attainable by practice and experience. In proportion, therefore, to the
opportunities which a cook has had of these, so will be his excellence
in the art. It is in the large establishments of princes, noblemen, and
very affluent families alone, that the man cook is found in this
country. He, also, superintends the kitchens of large hotels, clubs, and
public institutions, where he, usually, makes out the bills of fare,
which are generally submitted to the principal for approval. To be able
to do this, therefore, it is absolutely necessary that he should be a
judge of the season of every dish, as well as know perfectly the state
of every article he undertakes to prepare. He must also be a judge of
every article he buys; for no skill, however great it may be, will
enable him to, make that good which is really bad. On him rests the
responsibility of the cooking generally, whilst a speciality of his
department, is to prepare the rich soups, stews, ragouts, and such
dishes as enter into the more refined and complicated portions of his
art, and such as are not usually understood by ordinary professors. He,
therefore, holds a high position in a household, being inferior in rank,
as already shown (21), only to the house steward, the valet, and the
butler.
In the luxurious ages of Grecian antiquity, Sicilian cooks were
the most esteemed, and received high rewards for their services.
Among them, one called Trimalcio was such an adept in his art,
that he could impart to common fish both the form and flavour of
the most esteemed of the piscatory tribes. A chief cook in the
palmy days of Roman voluptuousness had about £800 a year, and
Antony rewarded the one that cooked the supper which pleased
Cleopatra, with the present of a city. With the fall of the
empire, the culinary art sank into less consideration. In the
middle ages, cooks laboured to acquire a reputation for their
sauces, which they composed of strange combinations, for the
sake of novelty, as well as singularity.