Three Emperors Dinner
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The ''Dîner des trois empereurs'' or Three Emperors Dinner was a
banquet A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes inc ...
held at Café Anglais in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
on 7 June 1867. It consisted of 16
courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
with eight wines served over eight hours.


Overview

The Three Emperors Dinner was prepared by chef
Adolphe Dugléré Adolphe Dugléré (; 3 June 1805 in Bordeaux – 4 April 1884 in Paris) was a French chef and a pupil of Marie-Antoine Carême. Les Frères Provençaux Dugléré was a ''chef de cuisine'' to the Rothschild family until 1848, and was manag ...
at the request of King William I of Prussia who frequented the cafe during the Exposition Universelle. He requested a meal to be remembered and at which no expense was to be spared for himself and his guests,
Tsar Alexander II Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland fro ...
of Russia, plus his son the Tsarevitch (who later became
Tsar Alexander III Alexander III (; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. He was highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the liberal ...
), and
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
. The name "Three Emperors Dinner" is something of a misnomer and apparently was applied retrospectively (apparently in analogy to the
Battle of the Three Emperors The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in t ...
), as only Alexander II bore the title of Emperor at the time. Wilhelm I would not be proclaimed Kaiser (Emperor) until 1871, whereas Alexander III would only ascend the Imperial Russian throne in 1881 after his father's assassination. The cellar master, Claudius Burdel, was instructed to accompany the dishes with the greatest wines in the world, including a Roederer champagne in a
special Special or specials may refer to: Policing * Specials, Ulster Special Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force * Specials, Special Constable, an auxiliary, volunteer, or temporary; police worker or police officer * Special police forces ...
lead glass Lead glass, commonly called crystal, is a variety of glass in which lead replaces the calcium content of a typical potash glass. Lead glass contains typically 18–40% (by mass) lead(II) oxide (PbO), while modern lead crystal, historically a ...
bottle, so Tsar Alexander could admire the bubbles and golden colour. The banquet consisted of 16 courses with eight wines served over eight hours. The cost of the meal was 400 francs per person (over
€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...
9,000 in prices). The high price of the wines served contributed to the high price of the meal. At 1 o'clock in the morning, Tsar Alexander is reported to have complained that the meal had not contained
foie gras ; (, ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a Domestic duck, duck or Domestic goose, goose. According to French law, ''foie gras'' is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by ''gavage'' (force feeding). ''Foie gras'' i ...
. Burdel explained that it was not the custom in French cuisine to eat foie gras in June. The following October, he was sent three terrines of foie gras made by Dugléré as a gift. The table used for the banquet and a copy of the menu is on display at La Tour d'Argent restaurant in Paris.


Menu

The menu included the following, among the 16 courses: ''Potage impératrice'' consists of a chicken stock thickened with
tapioca Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the tubers of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North Region, Brazil, North and Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast regions of Brazil, but which has ...
and finished with
egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...
yolk Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example bec ...
s and
cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...
, to which poached rounds of
chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
forcemeat Forcemeat (derived from the French , "to stuff") is a uniform mixture of lean meat with fat made by grinding or sieving the ingredients. The result may either be smooth or coarse. Forcemeats are used in the production of numerous items found ...
, cockscombs, cocks'
kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...
s and green
pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...
s are added.
''Potage fontanges'' is a
purée A purée (or mash) is cooked food, usually vegetables, fruits or legumes, that has been ground, pressed, blended or sieved to the consistency of a creamy paste or liquid. Purées of specific foods are often known by specific names, e.g., appl ...
of fresh peas diluted with
consommé In cooking, a consommé is a type of clear soup made from richly flavoured stock or broth that has been clarified, a process that uses egg whites to remove fat and sediment. Consommé has three English pronunciations: traditionally in the UK ...
with the addition of a ''
chiffonade Chiffonade () is a slicing technique in which Leaf vegetable, leafy green vegetables such as spinach, sorrel, or Swiss chard, or a flat-leaved herb like basil, are cut into long, thin strips. This is accomplished by stacking leaves, rolling them ti ...
'' of
sorrel Sorrel (''Rumex acetosa''), also called common sorrel or garden sorrel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae. Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock ("dock" being a common name for the genus ''Ru ...
and sprigs of
chervil Chervil (; ''Anthriscus cerefolium''), sometimes called French parsley or garden chervil (to distinguish it from similar plants also called chervil), is a delicate annual herb related to parsley. It was formerly called myrhis due to its volati ...
.'' Larousse Gastronomique'' (1961), Crown Publishers (''Translated from the French, Librairie Larousse, Paris (1938)'')
''Soufflé à la reine'' is a chicken
soufflé A soufflé () is a baked egg dish originating in France in the early 18th century. Combined with various other ingredients, it can be served as a savoury main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word ''soufflé'' is the past participle of the Fr ...
with
truffle A truffle is the Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, one of the species of the genus ''Tuber (fungus), Tuber''. More than one hundred other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including ''Geopora'', ''P ...
s
'' Sauce vénitienne'' is a
sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi- solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavour, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...
of
white wine White wine is a wine that is Fermentation in winemaking, fermented without undergoing the process of Maceration (wine), maceration, which involves prolonged contact between the juice with the grape skins, seeds, and pulp. The wine color, colou ...
,
tarragon Tarragon (''Artemisia dracunculus''), also known as estragon, is a species of perennial herbaceous plant, herb in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread in the wild across much of Eurasia and North America and is cultivated for culinary and medic ...
vinegar Vinegar () is an aqueous solution of diluted acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains from 5% to 18% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting ...
,
shallot The shallot is a cultivar group of the onion. Until 2010, the (French red) shallot was classified as a separate species, ''Allium ascalonicum''. The taxon was synonymized with '' Allium cepa'' (the common onion) in 2010, as the difference was t ...
s and chervil, mounted with
butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...
and finished with chopped chervil and tarragon.
August Escoffier Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur, and culinary writer who popularised and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-An ...
(1907), ''
Le Guide culinaire ''Le Guide Culinaire'' () is Georges Auguste Escoffier's 1903 French restaurant cuisine cookbook, his first. It is regarded as a classic and still in print. Escoffier developed the recipes while working at the Savoy, Ritz and Carlton hotels fro ...
''
''Selle de mouton purée Bretonne'' is saddle of
mutton Lamb and mutton, collectively sheep meat (or sheepmeat) is one of the most common meats around the world, taken from the domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries'', and generally divided into lamb, from sheep in their first year, hogget, from sheep in thei ...
with a purée of
broad bean ''Vicia faba'', commonly known as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Vari ...
s bound with Breton sauce.
''Poulet à la portugaise'' is whole chicken roasted with a covering of
adobo or (Spanish language, Spanish: marinade, sauce, or seasoning) is the immersion of food in a stock (or sauce) composed variously of paprika, oregano, Edible salt, salt, garlic, and vinegar to preserve and enhance its flavor. The Portuguese cu ...
paste Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to: Science and technology * Adhesive or paste ** Wallpaper paste ** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water * Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...
consisting of
tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...
,
red bell pepper The bell pepper (also known as sweet pepper, paprika, pepper, capsicum or, in some parts of the US midwest, mango) is the fruit of plants in the Grossum Group of the species ''Capsicum annuum''. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in diffe ...
,
garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to central and south Asia, str ...
,
origanum ''Origanum'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plants and subshrubs in the family Lamiaceae. They are native to Europe, North Africa, and much of temperate Asia, where they are found in open or mountainous habitats. A few species ...
,
paprika Paprika is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers, traditionally ''capsicum annuum''. It can have varying levels of Pungency, heat, but the peppers used for hot paprika tend to be milder and have thinner flesh than those used to produce ...
,
cayenne pepper The cayenne pepper is a type of ''Capsicum annuum''. It is usually a hot chili pepper used to flavor dishes. Cayenne peppers are a group of tapering, 10 to 25 cm long, generally skinny, mostly red-colored peppers, often with a curved ti ...
,
brown sugar Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content or produced by t ...
,
lemon juice The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...
, white wine, chicken stock and
olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...
, stuffed with tomato flavoured
rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
.
''Pâté chaud de cailles'' is warm
pâté Pâté ( , , ) is a forcemeat. Originally, the dish was cooked in a pastry case; in more recent times it is more usually cooked without pastry in a terrine. Various ingredients are used, which may include meat from pork, poultry, fish or bee ...
of
quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...
.
''Homard à la parisienne'' is
lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...
cooked in court bouillon, cut into slices and glazed with
aspic Aspic () or meat jelly is a savoury gelatin made with a meat stock (food), stock or broth, set in a mold to encase other ingredients. These often include pieces of meat, seafood, vegetable, or eggs. Aspic is also sometimes referred to as ''aspic ...
, with a garnish of tomatoes stuffed with a
macédoine Macedonia or macédoine is a French culinary term referring to a salad composed of small pieces of fruit or vegetables. Fruit Macedonia is a fresh fruit salad and is a common dessert in Greece, Romania, Spain, France, Italy and South America. ...
of
vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...
s, dressed with a mixture of
mayonnaise Mayonnaise (), colloquially referred to as "mayo" (), is a thick, creamy sauce with a rich and tangy taste that is commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, Salad#Bound salads, bound salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various o ...
and aspic and garnished with sliced truffle.
''Canetons à la rouennaise'' is a dish of
roast Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly on all sides with temperatures of at least from an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting can enhance the flavor through caramelizatio ...
duckling Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ta ...
stuffed with
forcemeat Forcemeat (derived from the French , "to stuff") is a uniform mixture of lean meat with fat made by grinding or sieving the ingredients. The result may either be smooth or coarse. Forcemeats are used in the production of numerous items found ...
. The legs and breasts are removed, the legs are grilled and the breasts are thinly sliced and arranged around the stuffing. The remaining carcass is pressed in a poultry press to extract all the juices and is added to a
Rouennaise sauce Rouennaise sauce (fr. ''Sauce Rouennaise'') is a Bordelaise sauce with the addition of puréed duck liver. This sauce is served with ''Pressed duck, Canetons à la Rouennaise'', which was one of the dishes served at the famous Three Emperors Dinne ...
, which is poured over the sliced duck. (This dish is today the speciality of the house at '' La Tour d'Argent''.)
''Ortolans sur canapés'', ortolans (now a
protected species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, invasiv ...
) on toast.
''Aubergines à l'espagnole'' is a dish of
aubergine Eggplant ( US, CA, AU, PH), aubergine ( UK, IE, NZ), brinjal ( IN, SG, MY, ZA, SLE), or baigan ( IN, GY) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit, typica ...
shells filled with chopped aubergine, tomato and
ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...
and a gruyère
gratin Gratin () is a culinary technique in which a dish (food), dish is topped with a Browning (food process), browned crust, often using breadcrumbs, grated cheese, egg or cheese.Courtine, Robert J. (ed.) (2003) ''The Concise Larousse Gastronomique' ...
.
''Cassolette princesse'', (a.k.a. ''Cassolette argenteuil''), A cassolette with a border of duchesse potatoes and an
asparagus Asparagus (''Asparagus officinalis'') is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus (genus), Asparagus'' native to Eurasia. Widely cultivated as a vegetable crop, its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. Description ...
filling in cream sauce.
''
Bombe glacée A ''bombe glacée'', or simply a bombe, is a French ice cream dessert frozen in a spherical mould so as to resemble a cannonball, hence the name ''ice cream bomb''. Escoffier gives over sixty recipes for ''bombes'' in ''Le Guide culinaire''.Augu ...
'' is an
ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...
dessert. – Source:


Re-creation

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n chef
Shannon Bennett Shannon Bennett (born 23 November 1975) is an Australian chef and author. He is best known as the head chef of restaurant Vue de Monde at Melbourne's Rialto Tower. Bennett currently serves as the creative director at the restaurant and its pare ...
attempted to recreate the banquet in 2002. It took six months to plan and required some changes due to key ingredients and wines no longer being available. Even using the nearest modern equivalent ingredients and wines, the cost of the meal was $7,500 per person. The
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
broadcast the documentary ''Three Emperors Dinner'' about the original banquet and the modern recreation in 2003.


See also

* Manchu-Han Imperial Feast *
Banquet of Chestnuts The Banquet of Chestnuts (sometimes Ballet of Chestnuts, Festival of Chestnuts, or Joust of Whores) was a supper purportedly held at the Apostolic Palace, Papal Palace in Rome and hosted by former Cardinal Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, ...
*
List of dining events This is a list of historic and contemporary dining events, which includes banquets, feasts, dinners and Party#Dinner party, dinner parties. Such gatherings involving dining sometimes consist of elaborate affairs with full course dinners and vario ...
* Nobel Banquet


Gallery


References

{{French cuisine Dining events French cuisine 1867 in France High society (social class) June 1867 Dinner