Culinary Currents
October 2004

La Sauce Est Tous

Filet de Sole Marguery

James Buchanan Brady (1856-1917), better known as Diamond Jim Brady after the jewelry wardrobe he owned – lived a life larger than most men of his time. A frequent guest at the celebrated dining establishments of the day, Diamond Jim often dined at Rector's, a restaurant on New York City's Times Square opened by Charles Rector in 1899. Brady had just returned to New York from a trip to Paris, where he had dined on Filet de Sole Marguery at Restaurant Marguery in Paris, and had deemed it the supreme gastronomic experience of his life. He asked Rector if he could prepare the dish for him, exactly as he had experienced it in Paris, and Rector subsequently summoned his son George – then a law student at Cornell – to travel to the city at once. He sent the boy to Paris to infiltrate the kitchen at Marguery and uncover the recipe. His father's instructions were “Return either with the Sauce Marguery, or in it.”

Lacking restaurant experience, young Rector was unable to secure a position of employment there. Instead, he found a job at the Café de Paris as a dishwasher, eventually working his way up in the kitchen ranks. A year later he re-applied at Marguery and was accepted as a commis, which allowed him to labor up to fifteen hours a day. Ever watchful of the poissonier – the fish cook – when preparing the dish, it took him nearly two years to discover the elements of the recipe. As soon as he did, he wired the news back to New York and sailed home.

Awaiting him on the pier when young George disembarked were his father, Diamond Jim, and the orchestra from Rector's. That night the dish was served to a table of guests assembled to judge the results of the three-year reconnaissance. Diamond Jim presided at the head of the table, around which sat Marshall Field, Adolphus Busch, Victor Herbert, John Philip Sousa, Dan Reed, Alfred Henry Louis, and Sam Schubert. Brady ate nine servings of the dish before moving on to the subsequent dishes, and reputedly exclaimed: “It is so good I could eat it on a Turkish towel.”

Though Brady’s ability to devour gargantuan quantities of food was legendary, that he did not drink wine or other alcoholic beverages was an indication that he was merely a glutton – as opposed to a gourmand. And when Diamond Jim passed away in 1917, Rector sadly grieved, “I've lost my four best customers.” As for young George, his law studies long forgotten, he settled happily into the family business. Years later he claimed that Filet de Sole Marguery à la Diamond Jim and Crabmeat Mornay, which he had learned at Café de Paris, had brought Rector's at least a million dollars in business.

David P. Larousse is the author of several culinary works including The Sauce Bible (www.amazon.com), and teaches Culinary Arts at The Art Institute of Houston. Chef Larousse’s book contains recipes for the five Grand or Master sauces, as well as numerous other sauces, which utilize the Grand sauces as foundations.