Drinking and Dining with Toulouse Lautrec

Portrait of Toulouse-Lautrec by Edouard Vuillard (Wikipedia)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) was a dedicated drinker, especially of absinthe. He was also a dedicated cook and lover of food, and wrote a cookbook which was published some time after his death. Unfortunately, he had overdone the drinking and died young and alcoholic, after a rather sad life in the glamorous world of Paris: the cafes, bars, and dance halls of Montmartre. 

I suspect that everyone recognizes Toulouse-Lautrec's breathtaking depictions of the famous dancers and their fans! His legacy included an astonishing number of remarkable paintings, posters, and other art works, as well as the cookbook reflecting the cuisine of his time. I was looking through my cookbooks, especially the ones by artists, and took another look at this one.

 

Toulouse-Lautrec and Maurice Joyant, The Art of Cuisine.

One of the many illustrations from The Art of Cuisine

Could I cook from Toulouse-Lautrec's book?

Toulouse-Lautrec was a wealthy man, a member of the aristocracy. His cuisine reflected his social position, maybe more than it reflected is life in the artistic circles of Paris. His recipes and menus contrast to the way we eat now; for example, he recommended two courses for each dinner while our custom would be to have just one. 

A sample menu:

• Veal cutlets on endive
• Pâté of duck from the Somme in a crust
• A selection of vegetables, salads, fruits, and perhaps desserts as well. (p. 160)

Many of the recipes in the cookbook are quite tempting, but I see many challenges, starting with the cost and availability of some ingredients. Veal, for example, isn't affordable and mostly has disappeared from contemporary markets because of ethical objections to the way it's raised. In contrast, chicken is relatively cheaper now, but because of mass production, it's very tender and probably lacks the flavor that would have been expected in the past. As a result, the long cooking times and flavor expectations of that era would no longer be appropriate. Beef today is also much more tender, and pork now is much leaner. So beware of those recipes!

In the fish markets of Paris in that era one would have been able to purchase fresh ocean fish and freshwater fish that aren't so easy to find nowadays. Some aren't really obtainable at all, having been fished to near-extinction, and many others are very expensive. In my region, far from the ocean, fish are not as fresh as they need to be for these recipes -- including some that start with a live fish that's not killed til you are ready to cook it. I think there are a few fish recipes that would still be workable, though.

Toulouse-Lautrec's vegetable recipes sound much more appropriate for a modern kitchen. One very fascinating difference is in his recipe for onion soup: for his version, you make concentrated onion broth, which you strain and then pour over layers of bread and gruyere cheese. It might be fun to try that! Some of the vegetable classics are nearly identical to the way I learned them, such as the recipe for the famous potato casserole, Gratin Dauphinoise.

Many recipes for game animals and game birds sound interesting and impossible. Here are a few beginnings of these recipes:

• "Having killed some September snipe, eat them quite fresh when you come back from the shoot." (p. 78)
• "Having killed some gray herons, pluck them, skin them,..." (p. 85)
• "Take an old partridge and at least two tender young partridges..." (p. 85)
• "Take six to twelve thrushes." (p. 81)
• "A large wild boar of three hundred pounds having been killed, cut off a leg weighing nineteen pounds, leave it out for three days in the winter air..." (p. 88)

I'm thinking about whether I can try any of the recipes in the book. There are a few that seem plausible. 

Toulouse-Lautrec and his absinthe world: beautiful and tragic

Toulouse-Lautrec with his friend Lucién Metivet drinking absinthe (1885)

An absinthe drinker.

"Absinthe Bar"

"Divan Japonais," a poster by Toulouse-Lautrec.

Review © 2023 mae sander