Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [78]
She died in California two days before she would have been ninety-two.
CORKAGE
Many restaurants—though not all—let customers bring their own bottle of wine and then charge to open and serve it. This fee, called a corkage fee, can range from ten to fifty dollars a bottle, but may be waived for certain clients or occasions, depending on the restaurant. The fee presumably is meant to cover the service of opening and pouring, along with washing the glasses afterward, costs normally included in the price of a wine on the restaurant’s own list.
Obviously, a restaurant would rather sell wine, which contributes to its profits. Hence, the fee. And, as some restaurateurs point out, they are in the business of selling food and drink and don’t allow clients to bring their own food.
Customers, on the other hand, wary of high markups on wine lists, sometimes find it less expensive to bring their own, even with a corkage fee. However, the client should keep in mind a certain etiquette:
• Call ahead to check on the restaurant’s policies.
• Don’t bring a wine that’s on the restaurant’s list.
• Don’t take advantage of a generous policy by bringing several bottles of wine that require fresh glasses, and don’t bring multiple bottles for large parties.
• Try to order a wine from the wine list to supplement your own.
• Tip as though the cost of your own wine were part of the bill.
VAUX-LE-VICOMTE
On this evening in 1661, the young French king, Louis XIV, attended a magnificent feast at a château—a palace, really, that had just been built by his chief of finances, Nicolas Fouquet. The six thousand guests had passed by tableaux vivants of satyrs and nymphs in the woods leading to the château. Fountains were playing in the vast gardens, and bejeweled elephants stood among the trees. The guests were served food prepared by the famed Vatel on plates of solid silver or gold. There was music especially written for the occasion by Jean-Baptiste Lully fireworks, and a comedy by Molière.
The château, Vaux-le-Vicomte, had risen in only four or five years, and at times more than eighteen thousand men were working on the construction. The architect was Le Vau, who later designed Versailles; the gardens were done by Le Notre and the frescoes and decoration by Lebrun, the latter two also contributing to Versailles. Fouquet had found them first and introduced them to his monarch, as it were. Vaux-le-Vicomte had a huge collection of paintings and sculpture, as well as a library of 27,000 volumes.
The incredible display of wealth and perhaps the possibility that one of the paintings by Lebrun contained what seemed to be a portrait of Mlle de la Vallière, already a royal mistress, aroused the king’s deep suspicion and envy. He was of a mind to leave abruptly, but his mother persuaded him not to spoil the grand evening. He did not, however, spend the night in the royal suite that had been designed especially for him, and Fouquet may have realized the seriousness of this.
Fouquet was a capable minister and had acquired his immense wealth in what was then a recognized manner, but the king angrily felt he was stealing “beyond his station.” Fouquet was arrested, and his three-year trial was the most famous of its time, rigged to a certain extent. Despite the intervention and pleading of loyal friends, including Mme de Sévigné and the poet La Fontaine, he was convicted and sentenced to exile, which the king changed to imprisonment.
Fouquet’s property and fortune were confiscated, and he died in prison, nineteen years after the fatal evening.
Vaux-le-Vicomte, only slightly diminished, still exists. Less than forty miles from Paris, it can be reached by train or car and is open to the public, though privately owned.
WINE STAINS
Someone always spills red wine, either on the carpet, the tablecloth, or themselves. Unless you take immediate steps, the stain is almost