PARS.- A collection of 4,000 official banquet menus dating back to the time of Napoleon III to the present day will go up for auction this Friday -May 31- in Pars.
The lot belongs to the French chef Christophe Marguin and its sale represents a world first, according to the Millon auction house.
Among the menus, which can be admired at the Millon headquarters, there are curiosities for all tastes.
For example, a cena on June 5, 2014, which almost caused a diplomatic incident. It was during the commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the Allied Landings in Normandy.
The French president at the time, Franois Hollande, received his American counterpart Barack Obama in a Michelin-starred restaurant run by chef Guy Savoy.
After a blue lobster salad and grilled sea bass, Barack Obama delayed the dinner program by ordering a cheese plate before dessert, which could have been problematic because Hollande was later due to meet at the Elsée for a second meal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pierre Marquis, an expert from the Poulain cabinet who participates in the operation, tells AFP.
Much less problematic and more spectacular: a lunch served to 23,000 French mayors in the Tuileries gardens, near the Louvre, for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, which required seven kilometers of tablecloth, 125,000 plates, 600 cooks and assistants, 2,200 waiters, two tons of salmon, 1,200 liters of mayonnaise and 39,000 bottles of wine.
Subliminal messages
The collection, which covers 150 years of diplomatic and gastronomic history, begins with a dinner hosted by Napoleon III in 1868 washed down with fine wines.
A host of state dinners follow, including Japan’s Emperor Hirohito, Nelson Mandela and Saddam Hussein.
These menus, valued between 10 and 1,500 euros each, are printed on silk or high-quality papers, sometimes decorated by famous artists, such as the one made for the American president Jimmy Carter with a lithograph by Marc Chagall.
“Over the years we observe the evolution of international relations. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, official visits were much rarer, and therefore each one was marked by exceptional events: parades, various banquets in the Elseo presidential palace, sometimes a meal in Versailles and, often, military maneuvers and evenings at the opera or the theater,” Marquis recounted.
Some menus also contain subliminal messages.
When France was trying to strengthen ties with Russia and Great Britain in 1897, the dinner given in honor of Tsar Nicholas II included Muscovite Volga sturgeon, as well as Victoria pineapple, a dessert named after the English queen of the little.
Usually, it is the French president who has the last word regarding the choice of the menu, much discussed beforehand to avoid making a diplomatic mistake, according to Pierre Marquis.
On the occasion of one of the numerous visits of Queen Elizabeth II, France proposed, for example, a menu with or sin foie gras (fuagrs) for fear of disturbing his son Carlos, an animal welfare advocate.
“But it was the queen, who adored the foie graswho had the last word,” revealed the expert.
FUENTE: AFP
