Cook's Annual Banquets

These selections from a lengthy catalogue will give an idea what the display was made of. The exhibitors where the chefs in the employ of certain lords and ladies in most cases, and of the leading restaurants and London hotels. These were the plans before the opening. They were carried out with only partial success. The after report says the exhibitors succeeded in getting a good advertisement of their wares if they did not find many purchasers; and the artistic cookery competition brought together a few good pieces and a great many indifferent and bad ones. This is not to be wondered at. As is the case with the exhibits made at the in this country the ornamental work is done under great difficulties, usually in the nights after the day's work has been performed, and the cooks are almost all out of practice. If they had the same tasks to perform weekly or monthly they would learn by experience and improve on their former efforts, but if only once a year and they try a new thing each time it is impossible for their works to be strictly works of art or even commonly admirable. Still there are some champions in this line and for their best efforts a was offered in addition to the other prizes, not to be restricted to any one department, but to be awarded for the best piece in the whole exhibition. It was won by a hotel confectioner for a trophy in sugar work; this chef d' oeuvre consisted of a double vase of flowers moulded in sugar and colored to imitate the natural tints.

Champion Prize

This award gave dissatisfaction to one person at least, this was an exhibitor, a champion, too, in his line, chef to a lord, author af a book on confectionery, and who had some admirable pieces on exhibition and he has since challenged the champion prize winner - the hotel man - to another contest for $50 a side. The dissatisfied man is a Frenchman and requires a jury composed of three or four English cooks and as many French to decide upon the result.

Amongst the regrets expressed that this exhibition had not proven richer in fine works of culinary art, it is mentioned that the French cooks in London had made a display of their own some months previous and shown much superior work. As some of the exhibitors have furnished descriptions of their dishes for publication, it is possible to give a very fair idea of what "very best" work consists.

Timbales Of Truffles A La Rothschild

By M. Alfred Suzanne, of London.

Choose some large fresh truffles, all of one size and as round as possible. Having thorougly cleansed them by brushing the mould off in water, set them to boil slowly for half an hour in a champagne "mirepoix." When cold, drain the truffles, saving the liquor in which they have been boiled, and with a round cutter scoop out all the inside of the truffles. Next, make a "salpi-con" compound of chicken, mushrooms, tongue and truffles; these ingredients must be stamped out with a round cutter, the third of an inch in diameter, and amalgamated together with some Allemande sauce. When ready to serve, warm up the truffles in some of the "mirepoix," the remainder of which is reduced with some Espagnole sauce to pour round the entree. Fill up the truffles with the hot salpicon, and serve.

The season of the London Exhibition was the season also of

The Truffle Harvest in Italy and France. Some exceedingly fine truffles were shown, some, it is stated weighed 1 1/2 pounds each. When absolutely fresh, as these were, the truffle is a thing to raise enthusiasm in the mind both of the sour-mand and his cook; it has a rich, nutty flavor that is peculiarly its own and a pefume as pervading as that of a bunch of ripe bananas. It is a tuber that grows spontaneously, just below the surface of the ground; some are nearly white all through but the best are jet black. One recommendation of the truffle in the eyes of the wealthy is its dearness, which keeps it above the reach of "common people." A dish of large truffles prepared as directed in the recipe for a fasionable dinner party fifteen or twenty might perhaps cost fifty dollars. The canned and bottled truffles ranging from the size of a gooseberry up, and which cost about a dollar an ounce, do serve a purpose in furnishing a name for a dish, but their intrinsic value is nothing at all; they are not even the ghost of the real, fresh article.