CHEFS PLEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 32, 8 February 1939, Page 16

CHEFS PLEA

MENUS IN ENGLISH

The founding of a chair oli gastronomy at Oxford or Cambridge was suggested by M. Emile Aymoz, maitre chef of the Dorchester Hotei, in an address given to a gathering of doctors. He pleaded for study of cuisine, research in nutrition, and the training of men to minister to the bodily needs of the nation.

"Your nation should lead the world in the study, of food and the cooking of food," said M. Aymoz. "I say boldly that the man who grows food, whether he is a farmer or a coffee planter, and the chef or cook who prepares it, are as important to the nation's well-being as any scientist or physician."

Because good food is the concern of everyone, he argued, in Englishspeaking countries all menus should be in English as well as in French. Cooking, like learning, could not be exclusive. Good food was the rightful possession of the people, and must be presented to them in their own language.

Of dieting M. Aymoz said: "The modern woman no longer tries to slim herself down to a skeleton. A few years ago three women out of five would refuse to eat potatoes. Now not more than one in ten will pass them by. Food is much lighter. Heavy, starchy foods seldom appear on the menu of any restaurant which prid,es itself on its cuisine."

He added that even a banquet nowadays seldom included more than five courses, but suggested that soon we should be eating a smaller amount of a greater number of courses.

Speaking of vegetables, M. Aymoz asid that the English allowed them to grow too large before eating them, but •that their methods of cooking them retained their nutritive qualities far better than the more complicated and attractive French methods. *

M. Aymoz added that the popular revival of interest in good cooking would probably come from America. Americans took a greater interest in their food than the English.