Sole Marguery

[Jan Ivarsson TransEdit]

  A little more on Marguery from the Cook's Encyclopedia:

    marguery sauce
mahr-guh-RAY A sauce made from a reduced mixture of white wine and fish stock blended with egg yolks and butter. The sauce, which was developed by French chef Nicolas Marguery in the late 1800s, is most often served with mild fish, such as SOLE.
  ©Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.

About famous gourmand James "Diamond Jim" Brady (1856-1917):
An occasional Rector's companion once boasted to Jim of a dish served at Cafe Marguery in Paris: "Filet de Sole de Marguery", which was strewn with a sauce prepared according to a recipe only known to that restaurant's inner circle of chefs. Jim threatened the owner of Rector's to completely halt his patronage unless he could dine on Sole de Marguery right there. The following day Mr. Rector pulled his son out of classes at Cornell University and sent him to France on a mission of culinary espionage. The young man landed a dishwashing job at Cafe Marguery (under an assumed name). Over the next two years, he worked his way up until he was able to learn the closely guarded recipe for the sauce. Once he mastered the preparation of Diamond Jim's coveted entree, he set sail back to New York. Brady was waiting on the pier when the vessel arrived, and called out to the ship, "Did you bring the sauce?" The byoung maan was rushed to the restaurant where he prepared serving after serving for Brady, who promptly consumed a total of nine portions. Did he like it? "If you poured some of the sauce over a Turkish towel, I believe I could eat all of it."

I have not been able to find any Marquis de Marguery on the net.

Jan Ivarsson
jan.ivarsson at transedit.st

----- Original Message -----
From: <Bapopik at AOL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 6:24 PM
Subject: Re: Sole Marguery


> Also:
>
> DINING OUT IN NEW YORK
> AND WHAT TO ORDER
> by G. Selmer Fougner (of the NEW YORK SUN--ed.)
> H. C. Kinsey & Company, Inc., New York
> 1939
>
> Pg. 15:
> *RESTAURANT MARGUERY
> 270 Park Avenue--Phone: WIckersham 2-5999
> Type of Cooking:  French
>    This delightful restaurant, named after a once famous gourmet, the Marquis of Marguery, serves many of the fine specialties which made the restaurant of the same name in Paris world famous.  The Paris place has now disappeared, but the _Sole Marguery_ created there will live on forever and nowhere is it better served than at the Marguery in New York.  Here it may be obtained with the same delightful flavor and served with a white sauce, mussels, mushrooms, pink shrimp and truffles.
> (The OED has gotta have Marguery, but it's not in the latest revision--ed.)
>
> Pg. 13:
> *HOTEL ST. REGIS RESTAURANTS
> 2 East 55th Street (...)
> Another recommended dish is the _Supreme of Chicken Kieff_ ($2.00).
> (You'll be lucky if two dollars will buy you water at the St. Regis...See "Chicken Kiev" in archives--ed.)