Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. We are coming to you
Speaker 1: from a pretty weird place right now. We are in
Speaker 1: our good friend, uh a good friend, Matt Frederick's hotel
Speaker 1: room in Orlando during podcast movement, and we are wondering.
Speaker 1: It's a question for you, folks, what is one of
Speaker 1: the most embarrassing moments of your life or what's the
Speaker 1: most embarrassed you've ever been? Hi, I'm Ben, Hey, I'm
Speaker 1: no Matt. I gotta ask you. Did you take off
Speaker 1: the top sheet when you got here? Is that a
Speaker 1: thing you do? What are you talking about? You know?
Speaker 1: You gotta like for the for the germs. You're seen
Speaker 1: those videos where they hit it with a black light.
Speaker 1: You know, the hotel bed, the top sheets apparently where
Speaker 1: all the nasties live on the comforter, on the comforter.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, dude, I like I slept right on top
Speaker 1: of the comforter. I feel like I missed up. Is disgusting. Now,
Speaker 1: you're our super producer today, so we need a sound
Speaker 1: cue for you, uh, folks, Welcome super producer Matt Frederick. So,
Speaker 1: uh so, no, were you going with this top sheet?
Speaker 1: Is that? Does that lead to an embarrassing story? No,
Speaker 1: just wondering, just making conversation. Okay, I want to know
Speaker 1: his hotel room etiquette. You know. Yeah, we've had we've
Speaker 1: had a crazy week here of folks. Uh we We're
Speaker 1: going somewhere with this embarrassing moment question, because no matter
Speaker 1: who you are, you could be the smoothest cucumber on
Speaker 1: the farm, and you will still occasionally, at least in
Speaker 1: your adolescence or the puberty year, you will probably have
Speaker 1: moments that seemed very, very embarrassing, so bad in fact,
Speaker 1: that you think, oh my god, I wish I died
Speaker 1: right now, she's never gonna date me, or he thinks
Speaker 1: I'm a nerd or something like that, and ask part
Speaker 1: of growing up. But today's story is about embarrassment, about
Speaker 1: shame that was so profound it led to uh, it
Speaker 1: led to to suicide. That doesn't sound like very much
Speaker 1: fun at all, Ben, it was. It was not fun
Speaker 1: for him. It's a fascinating story. This is this is
Speaker 1: the story of a cook a ship named Francois Vattel. God. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just so so we all know that the like. You
Speaker 1: know you worked briefly in the service industry, right, I
Speaker 1: think we both did. I did. Yeah, I worked in
Speaker 1: a tapas restaurant. It's actually where I got some of
Speaker 1: my earliest kind of cooking techniques downpat like had a saute.
Speaker 1: You know, you gotta keep things moving in the pan,
Speaker 1: otherwise things I'll get clumped up and burn. Right, Okay, okay?
Speaker 1: T a p A S I thought topless? No, No,
Speaker 1: definitely not um but that's a joke. Many people in
Speaker 1: the topas industry here a lot, is it true? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You know I almost worked in the topless bar one time.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, to tell as a musician, I was gonna
Speaker 1: play a gig with my buddy Chris. Huh. It didn't
Speaker 1: work out. You would have been a freelancer for the night.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't have been a full time employee of the Topless,
Speaker 1: which probably means you could wear whatever you want. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: Uh so, Matt, did you ever work in the in
Speaker 1: the service industry? I did. I was a pool service
Speaker 1: boy at a private club a PSB. Yeah, PSB. So
Speaker 1: you served rich people pool food, bougie pool food, yeah,
Speaker 1: almost all Pino Griggio. That was pretty much and some scotch. Oh,
Speaker 1: and she crabs soup, and she crabs soup with some sherry.
Speaker 1: Oh you know what else comes on? She crabs soup
Speaker 1: sometimes some kind of a form of a shintilly dream
Speaker 1: that sounds delicious, and the chantilly cream that turns out
Speaker 1: was invented by the chef in question, Francois Vattel. He
Speaker 1: was a very, very forward thinking and fastidious cook. He
Speaker 1: worked his way up in the bougie high society of
Speaker 1: a France um. He was an employee of the household
Speaker 1: of Nicholas Fouquet, who was the superintendent of finance in
Speaker 1: France for like the whole country. Yeah, yeah, he was
Speaker 1: charge of the entirety of finance for the then fifteen
Speaker 1: year old monarch of France. Uh. Francois himself was not
Speaker 1: originally French. He was born Fritz Carl Vattel with a
Speaker 1: W in Switzerland, the son of Charles Vattel, who was
Speaker 1: a farm worker. Its name is still pretty common in Zurich.
Speaker 1: Uh and we think he was born like the mid
Speaker 1: to early sixteen hundreds, six sixteen thirty five, somewhere between there.
Speaker 1: And like Noel said, he worked his way up as
Speaker 1: a pastry cook. When he was finally done with his apprenticeship,
Speaker 1: that he shot straight to the top of the culinary world.
Speaker 1: He was working for that finance minister, and the weird
Speaker 1: thing about it was that he was playing the role
Speaker 1: of a chef. But historians think he may not have
Speaker 1: actually known how to cook. Wait. Yeah, he was in
Speaker 1: charge of this office known as the Bush or La Bush,
Speaker 1: and uh he was responsible for everything from what the
Speaker 1: Minister of Finance eight during bedtime and what he during
Speaker 1: bedtime right, his night's next and uh you know these
Speaker 1: huge opulent banquets. Right, So he was almost more of
Speaker 1: a glorified event planner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like an administrative role.
Speaker 1: Yeah he's he's more producing I guess right, and organizing
Speaker 1: than actually cooking a lot of stuff. I guess that's
Speaker 1: the thing. A lot of the details of his early
Speaker 1: life are a little bit disputed, even his actual birthday. Um,
Speaker 1: and he is credited with with inventing cram Shantilly for
Speaker 1: one of these opulent soarees. But yeah, it's true. He
Speaker 1: is a little bit more known, especially in the story,
Speaker 1: as being kind of the guy who makes things happen,
Speaker 1: like the Winston Wolf of massive opulent banquets and events,
Speaker 1: so very much like sort of a prototype to the
Speaker 1: modern day event planner. He had some kind of signature
Speaker 1: moves when it came to these big events. He loved
Speaker 1: things like stage illusions, uh, masks with a queue like
Speaker 1: eyes wide shut style, you know, um, a masquerade ball
Speaker 1: like in the Phantom of the Opera or something like that.
Speaker 1: Loved fireworks that's gonna come into play in a little bit,
Speaker 1: and water works. I'm guessing he maybe even got out
Speaker 1: of things like ice sculptures, but I don't know that
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, we do know that he definitely made
Speaker 1: some made some waves. He actually angered the King, King
Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth himself and again Louise like so at
Speaker 1: this time, uh, and Louis felt jealous of the Minister
Speaker 1: of Finances displays. The guy was swagging too hard and
Speaker 1: was flexing on him, and he's like, I'm the king.
Speaker 1: And he actually threw the Superintendent of Finances, who I
Speaker 1: earlier called the Minister the Superintendent of Finances into jail
Speaker 1: in sixteen sixty one, just for the crime of being cooler.
Speaker 1: It's crazy to be king, right, Matt, And so, while
Speaker 1: He is credited with the invention of Chantilly cream. He
Speaker 1: is perhaps better known for a very, very tough series
Speaker 1: of events. At the start of April. Beginning of April
Speaker 1: in sixteen seventy one, the king announced that he would
Speaker 1: honor the Prince de Conde by visiting him from the
Speaker 1: twenty three to April that year. The problem was he
Speaker 1: would think that was really cool, right, It's like the
Speaker 1: president of your country says, I'm gonna go kick it, right.
Speaker 1: The thing is, because this guy is an absolute monarch
Speaker 1: and he has so much power, it's sort of a
Speaker 1: dangerous honor to have the king visit as a guest.
Speaker 1: Because Louis insisted that all of the nobles of France
Speaker 1: and all of their entourage members travel with him so
Speaker 1: that he can keep an eye on him, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, because a mega entourage, so you know,
Speaker 1: absolutely optics. But also you're right to keep your friends
Speaker 1: close and your enemies closer. These were folks that could
Speaker 1: potentially supplant him or you know, god only knows, plot
Speaker 1: whatever kind of dirty dealings against him, because it was
Speaker 1: that kind of time. So he wanted to keep them
Speaker 1: around so he could make sure that they weren't up
Speaker 1: to no good exactly. This is also a huge strain
Speaker 1: on any household. When Louie did finally he did really
Speaker 1: visit the Prince, he brought along five thousand people. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: It's actually why he built the Palace of Versailles in
Speaker 1: the first place, so he could have all these nobles
Speaker 1: live under essentially on massive, opulent, shiny roof. I really
Speaker 1: had no idea that that was why that was there.
Speaker 1: And this is amazing. Guys keep killing versa I is
Speaker 1: crazy to visit if you, if you have the chance.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, like, let's think about the timeline. So
Speaker 1: we said, we said, the king makes this decision with
Speaker 1: at the beginning of April, and he's gonna go towards
Speaker 1: the end of April. This gives Vattel maybe fifteen days
Speaker 1: to prepare. He had barely slept for twelve nights. He
Speaker 1: knew that he had to feed the six nobles. The
Speaker 1: thousands of extra people are coming not for one day,
Speaker 1: not for one feast, but for three days and everything involved.
Speaker 1: And so in a very real sense, this was like
Speaker 1: coordinating an army in terms of number of people. And
Speaker 1: they didn't have things like Cisco, not that they would
Speaker 1: use it right. The food supply company. They didn't have
Speaker 1: airplanes or rail cars, so you had to find enough
Speaker 1: food locally to feed five thousand people. And people with
Speaker 1: hotel's job officers of the bush, we're supposed to be
Speaker 1: on top of this. Three hundred years earlier, there's a
Speaker 1: guy who had written a book estimating about how much
Speaker 1: stuff you would need for an event of this magnitude.
Speaker 1: You know, he's funny. He actually had a title that
Speaker 1: i'm that I'm I found in research, which is very
Speaker 1: akin to a position that we know so well, the
Speaker 1: matre de hotel de hotel. Gosh. I wish Casey was here,
Speaker 1: he'd be super on the case of that pronunciation. I
Speaker 1: asked him a little bit about about this stuff earlier,
Speaker 1: but I didn't ask him about that one. But we have,
Speaker 1: you know, the position in a restaurant as the maitre d,
Speaker 1: who is like essentially sort of the waiter captain are
Speaker 1: kind of in charge of the waite staff or just
Speaker 1: the production of the event. So I can only guess
Speaker 1: that matre d is a shortened version of matre d'hotel.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you're right, Perhaps you're right. You know what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna double. I bet you are right. The person restaurant
Speaker 1: who oversees the wait staff. Right. In this book, this
Speaker 1: guy gives folks like Hotel a really granular estimate of
Speaker 1: the brass tacks. The nuts and bolts are more directly
Speaker 1: the number of hams you need for such an event.
Speaker 1: How much fire would you need, how many hunters you
Speaker 1: have to send out to uh to capture animals? Because
Speaker 1: the day was going to begin with a massive hunt.
Speaker 1: As we know Nobles especially to the episode about Napoleon
Speaker 1: and his domesticated rabbit hunt that ended in a different
Speaker 1: kind of disaster, um more cuddly yet terrifying disaster, where
Speaker 1: he and his men were sworn by these domesticated rabbits.
Speaker 1: So often that would be the thing. You'd have to
Speaker 1: spend a day out with the boys, you know, going
Speaker 1: for a fox hunt or what have you, and then
Speaker 1: it would all end with a huge feast and then
Speaker 1: some sort of showy display like a fireworks or something
Speaker 1: like that. Right, and that's what it's supposed to happen
Speaker 1: day one. You have this big, big hunt. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have a grand old time. Will be best friends. The
Speaker 1: king will think that we're dope and then we'll have
Speaker 1: a great fireworks display. But right before the big dinner meal,
Speaker 1: someone comes to Vtel and they say, all right, look
Speaker 1: there's an extra seventy five guests. And so he falls
Speaker 1: into the one the worst situations an event planner can have,
Speaker 1: whether we're talking a wedding or a huge birthday or whatever.
Speaker 1: They don't have enough food for everybody, right, Uh, there
Speaker 1: wasn't enough roast meat for two of the six seed tables.
Speaker 1: And this haunted Vattel. He was sure that this would
Speaker 1: be a huge, a huge dark mark on his record.
Speaker 1: And it was like, you know, I'm a office bush.
Speaker 1: I don't make mistakes like that. And then the Prince
Speaker 1: himself felt bad for the guy and he was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, it's it's not really your fault, which
Speaker 1: I thought was very cool of the Prince he said,
Speaker 1: and and and the Prince seems like he's got a
Speaker 1: nice vibe at least at this moment. He's like, you know,
Speaker 1: by the way, buddy, the roast beef we do have
Speaker 1: is great, Like good job, you know. So you know,
Speaker 1: we've all been in those situations right where we think,
Speaker 1: did I really mess up at work. You know, we
Speaker 1: get worried about the consequences or something. Uh, and it's
Speaker 1: always very validating to have your boss say, you know,
Speaker 1: chill out, it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. However,
Speaker 1: the next day was even worse. So if a tell
Speaker 1: starts today, probably already a little low from the previous
Speaker 1: days light embarrassment. Again, didn't seem like it was that
Speaker 1: big a deal. But this, this guy took this whole
Speaker 1: business very seriously. Le grond cuisine. It was the kind
Speaker 1: of pinnacle of French opulence to be able to show
Speaker 1: off in a culinary display of this kind of This
Speaker 1: day was gonna be no exception. Here's the thing that
Speaker 1: was on a Friday that when the banquet was going
Speaker 1: to be held, the actual banquet, um, so they couldn't
Speaker 1: serve any like beef, like amal meat, I guess, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Fish apparently doesn't count, so they would have
Speaker 1: had to order fish because they were not anywhere near
Speaker 1: the coast. The Atlantic coast was something in the neighborhood
Speaker 1: of two forty kilometers to the east, um and it
Speaker 1: would have taken about going on twelve days to get there. Um.
Speaker 1: In a in a horse drawn carriage or an ox
Speaker 1: card is some kind Um you could have gone to
Speaker 1: Paris because they had fresh fish coming in on the daily, um,
Speaker 1: you know, on ice and that one only taken a
Speaker 1: couple of days by boat on the Seine. But they've
Speaker 1: literally got one day, right, it's that days. No, it's
Speaker 1: that day. And this is this is a massively clutch operation.
Speaker 1: And this makes me think of like the most nightmarish,
Speaker 1: like Gordon Ramsey cooking competition scenario where like, you know
Speaker 1: the clock is ticking, you know your pork chop is
Speaker 1: potentially underdone, you haven't even started plating yet. Gives me
Speaker 1: palpitations just thinking about it. I know they ran out
Speaker 1: of snapper at the Whole Foods. He is so much
Speaker 1: nicer in the British shows. By the way, Gordon Ramsey,
Speaker 1: you gotta watch out for uh, you gotta watch out
Speaker 1: for TV producers. Let's be honest. There's another point here.
Speaker 1: So it is possible they could have bought in oysters
Speaker 1: and muscles, kept them alive and damp straw, right, but
Speaker 1: moving a lot of fishes, as you guys pointed out,
Speaker 1: impossible in the same day. Historians today are not completely
Speaker 1: sure what type of fish they ordered for hotel's last banquet,
Speaker 1: but they're thinking it would have been freshwater fish, pike, trout, uh,
Speaker 1: maybe crayfish, and they were brought in physical pools, kept
Speaker 1: fresh and alive if possible. Of course, the market is
Speaker 1: also volatile, you know what I mean, This is not
Speaker 1: These are the days before a bunch of health codes
Speaker 1: right the way we understand them now, So you kind
Speaker 1: of get what you get. Caviatemp thor. Let the buyer
Speaker 1: be air and the Friday, they're trying to get all
Speaker 1: these fish, trying to move all this fish. They have
Speaker 1: a hard time finding stuff that is good, and they
Speaker 1: have a hard time finding enough of anything. So let's
Speaker 1: not forget. He had already been sleep deprived for like
Speaker 1: twelve days, just freaking out, you know, stressing out over
Speaker 1: this event. Um. But he was going to give it
Speaker 1: his all. But the fish are very late, they're not coming.
Speaker 1: He's waiting for this delivery. And then there is a delivery,
Speaker 1: but it is far too few fish to feed even
Speaker 1: a very small percentage of the guests, Like I think
Speaker 1: a third or a fourth of the guests could be
Speaker 1: fed by these He continuously is like pacing around. He's
Speaker 1: asking for updates. Uh nothing, hours go by, nothing, nothing.
Speaker 1: There is also no backup plan, right yeah, they're working
Speaker 1: live and I think it's by four am. They have
Speaker 1: what only two baskets of fish. That's I believe that's correct.
Speaker 1: So this is what happens. He's got a coworker who's
Speaker 1: mocking him. He's like, you you Dingleberry or whatever the
Speaker 1: popular insults of the day, where du fis or whatever
Speaker 1: they said at the time. You know, I'm historical re enactments.
Speaker 1: Dingleberry is not my original work. But this, this may
Speaker 1: have been one of the final straws. He's ashamed. His
Speaker 1: peers are mocking him, and at this point we don't
Speaker 1: know for sure. It might have been one of his employees,
Speaker 1: and he feels terrible. It's almost dinner time again, we're
Speaker 1: talking sixty tables of people, the V I P. S
Speaker 1: of the country. And so he says, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a second, and he goes to his room
Speaker 1: and he takes his sword. And it wasn't just any sword.
Speaker 1: It was actually I kind of a ceremonial sword that
Speaker 1: was given to him by the French court, right yeah,
Speaker 1: And he had the permission, like having the right to care.
Speaker 1: He a sword was a mark of great esteem. So
Speaker 1: he wedges this sword, which is almost a badge of
Speaker 1: honor at this point in the door of his quarters.
Speaker 1: It's also a big deal that he had his own quarters,
Speaker 1: and he literally fell on his sword on purpose, jumped
Speaker 1: onto the point of the sword. That's the idea. Here's
Speaker 1: the crazy part. According to this story, the rest of
Speaker 1: the fish that he ordered did show up that night
Speaker 1: two hours after, and the prince and the king both
Speaker 1: were mourning the loss of this guy that they saw
Speaker 1: a peculinary paragon. And for one reason or another, that
Speaker 1: fish that shamed him so bad was never eaten. Maybe
Speaker 1: people felt it was inappropriate, right, Maybe they felt uh,
Speaker 1: maybe they just felt their appetites were gone. But Matt,
Speaker 1: you noticed how we said, according to the story, a
Speaker 1: couple of times here, Yes, I've clocked this. So now
Speaker 1: we're gonna do maybe what do you think you want
Speaker 1: to do? Like a reverse quister here? Why not? I
Speaker 1: would love that alright, Any quister segment that doesn't involve
Speaker 1: the actual quister I fully support. So, so, Matt, what
Speaker 1: is the quister sound like? That's the one okay, makes
Speaker 1: it checks out? King same, Yeah, I'm not. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that. Can you do your southern gentleman voice?
Speaker 1: Yeah voice? Speaking of voices, I have lost mine or
Speaker 1: Harry carry, It's up to you. I'm most short and okay,
Speaker 1: and let's let's do this. I like it, alright, Uh,
Speaker 1: Colonel Frederick, just call me Jeff throw. Alright, Jeff Throw.
Speaker 1: So if you're familiar with the long running, uh, the
Speaker 1: long running antagonist of our show, Jonathan Strickland a k.
Speaker 1: The Quister, you will know that he does what has
Speaker 1: been described by him as the most cringe worthy segment
Speaker 1: and podcasting. In this segment, he will typically harass, emotionally
Speaker 1: and verbally abused Nolan, I and Casey to occasionally by
Speaker 1: telling us an anecdote a snari there we go perfect
Speaker 1: and uh, this guy shows up at the weirdest times,
Speaker 1: like we know his thing now, uh, And our job
Speaker 1: will be to ask him questions to figure out whether
Speaker 1: it's true being a crew of guys who are not
Speaker 1: into verbally emotionally abusing people. Instead of making you jump
Speaker 1: through all the quister hoops, we are going to ask you,
Speaker 1: do you think this story is true. Well, currently story,
Speaker 1: the whole story yeah wait wait, that's we. We wouldn't
Speaker 1: have present at all is an episode. Here's my thing,
Speaker 1: I trust you, gentlemen. And if if this was just
Speaker 1: an out and out lie, I would not only be hurt,
Speaker 1: I'd also be a little bit pissed. Colonel that's Colonel Jethro.
Speaker 1: That's that's quite uh you tell me, you telling me?
Speaker 1: I sat here in this entire episode. And there's a
Speaker 1: possibility that this is some bulls. So here's the thing.
Speaker 1: We don't know a whole bunch about hotel for sure,
Speaker 1: And the suicide story primarily comes from some really gossipy
Speaker 1: letters from the Marquise de Seville to her daughter. She
Speaker 1: this was a prolific letter writer, and most of the
Speaker 1: information in this story that we've all just heard was
Speaker 1: from her account. The thing was, she was not there
Speaker 1: to see the events. She heard about its second hands
Speaker 1: as a game of telephone. He said, she said, he said,
Speaker 1: she said, kind of stuff, and tell me there's a
Speaker 1: messenger pigeon or some sort. Well, it was also mentioned
Speaker 1: in other places. To right, it's it's we primarily get
Speaker 1: it from this story, but other people, at least including
Speaker 1: the prince said that it happened, so we think it
Speaker 1: could be true. But how much of it was embellished?
Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean? I need I need
Speaker 1: an account of someone who was in the room where
Speaker 1: it happened. Well, you're not going to get that, Colonel.
Speaker 1: We don't have that. We do have. Um is a twist,
Speaker 1: a sad, devastating twist, according to these gossipy letters, was
Speaker 1: that the remainder of the shipment of fish arrived mere
Speaker 1: hours after our hero has run himself through on said
Speaker 1: ceremonial sword. Um. And there is actually a film about
Speaker 1: the life of Francois Votel. Um played in the film
Speaker 1: which is directed by Roland Joffe by one of my
Speaker 1: favorite French actors, Gerard Depastually. And in the film, it's
Speaker 1: much more uh study on the awful behavior of aristocrats,
Speaker 1: and it kind of paints votel as being like this potential,
Speaker 1: like nobody unless he had had these patrons and was
Speaker 1: sort of lifted up, you know, out of obscurity by
Speaker 1: these members of the royal court. And as opposed to
Speaker 1: responding to a late fish delivery, he kind of caves
Speaker 1: under the pressures Um and the treatment that he receives,
Speaker 1: you know, as being a part of this system. Um.
Speaker 1: I have not seen the film myself, but I very
Speaker 1: much look forward to checking it out. Heavy is the
Speaker 1: head that wears the crowd right of culinary responsibility at least,
Speaker 1: so we we definitely know something happened. We just don't
Speaker 1: know all of the details. This is strange because even
Speaker 1: centuries later, it's a very understandable shame, the ignomy right
Speaker 1: of it all, Like a mad jen If you are
Speaker 1: the head of the dining industry at the White House,
Speaker 1: right and you mess something up. I don't know what
Speaker 1: that would be now exactly. I don't know if that
Speaker 1: would be like you get the wrong Hamburgers, but whatever
Speaker 1: it is, oh these days, yeah, whatever it is. This
Speaker 1: these could easily be situations where it feels like the
Speaker 1: one bad thing that goes wrong matters more than the
Speaker 1: one hundred things you did well, you know what I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but not to mention like nowadays you might be dealing
Speaker 1: with entourages of a hundred maybe yeah, back then, I mean,
Speaker 1: like, like like, you know, so this is Los Angeles Times article.
Speaker 1: The subject is a very beautifully dismissive votel. The fish
Speaker 1: Suicide Guy by Charles Perry from February of two thousand one,
Speaker 1: and it's talking about the films the year that came
Speaker 1: out Um that he likens Vtel and his um depiction
Speaker 1: in the film by day Pardieu to a general because
Speaker 1: his organizational skills had to be so finely tuned UM
Speaker 1: to get all of these all of this food. I mean,
Speaker 1: because again it had to be local most of the time.
Speaker 1: So when you have five thousand people, it's the equivalent
Speaker 1: of an army marching into town, and you have to prepare,
Speaker 1: I get to strategize. And he was given not enough
Speaker 1: time to do it correctly, and he paid for it
Speaker 1: with his life, according to the accounts that we do have.
Speaker 1: But we don't want this to end on an entirely
Speaker 1: low note, you know what I mean. Let's we We've
Speaker 1: teased a little bit about Shantilly creams, so maybe we
Speaker 1: can end on a sweet note. Oh, I said a
Speaker 1: dumb thing on the top of the show by They
Speaker 1: don't put Shantilly cream on chee crab soup. It is
Speaker 1: a dessert cram. But you can still go for it
Speaker 1: if you want it. It's it's interesting. So let's talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about what it is. For some reason, Uh,
Speaker 1: Matt in your other incarnation, Colonel Jethro, Uh, Shantilly cream
Speaker 1: sounds like something you would say on a day to
Speaker 1: day basis. M I Hintilly sweet cream right next to
Speaker 1: my men, Julip sitting on the blotch. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a day like today, we walk outside and that heat
Speaker 1: just hits you like a blanket right on your crotch.
Speaker 1: Then you proceed to pull down some Wait, what are
Speaker 1: we talking about. We're talking about Shantilly cream, which is
Speaker 1: a freshly whipped cream sweetened with sugar. It's got a
Speaker 1: vanilla flavor, and whipped cream was already around at the time,
Speaker 1: but sugar was expensive, so sweetening whipped cream with sugar
Speaker 1: and then vanilla, which was even more costly. That could
Speaker 1: be an episode all its own. Uh. That was another
Speaker 1: enormously profound flex right. Also, you know what, now I
Speaker 1: think about it, it's weird how out of all the
Speaker 1: ice cream flavors, vanilla became the most common in the
Speaker 1: AK Boring. It's kind of a success story. Really interesting, Ben,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm going nowhere with that, but it would be
Speaker 1: cool to see how vanilla became like the ubiquitous story.
Speaker 1: And when people are described where situations are described as
Speaker 1: vanilla like back then that would mean expensive and from
Speaker 1: far away only for the absolute creme de la creme
Speaker 1: of of of high society exactly. So you know, all
Speaker 1: the vanilla that reached Europe at this time came from
Speaker 1: South America, so there was it was. It was pretty
Speaker 1: rare until the eighteen hundreds. So Vtel does have a legacy.
Speaker 1: And it's also a legacy that he might not have
Speaker 1: been entirely on board with because the words chantilly is
Speaker 1: often used for any like creation of fruit or vegetables
Speaker 1: that has some froth to it, no connection to cream
Speaker 1: or vanilla, and there are all kinds of arguments over
Speaker 1: who actually was the first person to say, hey, drop
Speaker 1: some vanilla. In this chantilly cannot be taken away from
Speaker 1: the chateau's name or their mutual history. So he did
Speaker 1: leave a legacy. He just had to pay, Uh, he
Speaker 1: had to pay the highest price. Yeah, And a big
Speaker 1: part of that legacy is almost serving like he literally
Speaker 1: died for his art, if if the stories are to
Speaker 1: be believed, he was almost a martyr for the French
Speaker 1: tradition of hot cuisine um and is also credited as
Speaker 1: being one of the earliest adopters and inventors, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a tastemaker of these massive, opulent banquets. We
Speaker 1: talked about some of his flourishes as creative touches that
Speaker 1: he was known for, like the fireworks, the water works,
Speaker 1: all of that. But then I think you found a
Speaker 1: couple of really cool examples. Yes. Uh. The thing about
Speaker 1: these events was that the the art of the banquet
Speaker 1: goes far beyond what is actually on the plate. That's
Speaker 1: incredibly important, But there are also gonna be uh festivities,
Speaker 1: They're gonna be plays, poetry, recitations. There was gonna be
Speaker 1: lot I have music, you know what I mean, which
Speaker 1: is also a sensitive topic because everything is political at
Speaker 1: this point, so choosing the songs that get played as
Speaker 1: also an art. Are you saying he invented dinner theater? No,
Speaker 1: I don't you know what. I'm not saying that yet.
Speaker 1: I am saying I hope that's true. Uh. It's strange
Speaker 1: because the way they found him, the way they found
Speaker 1: his body, was when they came to tell him that
Speaker 1: everything would be okay, and the fish arrived. So there's
Speaker 1: there's almost this oh, Henry kind of moment. And in
Speaker 1: a way he's also a like your point and all
Speaker 1: about him being a general, in a way, he's also
Speaker 1: a diplomat. He has to make all of these things,
Speaker 1: and all of these departments, which sometimes are going to
Speaker 1: come into conflict with each other. Function is one smooth,
Speaker 1: coherent whole. And chefs at the time also practice things
Speaker 1: like disguising food for consumption so that it didn't seem
Speaker 1: like leftovers. So he had already thought through that. And
Speaker 1: he's somewhat noble, you know, he tried everything, and you
Speaker 1: can look to him as an inspirational figure if the
Speaker 1: story is completely true, because he is a man who
Speaker 1: is so passionate about what he does that he would
Speaker 1: rather die than disappoint the king and dishonor the art.
Speaker 1: And there is where our story ends today, just talking
Speaker 1: about this, I was looking up pictures of all these amazing,
Speaker 1: really complicated dishes. Uh, it's I'm starving. We should you
Speaker 1: guys want to go get something to eat? Yes? Please,
Speaker 1: I'm quite hungry. And if you're fascinated by this stuff
Speaker 1: like we are, um, I recommend a show for you
Speaker 1: guys to check out. There's a really cool celebrity chef
Speaker 1: named Heston blumenthality as a restaurant I believe its formational
Speaker 1: in stars called the Fat Duck. He has several restaurants
Speaker 1: now for sure, but that was the one that I
Speaker 1: was familiar with. UM known for kind of doing weird
Speaker 1: spins on things where he he makes like fruit out
Speaker 1: of meat and disguises it so it looks. It's like
Speaker 1: this whole idea of this disconnect between flavor and texture
Speaker 1: and what you're expecting to get. And that's an old tradition.
Speaker 1: That's a very very old tradition, absolutely is. And he
Speaker 1: has a series called Heston's Feasts where in each episode
Speaker 1: he uh does a different era. So there's Heston's Victorian Feast,
Speaker 1: Medieval Tutor Roman, Heston's Christmas Feast where he makes like
Speaker 1: this insane uh. There's one episode remakes this insane like
Speaker 1: pigeon pie or birds actually fly out, And there's actually
Speaker 1: one in the Roman Feast where the main course are
Speaker 1: the the dessert is called the ejaculating Cake. I'm in
Speaker 1: I I would love to see you in a room
Speaker 1: where that pigeon pie is released. I would be terrified,
Speaker 1: But I really do recommend the show. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. You can probably stream it on YouTube, I think,
Speaker 1: but it'll give you a sense. He really tries to
Speaker 1: recreate the feel um and of these really opulent feasts
Speaker 1: that that Vtel would have been kind of one of
Speaker 1: the early adopters of. And if you're a fan of
Speaker 1: food history, food science, traveling more, we highly recommend you
Speaker 1: check out our peer podcast SABOR, hosted by Annie Reese
Speaker 1: and Lauren Voguel Bomb. Everyone, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: tuning in. We hope you enjoyed this strange dive into
Speaker 1: the rarefied air of Hote cuisine. And I want to
Speaker 1: do uh, I want to do an episode just on
Speaker 1: all the crazy top notch restaurants like l W which
Speaker 1: is closed, or noma Um Matt Frederick a k. Colonel Chethrow,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for hanging out with us on
Speaker 1: the podcast today. Thanks for having me. I did not
Speaker 1: contribute anything, and I disregard any compliment you would give me,
Speaker 1: so thanks for letting me be here. That's oh, check
Speaker 1: out my show. It's called Stuff They Don't Want You
Speaker 1: to Know. Yeah, where do people learn more about you?
Speaker 1: It's find us at Conspiracy Stuff or at Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 1: Thank you also to our super producer, Casey Agram here
Speaker 1: in spirit. Thank you to our friend of the show
Speaker 1: who may be returning for a second soon while I'm
Speaker 1: off on some completely non sketchy uh adventures and pursuits,
Speaker 1: Christopher Haciotis. Thanks Jolex Williams who composed our theme, and
Speaker 1: and begrudging thanks to Jonathan strickland Um for you know,
Speaker 1: being a nemesis. You gotta have an nemesis. It's important
Speaker 1: give you something to strive for. And thanks to Cheryl
Speaker 1: Crowe as well in that regard. This ends today's episode,
Speaker 1: but not our show. We kindly invite you to check
Speaker 1: us out on the social meads. You can find us
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all the hits, all the good ones.
Speaker 1: Just go over to Facebook check out our group page,
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians, where you can meet our favorite part of
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Speaker 1: individually on Instagram if you want to see what we
Speaker 1: get up to when we are not hanging out here together.
Speaker 1: I am at Ben Bowling, I am at how Now
Speaker 1: Noel Brown, We'll see you next time. Cooks. For more
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