e 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 throughout 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 Frenchman 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, not in their food nor in their
own party, but in pointing out to one another the celebrities or
notorieties or eccentricities seated at other tables. So long as the
place is fashionable and noisy, the food is negligible and neglected.

For some reason, which I am unable to discover, the women of England
(it is not the case with those of France and Germany) have, with rare
exceptions, no interest in or liking for "cookery," and yet the men
have left the management of it entirely in their hands. Male "chefs"
of English nationality are rare specimens, though they are, as a rule,
the best at grilling and roasting. On the other hand, in France, where
women no less than men value and understand cookery, there is an
enormous body of professional male cooks. English-women of means and
education have to such a degree neglected all knowledge of cookery and
of the quality and criticism of kitchen supplies, such as meat, fish,
birds, and vegetables, that there is no one to teach the poor country
girls (who become cooks in the majority of households) the elements of
the very difficult and important duties which they are expected--in
virtue of some kind of inspiration or native genius--to discharge with
skill and judgment: nor is there any head of a household capable of
seeing that the necessary care and trouble are given. It is wonderful,
under the circumstances, how clever and willing our domestic cooks