I got to see the White House, I got to see the White House, I got see the White House ….
No silly – not in the United States – in Paris!!! I got to go check out the kitchens of the Palais de l’Elysée because I happen to cook with one of their former chefs.
This weekend Chef François took the viande and garnish chefs from the restaurant I cook at to see what the President of France, Jacques Chirac, gets to eat and where it’s cooked. I can’t even begin to tell you how cool it was just to enter the Palais which is heavily guarded on all sides. You can’t even walk on the side walk around the Palais unless you have a permit.
After a thorough security check we were allowed to enter on the side entrance to the kitchens. I have never seen a kitchen so large in my life! There were seperate kitchens for every sort of food preparation imaginable – from dessert, to pastry, to sugar sculpting, to catering, main kitchen, to garde manger. I’m sure the pastry chefs were in hog heaven with Italian marble countertops that sprawled for miles and air conditioning (so rare in French kitchens).
The main kitchen was enormous and spotlessly clean with huge copper pots and molds hanging everwhere. All the copper dates back to 1815 and has been used at the Palais for that long. If only the copper pots could talk, I wonder what stories and recipes they would tell…
The most fascinating part to me was not the kitchen but the guarded room that houses all the china and silver for the Palais. What can I say? I’m female after all. The man who showed us the cutlery had worked at the Palais for 30 years taking care of all the table settings. He carefully brought out the silver chests for us and described each piece in detail.
They use silver for dinner and gold for dessert – gold for dessert! Just like I do at home! No really, they use gold to eat dessert with. But the chests – oh my heavens – they filled an entire room. Over 300 full sets in gold and silver. A full set includes all the usual forks, knives, and spoons but also specialty pieces like caviar spoons, oyster forks, foies gras knives, etc, etc, etc.
The fine china was museum quality. Some of the china I was showed dated back to Napoleon III and I’m sure there were pieces that went back even further. All the dessert plates were hand painted and signed by the artist. They ranged from in price from $300 – $3000 per plate.
If you sat down to an eight course meal at the Palais you could potentially be eating off of $24,000 worth of china not to mention another $10, 000 in sliver and gold tablesettings. What can I say? I’m worth it!
I couldn’t leave without getting a shot with the executive chef. He was an excellent host and allowed me to snap tons of photos.
We came, we saw, we left through the side entrance. I guess that’s the breaks for us cooks – no eating off silver or gold today. Back to our unbearably hot, cramped, meager 3-star restaurant tomorrow. Ho hum. Just another day in Paris…
Lucky you! That’s so cool!
How many French people know what utensils Jacques Chirac uses? Probably not very many…
Color me jealous.
What a great post.
I got the chills when you wondered what you’d hear if the copper pots could talk…
you could write your own version of “be our guest” for your musical!
Vraiment un très bon billet !
Yes Alison I didn’t know… Thanks to the charming Ms. Glaze.
:))
So cool! (I wonder if he’d have allowed an ugly guy to take all those photos!)
What an awesome post.
Silver for dinner, gold for dessert? Love it!
Chirac’s palais…how fun! :0)
brilliant, just brilliant. thanks. ah and by the way, bring back the golden spoon, this is not fair. 🙂
awesome.
Quelle chance! I loved reading about your experience at the Palais de l’Elysée. Thanks for sharing it with us!
So awesome. I’m so happy for you!
http://www.nobases.net
Fun visit! Good for you 🙂
Like being there, only, well, not so much [en]
Yeah, Paris is a beautiful city, most beautiful city in the world, uh huh, we know. Too bad there are so many damn tourists in the way. But thanks to the internets, you can see the cultural treasures of Paris without actually having to, you know, leave…
Hey there Ms. Glaze,
Lucky you! I’m jealous of those pots and pans, actually. Did I ever tell you that I cook almost 99 percent of my meals out of a wok? It’s an antique that dates back to my days in SF. I bought it for $15 at the Chinese market. I have since added some new knives, though, so I can now slice pretty much everything Goodfellas thin. I’m wondering how you deal with all that blood though…boar, rabbit, grouse, lord knows what else. You’re brave. Does Savoy wash your aprons?
I’m supposed to make another massive chili dinner for some friends… are you and your hubby free? Dinner’s at 8 pm in early December. Can you make it around 3 pm? Only kidding… but you’re invited!
Cheerio,
Matthew
Hi Ms Glaze…
Very cool post.. what an amazing chance!
By the way, the photo of the three chefs walking..ouf.. nice… (ok i’m blushing now..)
great look inside…maybe when Ségolène wins, she’ll want some women in the kitchen, and you’ll find yourself back there soon!
What a great opportunity – how many people are treated to an ‘insider’s view?’
Your blog is super interesting, too!
Kitchen Room
granulated sugar butter (2 sticks), room temperature c. lb. while I go to the kitchen . I, as trad