Menu dated 23rd March 1871

Dinner at the Royal Palace, Berlin, hosted by His Imperial and Royal Majesty Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhelm I of Germany and Prussia following the inaugural sitting of the German Imperial Parliament (Reichstag).

​

Germany, as we know it, had only existed for 64 days when the inaugural German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm I, hosted this elaborate banquet at his Berlin Palace in 1871.

​

Two months earlier, with Prussia on the cusp of victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the twenty-six separate German states united and proclaimed King Wilhelm of Prussia as the new German Emperor – their first Kaiser.  

​

With a new country came a new Parliament; and just one day prior to this dinner the Reichstag sat for the first time ever.

​

Nothing could be left to chance at this dinner. It was vital that it be a diplomatic success – and an exercise in imperial charm. 382 members had been elected to the fledgling country’s fledgling parliament, and the fledgling Emperor needed all the newly-sworn politicians to return to their constituencies full of hope about the new empire and its supreme leader.

​

And so it was then, that the Emperor’s head chef, Monsieur Urbain Dubois, put his kitchen team to work to plan this elaborate palace feast. Foie-gras medallions drizzled in a port reduction; salmon filets poached in Rhine wine; and woodcock and black grouse dressed in watercress cream, were served ahead of the desserts that consisted, quite curiously, of a sweetened mushroom jelly topped with a compote of orange segments in rum.

​

This dinner represented the peak of German nationhood and the peak of German military dominance over France. Yet the menu was written in French and prepared by a French master chef.

​

During the Franco-Prussian War, Chef Dubois had returned to his homeland and only ventured back to Berlin in March 1871 – just in time for this dinner - after a peace treaty had been signed with France.

​

Dubois, who had started as the Kaiser’s head chef in 1860, was credited with spearheading the introduction of Service à la Russe to both France and Germany.

​

Commonplace today, Service à la Russe is the routine of preparing and plating-up meals before they are served in sequence to guests. This menu from 1871 is unique in that it bunches the dishes in pairs (with a bracket placed to the left) which possibly indicates guests were given a choice of two dishes; or it was the imperial equivalent of the modern ‘alternate drop’ menu commonly adopted for large catered functions. 

​

Dubois was a convert to the Russian style of serving meals from his time heading up the kitchens of Prince Alexey Orlov in Saint Petersburg where he created and dedicated the famous dish, Veal Orlov.

Later in 1871, Dubois would assist aspiring chefs trying emulate his culinary skills, with the publication of "The household cookery-book, practical and elementary methods".