Page 135 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

guests shared a communal table. Travellers who wished to dine in In the early days of the luxury hotel business, catering seems to have abundant stucco decorations, it conforms to the prototype of the GASTRONOMY IN LUXURY HOTELS
privacy alone or en famille could order room service. Strangely, the been a basic service offering little or no customer choice. deluxe hotel dining room (fig.1). In reality it appears that, as far as catering was concerned, the
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table d’hôte principle, so unpopular in the late eighteenth and early And yet this is not entirely the case. The wine cellar was In many cases, as well as a restaurant the hotel had one or facilities offered by luxury hotels were somewhat old fashioned.
nineteenth centuries, was adopted by the grand hotels, especially in often highlighted. The Grand Hotel proudly claimed that it had a more cafés, following the fashion set in the 1820s and 30s by the The restaurants that started to appear in Paris at the end of the
Paris. While it was not the same disagreeable, eighteenth-century million bottles in the basement. Many deluxe hotels opened shops famous Café Riche and Café Anglais in Paris. One such example eighteenth century were partly a rejection of the table d’hôte system
scenario where regular diners took over-large helpings, leaving selling the wines offered on their menus. Some even practised a was the Café de la Paix. 17 which British customers found particularly shocking. It therefore
only scraps for newcomers, it certainly involved one large table to kind of vertical integration, with their own vineyards or farms to With one or more large dining rooms, where the number seems surprising that establishments that claimed to be at the cutting
accommodate all the guests. provide guests with guaranteed fresh, high-quality products. This of covers varied between 200 and 800, a table d’hôte and limited edge of technology – for example they were fitted with lifts – and
Until the 1880s and 90s, luxury hotels offered their clientele clearly shows that while service was relatively simple the quality of service without pomp or ceremony, one might imagine that the to offer the very best quality of service should resort to the same
three possibilities: they could choose to eat in their rooms, in a the meal was regarded as very important. table decoration might also be simple. Not at all. Quite the contrary. system. This is also the reason why from the 1880s onwards there
restaurant within the hotel – sometimes from an à la carte menu, Furthermore, it is very interesting to see the emphasis placed on The table was as lavishly decorated as the room in which it stood. was a gradual move away from table d’hôte to à la carte. 20
although more often from a fixed-price one – or sitting at the the dining room, restaurant and kitchens in the architectural design Records survive of goods ordered by the Louvre and the Grand This trend brought about two more important changes, one
communal table and taking a fixed-price meal at a reduced rate (in and fitting out of luxury hotels. This is clear to see from the plans Hôtel de la Paix. For its inauguration, the latter placed an order relating to service, the other to interior decor. We have already
general one or two francs less on a meal costing a total of between and the orders for catering equipment for the first deluxe hotels in with Christofle the silversmiths worth nearly 300,000 French established that, regardless of which system they used, deluxe hotel
five and seven francs). Paris, which became the international prototypes. Reporting on francs. As well as the traditional cutlery, dishes, trays and all the restaurants had adopted Russian-style service. The table d’hôte was
Guests reacted to these arrangements in different ways, the opening of the Hôtel du Louvre, L’Illustration of 20 October usual tableware, there was also a large centrepiece, no doubt abandoned in favour of classic catering on a very large scale and,
depending on the type of clientele that frequented the hotel. As 1855, wrote: ‘At the end of the courtyard, four vast staircases lead to a intended for the table d’hôte or the sideboard. The order reflects since the number of meals served showed no sign of decreasing, this
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the table d’hôte was open to non-residents, it was more difficult to wide and splendid gallery and then to the main hall and on to a dining contemporary restaurant routines following the adoption of style of service had to be adapted. It involved a precise ceremonial
choose one’s company. Diners would take a ticket and hand it to room, a lounge for the evening, and what one might imagine to be a throne service à la russe. A decorative centrepiece in silver or porcelain which could only be carried out by a very large staff. It required a
the head waiter, who would show them to a vacant seat. There was room on seeing its colossal dimensions, its ceilings covered with paintings and replaced the dishes which, in accordance with the new style, were team able to work in a perfectly co-ordinated fashion that would
always the risk of finding oneself with uncongenial or rowdy table caryatids, its mirrors, pilasters and wall panels of sculpted gold and marble no longer placed on the table at the start of the meal. From the impress customers while, most importantly of all, keeping the food
companions. and its extraordinary magnificence. Few palaces can contain such things. You mid-nineteenth century onwards, these large – sometimes very at the correct temperature. This meant employing a very large
There are many surviving accounts on the subject, although would imagine yourself in the throne room of Gastronomy. I might almost large – centrepieces became veritable works of art. The one at kitchen staff to produce à la carte service without making guests
in general the system worked well. The other big disadvantage of compare it to the royal and mythological banqueting halls dreamed by the the Grand Hôtel de la Paix was huge, consisting of four nymphs wait too long, and at least as many waiters serving the large number
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this type of restaurant was the noise – one can imagine the Grand great Venetian painters. Its dimensions are grandiose: it is 40 metres long, surrounded by large seashells and surmounted by an imposing of tables. Once again, La Rotonde at the Beau-Rivage Palace gives
in Paris, which could serve up to 800 covers at its table d’hôte. 13 wide and 11 high. Here, Belshazzar might have held his feast and the statue of Peace. Beside this rose various tall figures including a a very good idea of the situation (figs 2, 3 and 4).
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Even though this was actually made up of several tables, it still marriage at Cana could comfortably have been celebrated.’ 14 Neptune copied from the gardens at Versailles and a Diana. The These changes led to the appearance in the dining room
represented a considerable number of guests and inevitably a lot of There was similar praise for the Grand Hôtel de la Paix on whole thing was placed on a large table with an array of baskets of a range of new products, such as plate and dish covers and
noise from conversation and the clatter of cutlery on plates. the Place de l’Opéra, which the 1862 Joanne guide described as and probably candlesticks too. Few objects of this sort have survived plate warmers. But more than anything else they provided the
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Even so this style of catering was not altogether new to guests. follows: ‘The great dining room [is a] monument unlike any other on so no one is sure how other deluxe hotels were equipped, but opportunity for a genuine spectacle, straight out of the pages
The shipping companies did the same on board their liners where earth; its semicircular shape, the glass dome which dominates it, its artistic there is nothing to suggest they were any different. After all, the of Grimod de la Reynière and his treatise on the art of carving
the table d’hôte was the norm, especially on transatlantic voyages. 13 fireplace, its numerous caryatids, its many features, its glittering chandelier intention was to create harmony between the fine food on offer entitled Traité de la dissection des viandes à table. No longer did
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The advertisements for luxury hotels are revealing. They often and its thousand of garlands astonish the mind and dazzle the eye.’ 15 and the opulence of the decor. From the earliest days of the luxury poultry, roasts or any other joint of meat arrive on a dish that was
mention a restaurant with a set menu at a fixed price and another à The Beau-Rivage Palace at Ouchy shares similar characteristics, hotel business, hotels were synonymous with luxurious restaurants, then placed on the table, nor ready carved on the plate. Instead it
la carte menu at a fixed price. On the other hand, neither the dishes with its vast spaces such as the restaurant La Rotonde. With its where the term ‘deluxe’ applied more to the practical organisation appeared on the carving table. A magnificent combination of the
and specialities on offer, nor the names of the chefs are ever displayed. huge chandelier, glass domed roof, marble columns and statues and and the décor than to the quality of the cuisine. arts of the cabinetmaker and the silversmith (consisting of a plate

< Fig. 1 Fig. 2 >
The dining room in its original state with the great glass domed ceiling. Kitchen staff. Anonymous photograph, 1911.
Photograph, c.1920.
The generous use of space is matched by the opulence of the decor and
the elegant dinner-table settings.
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