Olivier Poels 5:40 p.m., December 2, 2021
The story of the creation of this pastry is quite surprising and demonstrates, once again, to what extent the cuisine has sometimes played a key role in history.
We are in 1815, in Vienna.
After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, France is playing a low profile.
The great powers are united for a congress which must draw the contours of the future Europe and seal the fate of France, represented by Talleyrand, the "lame devil".
The latter, a fine strategist and genius for negotiation, is aware that he has with him, in the person of his cook Antonin Carême, a formidable weapon ("One does not do good diplomacy without a good lunch", wrote Talleyrand) .
Renowned at the time, French cuisine fascinated the whole world and the dinners organized by Talleyrand were the most popular of the congress.
Talleyrand therefore orders a dish from his chef that can be tasted at any time, since discussions and negotiations drag on.
Lent, who observed the participants, then came up with the idea for this recipe consisting of brioche bread, dried fruits, colds and custard.
The diplomat's recipe:
Ingredients:
- 300 gr of dried fruit
- 10 cl of rum
- 10 slices of stale brioche
- 5 eggs
- 25 cl of milk
- 150 gr of sugar
- 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
1. Soak the dried fruit in the rum
2. Grill the brioche slices
3. Beat the eggs, add the sugar and vanilla sugar then the milk
4. In a buttered mold, place the brioche slices, then the fruit, alternately and pour the preparation.
5. Bake for 1 hour in a bain-marie in an oven at 150 °
6. Serve cold with custard