." THE GOURMET'S ALMANACH "
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Suk,—I hope it is not too late to beg space enough to correct a ernertelleetion on my taste and integrity, occurring in a review' in your issue of January 30th.
Your eminent contributor, Mr. P. Morton Shand, discussing Mr. Alan MactlougalPs book, The Gourmet's AlmanaCh, to which I wrote the introduction, suggests that I was "inspired with wicked desire to pull Mr. MacDougall's leg."
I cannot state too emphatically that to pull the leg of an author who is so modest as to allow me to introduce his book would be an act of the grossest ill-breeding, and that to offer a leg-pull to a publisher who pays one for a serious introduction would be an set of fraud, and I am guilty of neither.
It is the more perplexing that your contributor should interpret me thus; in view of the fact that the greater part Of my introduction is taken up with violent dissent from
Mr. Maepougall's attitlide,tqwentsAnglishc0Q1Cc7. ,sent at least. a str4ightiorward .approaeli; and' in my ease a very respectable one also, for' I should not bestir myself to defend our dishes against any ordinniY inconSiderable entrée fancier. I would not open my mouth to speak for a steak and kidney pudding against a vol-au-vent I have a better use for that organ. But when, for example, it comes to the Flemish Carbonnade, a beef stew made with beer instead of water, which Mr. MacDougall justly terms the Ruben among stews, that is a different matter.
Mr. MacDougall challenges us with just those mighty and profound European dishes which are our only serious rivals, and of which I have hitherto found no such collection of recipes. Mr. Morton Shand creates a sadly false impression by dismissing these, in a single slighting phrase, as " no doubt ' useful.' " Further : while I agree with him that the references to American celebrities in Paris who are little known in England are not of any -great interest to us, he creates, another false impression by devoting so much space in his review to what occupies so little in the book. Some of the names are impor- tant. The fact that one dish is Despian's favourite, another Chana Orloff's, is-no mean recommendation.
Other of the names are unfamiliar to us, some of them unfamiliar in sound. Your contributor makes great play on this. " Mr. and Mrs. Paris Singer," says he, " a name that sounds almost too good to be true." But, after all, this book was first published in America, and surely it would have been more in keeping with the almost official amenities of your columns if he had accorded this rather unusual cognomen something of that seemly gravity, which, no 'doubt, at various times ani places greets those also un-stereotyped syllables, P. Morton Shand.—I am, Sir, &c., JOHN COLLIER. - Ashmansworth, near Newbury, Berks,
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