring the French countryside for several days, they crossed the French border into Belgium, where they made their way to Brussels and to L’epaule de Mouton, a restaurant well off the beaten tourist path. The restaurant, founded in 1660, still seated only twenty-eight persons, but it was, they discovered, well worth the trip. The restaurant’s staff of four prepared and brought to their table “smoked ham from [the] Ardennes forest, consomme of black cherries, lobster bisque, filet cooked with white wine and tarragon sauce, chicken ‘flamed’ at the table, [and] veal with cream sauce.” While in Brussels “they were met…by Paul Hebert, their driver from the travel agency in London, and a Humber Pullman limousine, by whom and in which they were driven during their remaining tour of the continent.” When they arrived in Amsterdam a day or so later, they dined on rijistafel, a rice-based Indonesian meal, in a Balinese restaurant. They also seated themselves at the table of one of Europe’s famous restaurants, an establishment that had been in continuous operation since 1300 and had been located in the present building since 1627; amazingly, it had become a mecca for foreign tourists, even though it sported the unappetizing name of “The Five Flies.”655 The trio also dined at the Lido, which served 300 patrons on four floors and employed 140 persons, leaving a customer-employee ratio that guaranteed the finest in personal service. Though the food was marvelous and service spectacular, what most impressed Hines during his stay in the country was the dress of Belgium’s waiters. He observed that, no matter where he went, all the Dutch waiters, wore “long, dark Prince Albert coats.”656

  From Belgium the threesome next crossed the border into Germany and soon descended upon Frankfurt, where they enjoyed “wonderful German sausages, both pork and beef,” at Zum Gemalte Haus, a wine stube. There they also downed sizable portions of “German potato salad, pickled pork and sauerkraut.”657 This meal remained one of Hines’s most memorable during the entire course of his vacation. He particularly liked “the pickled pork, the bratwurst, and the kartoffel-salad.”658 The stube served no bread, so Hines bought some from a peddler who entered the premises from the street “with loaves tucked under his arms.”659 Hines later said they were the best loaves of bread he had ever eaten anywhere.660

  The next day the three journeyed to Heidelberg, where they lunched at the famous Zum Seppel or “student’s inn.” While they enjoyed the food, they were more entranced by the “rows upon rows of steins on the wall, bearing the coats-of-arms of the famous students who had eaten there—including Bismarck.” They next traversed into the folds of the Black Forest, where “they lunched at a small inn on a mountain top and were introduced to the inn’s specialty, trout bleu, (i.e., blue trout).” Said Hines later, “The trout are caught, slit open and cleaned and dropped into boiling water flavored with herbs. The fish is served, in a half-moon shape, complete with head, tail and fins and is a lovely shade of blue. If the fish doesn’t turn blue, then it isn’t fresh. The flavor is delicate and most delicious.”661 While their only culinary disappointment while visiting Germany was that they were unable to find a restaurant that served German pancakes, they had better luck in their next European country.662

  The next day they crossed the border into Switzerland and thrilled to the country’s “mountains and storybook houses.” At the Stadt-und-Rathskeller in Lucerne, they encountered a new dining experience, the house specialty, cheese fondue. As he waited to be served this meal, Hines was told that this regional specialty was made from two different types of cheese. When it was set before him he noticed that the Swiss cheese treat was served along with a chafing dish filled with white wine; in his eyes this was truly a culinary adventure. Later he related how it was consumed: “They gave us long forks with which we speared squares of rye bread, which we swished around in the fondue, popped it into our mouths,” and ate them. Later Hines learned of the traditional protocol that accompanied the eating of this dish: the person who let the bread fall from his fork had to pay for the dinners of the others in his party. “He probably pays the cleaning bill, too!” Hines cracked. After being alerted to this tradition, Hines later said he “didn’t know he was so dexterous.”663

  The Hines and Mrs. Palmer next visited Lausanne’s Ecole Hotelier, the world’s oldest hotel school, which was first opened by the Swiss government and the Swiss Hotel Association in 1893; by 1954 it had graduated over 5,000 students.664 Later, when they dined and lodged in Switzerland’s Grand Hotel Victoria-Jungfrau, the Hines and Mrs. Palmer experienced new dining pleasures. They sunk their teeth into many wonderful treats during their stay, including “rice pudding (pureed) with candied fruits and sauce, apple fritters with vanilla sauce, strawberry fritters (whole fresh strawberries dipped in batter and then French fried),” and the “three filets”; the latter consisted of “beef with mushroom, pork with a slice of truffle, and veal with a slice of fois gras.” Also delectable but unusual, in Hines’s view, was the orange juice; it was made from “blood” oranges from Spain, which, he said, “was as red as tomato juice but very good.”665

  After having satiated themselves on the luxurious taste sensations of Switzerland’s rich cuisine, they eventually set off for Italy. Before they arrived at the Italian border, however, they crossed into France again, stopping for a meal near Avignon, a city in the southeastern section of the country, near the confluence of the Rhone and Durance Rivers. Their driver took them 6 miles outside the city to the best restaurant they dined in during their entire European excursion: Le Petite Auberge at Sauneterreonly, which had been operated by a retired insurance agent for the last five years.666 Their meal began with hors d’oeuvres “which were out of this world,” said Hines. Each hors d’oeuvre was served with its own sauce and swallowed, as Hines aptly put it, in “two bites.” These scrumptious delicacies included “artichoke bottoms, tiny cooked onions, rice with Smyrna raisins and cumin, cooked fennel root, celery root with anchovy sauce, tiny beets, cooked mushrooms, chopped parsley and chervil, tiny tomato slices and tiny asparagus with shredded carrot.” Finding the hors d’oeuvres to their liking, Hines and his party forged ahead to the next course, which consisted of “mussels fried in butter (almost a fritter), cockerel roasted over charcoal, veal kidneys, parfait with strawberry ice, coffee and mousse with ground nuts on top.” As they headed for the next country on their agenda, the meal they consumed that day was one that would stay embedded in their treasure book of culinary memories for years to come.667

  When they finally crossed over into Italy, the first city they pointed their limousine toward was Venice. Upon their arrival, Hines and Clara and Mrs. Palmer decided to first pay a visit to the American Consulate. But to their surprise, finding a comfortable route was a bit difficult. Since no motor launch was available to make the trip, Hines and his party had no choice but to ride in a gondola across Canal Street. At this, Hines objected. He firmly let it be known that he was not going to ride across town in a gondola, and that was that. However, after much coaxing by Clara, Hines relented, snorting all the while as he stood up in the craft, Venetian style. It had been raining just before they boarded their craft to make the “treacherous” crossing, the seats were wet, and Hines “was determined not to ruin a good suit of clothes. As a result he almost fell into the water.”668 Said Clara later, “He didn’t fall out, but it was a touch-and-go proposition.”669

  While they tasted many types of Italian cookery during their tour of the country, Hines was dismayed with some of the fare they consumed. “I was mightily disappointed in th
e Italian spaghetti,” Hines said later, because “it didn’t have any oomph to it, no authority at all.” While he did enjoy the ice cream and cookies he found in Italy, the country’s coffee, he decided, he could do without. The Italian coffee, he said, “was strong, black, bitter, and almost thick enough to float a spoon. Half a cup at a meal was my limit.” Hines later attributed his disappointment in some of the Italian cuisine to French chefs; the French food they had so recently consumed had “dulled” their appetites.670

  The only bad meal Hines and his party encountered during their culinary adventure occurred in Venice, the day after their visit to the American consulate. While dining at what was reputed to be one of Venice’s finest restaurants, they were served an assortment of appetizers. These consisted of “shrimp, crab and—baby octopus.” Hines later told reporters that the baby octopus was “the snag” in his trip. The creatures, he observed, “had been cooked and [were] served cold with an oil dressing…. They resembled little rubber balls about an inch in diameter. I’m a great believer in eating regional delicacies and I’ve always advocated that course of action, but I never expected to be confronted by an octopus.”671 Hines said that inasmuch “as it was served intact with all its little feelers, head and big eyes, it was quite a task…to nibble on it.”672 Then, turning pale at the thought of the experience, Hines said the truth was that, when he put the octopus in his mouth, he just “couldn’t choke the damn thing down.”673 Eventually he managed to “down one, and Clara ate two.”674 Rolling his eyes heavenward, he said, “I can’t see why people would eat those crazy little octopus things unless they were intoxicated.”675

  From Italy, the threesome made their way back to London, England, where they stayed at the Savoy Hotel. Upon their arrival, “the ‘red carpet’ was rolled out for them by the institution’s 1500 employees.” Hines thought it marvelous that the hotel employed 92 chefs just to prepare for 300 guests. Perhaps one of the most pleasant meals of their trip came when the Savoy’s chefs served them plate-loads of “English steak-and-kidney pie and excellent roast chicken.” They also enjoyed the hotel’s strawberries, and felt obligated “to sample the traditional British favorite, roast beef, and for that” they dined at “the world-famous Simpson’s-on-the-Strand, where [a] white-coated chef carved it at [their] table.”676

  During their stay in London, the Hines and Mrs. Palmer also attended the Derby at Epsom Downs as guests of the Savoy management and were afforded the chance to see the Royal Family arrive in state. To return the favor of the wonderful reception the Savoy management had given them, Hines hosted what he termed a “Kentucky breakfast.” Hines made arrangements to have a country ham flown over from the U. S., which, when served, was accompanied with red-eyed gravy, fried eggs and hot biscuits. The night before the breakfast was given, Clara “had to show the Savoy’s French chef how to make the gravy and the biscuits,”677 using the same recipe served at the John Marshall Hotel in Richmond, Virginia.678 Despite her best efforts, Clara later remarked that while the biscuits were good, they “wouldn’t have recognized their Kentucky cousins.”679 The only criticism they made of their stay in England was a trivial matter. Their room at the Savoy Hotel was a bit cool, said Hines, because “the British don’t believe in sleeping in heated rooms.”680

  Soon afterward, the three sailed for America from Southhampton on the Queen Mary.681 Hines was astonished at how much food the ocean liner carried to feed what amounted to a small city. He discovered that during the course of a single round trip voyage, the Queen Mary carried “thirty-five tons of meat, twelve and a half tons of poultry, six tons of potatoes, fifteen tons of poultry, six tons of fish, thirty tons of vegetables, 300 barrels of flour, six tons of sugar, a thousand crates of fresh fruit, 5000 quarts of milk, two tons of butter, and over four thousand quarts of ice cream. The china, glassware, and table silver total[ed] more than a half-million pieces”. The three enjoyed their pleasant voyage across the Atlantic and were the featured guests of a cocktail party given by the staff captain on the Verandah Grill, a small dining room on the top deck, where they were served “consomme flavored with tarragon, filet of sole, excellent pressed duck, salad, and dessert.”682

  Hines and his party finally arrived in New York on 8 June 1954; they had been away from American shores for exactly two months. Upon his return to America, Hines was swamped by reporters. While most celebrities who return from Europe are asked about the sights, scenery and places they saw, the press corps neglected to do this; instead, all their questions to Hines were, in one form or another, “What did you eat in Europe and where did you eat it?”683 After he checked into a hotel, Hines was more than happy to tell the press the details of his culinary adventures in Europe. While he enjoyed a double bourbon on the rocks in his suite at the Ambassador Hotel, Hines told reporters, “We had more fun than a case of monkeys, but I’ll be durned glad when that train gets in tomorrow night and I get me some hot biscuits.”684

  When asked about his impressions of his first trip to Europe, Hines confessed to being a bit confused by the many customs he encountered. He recalled asking a waiter in Italy, “How the devil can you make coffee so lousy? If I drink this, I won’t have to shave for four days. It’ll stop all growth.” He also recalled another cultural novelty—for him: eating cheese for breakfast in Holland. Then there was all that alcohol. Keeping in mind that he regarded alcohol primarily as a beverage to soothe the nerves on late afternoons or evenings, or as a beverage to be lightly consumed with certain dishes, Hines confessed to being “aghast” at the sight of German citizens openly quaffing beer. He also did not relish the prospect of seeing the natives of France starting their day with a glass of white wine.

  As he related his experiences, he tended to dwell on the food he did not enjoy, especially the unappetizing fare he consumed in Italy. Hines then recounted his experience with highway robbery on the train ride he took from Florence to Venice. While enroute “he ordered three ham sandwiches, some oranges, and mineral water.” He gave the vendor “1,500 of those Italian bucks,” or about $2.40. Said Hines of this meal, “Why, [the size of] the ham in those sandwiches you could put in front of your glasses and still read the morning paper.” He also did not like the butter he found in Europe; everywhere he dined, except for France, the butter tasted sweet. “I like a little oomph in my butter,” he said, “so when the waiter wasn’t looking, I just put some salt on it.” The dinner hours were not to his liking, either. “People don’t eat over there until ten o’clock in the night. Hell, I’m scared when it’s dark. I want to go home.”

  Despite Hines’s complaints, he had many positive things to say about his European trip. He liked the omelets in France, the desserts in Belgium, the rye bread in Baden-Baden, and the honey in the Black Forest. As stated earlier, Hines was surprised to find that there were no German pancakes in Germany and, while in Lucerne, he took note of the absence of pies, poundcake, and smoked sausages. Despite his disenchantment with Italian food, he confessed that he swooned over that country’s noodles. Prodded a little further, he said that the ravioli was the best he had eaten in his life. Prodded still more, he said he had a special fondness for the rice and shrimp he ate in Venice, particularly because it was “the only garlic-seasoned dish” he was served while in Europe. Despite his dislike of the way the French and Germans so freely consumed their alcoholic beverages, he did approve of the way they approached food in general. “They don’t beat it and bolt it over there,” he said. He also approved of the way they kept their table knives sharp. “The knife is always as sharp as a razor, hence you never see anyone eating food off’ the blade.685 Overall, he said,

  My reaction to Europe is I should have tried it twenty years ago. Clara and I met some fine people over there. Their eating habits may be different from ours, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re worse. The same goes for their food…. People in Europe eat a lot of bread, and the bread is tasty. Beef, lamb, and chicken are good. Butter is good and unsalted. Asparagus is served in stalk
s about eight inches long and about three inches around the base. Generally, there’s no drinking water on the table unless you order it by the bottle and pay extra for it. There’s no bourbon in Europe, either, so I drank Scotch. Mrs. Hines tried what they call aperitifs.

  Hines said that the most “delectable” dish he encountered on his tour of the European continent was something not served there at all but on the ocean liner Liberte: “tiny French peas. It was the seasoning that made them something to remember throughout my life in this and the next world.” Later, commenting on the food he found in France, Hines said,

  I found that the French were apt to use too much sauce on things. They’d douse it over meat in a way that would contaminate everything else on the plate. One lunch I went to in Paris started at one and ended at four-thirty. The squares of butter had flower decorations in red in the center. Jelly, but pretty. In Nice, the butter came in fluted ribbons, and we had five waiters serving our table. The coffee cups at breakfast held half as much again as our American cups. Wherever we went, I avoided ground up meats. Also, I was careful to see that the meat we did eat was thoroughly cooked. I wasn’t going to take a chance on the raw flesh of some varmint I didn’t even know the name of.686

  He confessed that he did not appraise the European restaurants as severely as he did those in America, stating, coyly, that he restrained himself when he had an urge to visit a restaurant’s back door “to see if they throw their garbage to the neighborhood dogs.” His European restaurant tour was primarily charted, he said, by the advice given him from well-traveled friends, ones thoroughly trustworthy in matters of European gastronomy. When asked if he could read French, he said he could not, but that, when in doubt, he always asked the headwaiter what it was—a practice he had entreated Americans to exercise for the past two decades. It did not matter if Americans could not read the menu, he said. It “might have twenty-two letters and turn out to be gull. Matter of fact there were gull eggs on the menu of the Queen Elizabeth. If you’re not sure of the cookin’, order ham and eggs. And if the yoke don’t stand up above the white like the morning sun, those eggs are no good, see?”