Ward McAllister’s Etiquette Questioned

A small portion of a dismal review of Ward McAllister’s book, “Society as I Have Found It”

I can imagine the silent glance of contempt which the cook, if she be worthy of that name, must dart at the man who, while claiming supreme authority and pre-eminence in such matters, is ignorant of the difference between the releve and the piece de resistance of a dinner, who considers that Johannisberg should go with cheese, and who fondly imagines that “les quatres mendiants” – the most bourgeois and vulgar of desserts, only to be found in France at tenth-rate table d'hotes –constitutes a fit conclusion to a dinner-given by himself – which he describes as having been absolutely perfect. – Nathan Lane (as Ward McAllister) with Carrie Coon (as the fictional Bertha Russell), in HBO’s ‘The Gilded Age’

M’allister’s Book – What a Foreigner Says of the Remarkable Production

The “Autocrat of Society” Mercilessly Ridiculed.

His Manners, Breeding, Education and Form, Like His Huguenot Legs, are “Very, Very Groggy”

“… The latter is equally at sea with regard to the Court of the Tuileries; for he declares he landed in France for the first time in 1857, that he was present at the baptism of the Prince Imperial, and that he visited the International Exhibition. The christening of the ill-fated prince in question took place, however, on March 16, 1856, just eighteen months previous to Mr. McAllister's first arrival in Paris, while the International Exhibition to which he refers was held even still earlier, namely, in 1855.

Nor is the pheasant incident above mentioned the only demonstration of Mr. McAllister's imperfect acquaintance with the ethics of the table and of the cuisine; and when I picture him to myself, engaged in what he describes as his principal daily task of commenting to his cook on her performance of the previous day, much in the same manner as Emperor William is accustomed to address “la critique” to his generals at the close of a sham battle. 

I can imagine the silent glance of contempt which the cook, if she be worthy of that name, must dart at the man who, while claiming supreme authority and pre-eminence in such matters, is ignorant of the difference between the releve and the piece de resistance of a dinner, who considers that Johannisberg should go with cheese, and who fondly imagines that “les quatres mendiants” – the most bourgeois and vulgar of desserts, only to be found in France at tenth-rate table d'hotes –constitutes a fit conclusion to a dinner-given by himself – which he describes as having been absolutely perfect.

With regard to wines– a subject to the discussion of which, by the by, Mr. McAllister devotes several chapters of his book– he does not appear to be acquainted with the important operation of chambre-ing red Bordeaux wines. No gourmet of the old world would ever dream of putting his lips to a claret which had not undergone this process– a process so vital to the taste of the wine that none but skilled hands are intrusted with the task. 

He seems likewise to be unaware that there is absolutely no Tokay in the market, and that the wine which he dignifies with that name is but merely a feeble imitation of that nectar of the gods which is served in thimble-sized glasses at the Imperial tables at Vienna-one glass being sufficient to perfume an entire room, and which is so highly prized and so rare that Emperor Francis Joseph's gift of four dozen bottles to Queen Victoria, at the time of her Jubilee, was regarded in Europe as constituting one of the most valuable and magnificent of the thousands of costly presents which she received on that occasion.– By an Ex-Diplomatist in the New York Tribune, 1890

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia