A four hundred year old gastronomic 'theatre' that is the Tour D'Argent of Paris

Behind each recipe is a history, not just an appealing little anecdote but a bona fide event. It is possessed of the most scenic dining in Paris; Notre Dame (whose nightly floodlights the restaurant subsidises so as not to jeopardise the effect) before you, Montmartre in the near distance and situated amongst Paris' most beautiful landmarks. At each table has sat a multitude of people so famous - and not so famous - as fill a directory of the globally prominent. It has been called variously, un vieux cabaret discret, the grand-pappy of the grand Parisian restaurants in a city housing over 12,000 dining houses whose gastronomic reputation is the world's finest, amongst other titles. But perhaps the French newspaper Le Monde put it best when it proclaimed: "There are the great restaurants and there is the Tour d'Argent. There are restaurateurs and there is Claude Terrail."

One man knows all the names and they in turn, are well-acquainted with him. "Each day and night that we are open, I make my rounds at exactly 9.15 p.m. Only at that time because then, people are settled at their tables and cannot say, 'I want that table there or that one near the window." Then I say hello to everyone in the restaurant at lunch or dinner - I make no distinction unless of course, you are a beautiful girl, then I will seat her in the middle of the restaurant so that all the people can look at her..." The eyes twinkle and the debonair Claude Terrail has added yet another notch to his belt of notorious repute.

Once labelled the 'Playboy of the Western world," when not labelling out pithy ministering with irrepressible joie de vivre and generous abandon, Claude is a pool-playing ambassador of the 'table and all its delights'. His character is larger than life, effusive and entirely charming, endearing him over the 51 years of his proprietorship to all his famous patrons. Most are close friends and he estimates that between himself and his two right hand men, they know 25,000 people around the world.

His is the theatre of the gastronomic and he plays his part of producer to perfection. But the business of Tour d'Argent, which like Maxim's has become more than a restaurant and as established a Parisian landmark as the other taller but younger Tour nearby, is very, very serious and Claude is utterly devoted to its smooth production. On any day of the year (bar Monday) it embraces performances for 200 people matinee and evening, involving a cast of 120, each of whom has been trained and rehearsed down to the most minute manoeuvre and whose showcase talent is a cuisine that is quite legendary, with the bravura performance coming from a special duck.

"You see, a restaurant like this is a theatre, a grand theatre. In the theatre when an audience like something, they applaud. In restaurants, you know they enjoyed the performance when they come back. Again and again. {My staff} are trained to know when to speak, what to say and how to stand. Great cooking is an art, a symphony, it has to be a show and we are very close to show business," Claude says with a thespian's flourish of the hand in true impresario style.

"It was my father's restaurant and his father's before him and I hope that one day it will be my son's restaurant too," say's Claude alluding to the dynastic pattern of the Tour. But the Tour d'Argent did not commence a mere fifty or even 100 years ago. The site on which it stands has housed hospitality establishments for over 400 years although a mural decorating the wall of the bar area rather deftly implies a distinct connection with the world's first diners, Adam and Eve. The history of much of France's glorious past is recorded in illustrations strategically placed around the rooms, highlighting culinary coups that are strangely tied in with major events in history lending credence to the fact that even warring parties must stop to eat. And eat heartily. There is a depiction of the 1870 Christmas dinner during the Franco-Prussian War when the chef served a menu that owes nothing to nouvelle cuisine; elephant soup, antelope chops, camel humps, bear steaks, with side servings of wolves, cats and, most churningly, appetisers of rats.

In 1582, between the Seine and the Bernadins Monastery, La Tour d'Argent opened its doors for the first time. It was then as now a very stylish inn. "We are today, the oldest restaurant in Paris having been founded in 1582," says Claude. "The modern Tour d'Argent started in the nineteenth century however, but before then, it had always been a series of cafes eating houses, cabarets and it was an hostellerie when Henry III stopped by for the first time on September 10th 1582. He had heard about it through word of mouth and he came with his entourage. Suddenly, as he was eating he stopped mid-mouthful. And of course, everyone got very scared because when a King interrupts a meal it can mean anything! He was observing some people who were taking out of their holsters, some very long pronged devices that they pointed at the meat and used to hold it while they ate. That is one of my favourite lines," roars Claude, "to say that the popular use of the fork started here at the Tour d'Argent! By 1600, the Tour had become exceedingly fashionable.

So much so, in fact, that duels were fought over the table reservations to savour the house delicacy, L'Anguille des Bois, wood snake. King Henry IV may well have ordered the world's first takeaway sending often to the Tour for his favour 'thick slices of heron pate." During the Grand Siecle, the court of Versailles frequented the Tour and the Duke of Richelieu treated his guests to a hedonist's banquet of whole ox with 30 different sauces. Following dessert, the latest in beverages was served, coffee. In 1720, theatre suppers were very in vogue and Philipe d'Orleans courted and wooed the Most beautiful ladies of the day at the Tour. Much carousing and decadent gastronomy continued right through the second Empire until the Revolution turned the tide of custom.

"The restaurant came into my family straight after the Revolution in 1789. It is a long story, very well known in France," says Claude. It was in 1890, when owner Frederic Delair, Claude's grandfather, instigated the Speciality of the House, Caneton Tour D'Argent, the Tour's world famous pressed duck. It was prepared for Edward VII, the Prince of Wales and since that day, the Tour has numbered each and every duck to commemorate the 'Canard au Sang No. 1' Every 'duck-eater', as they are referred to receives a numbered certificate bearing a depiction of Frederick and the premier event, his/her name is then inscribed in the duck-eaters directory and they then sit back to enjoy the theatre of its presentation on specially constructed stage.

Claude flicks through the book that contains the duck eaters' number and their corresponding names, "Oh Look!" he exclaims," here is Mr Fraser from Australia, he was one of your Prime Ministers, yes" Indeed Malcom Fraser's name was inscribed in the book several years before his own Ministerial goose was cooked.

"The Australians are very, very lovely people. They are also great connoisseurs of wine and food which makes it all the more important to us. You see, to be an important person is one thing but if you really know about food - that changes the world. It means you really know about something!" Ah! Here I see the first number was given in 1890, I see the Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia who was the most important man of the day, and here again in 1910, President Theodore and then King Alfonse of Spain... There is a whole history from that first time to our present day. Oh! here is M. Nicholson's number - Jack Nicholson! Joe Dimaggio used to come with President Eisenhower who was also a good friend of mine, Burt Lancaster... Every day we see people like these arrive from all over the world and they come for the speciality Caneton de Canard.

Nowhere has the bestowing of a number and joining a throng of a numerals been so sought after an affection. With the carte de canard in hand, the diner is automatically a harbinger of gastronomic style and knowing. Four hundred years after Henry III discovered cutlery there, his modern day contemporaries are also regular patrons.

"Presidents of the United States, Truman, Eisenhower, the various Chiefs of State like Churchill, from many, many countries, have all eaten here," adds Claude. "Like yesterday, Gorbachev's private secretary was having dinner here with some people and a gentleman from France's Foreign Affairs department; the First Minister of Finance of Japan was in the other corner, then there was Claude Lelouche one of our greatest movie makers... Every night there is another story, another something going on here!"

The goings-on were faithfully reproduced by Claude in his 1965 biography of his restaurant, appropriately titled, 'Mon Tour d'Argent. It contains the 'confessions' of a remarkable career in gastrony and delightfully written in the effusive, bountiful style that characterises Claude's own conversation. In amongst the anecdotes are a series of recipes, now a very popular fashion in which to present a compilation, but even today Terrail's is inimitable. The length, breadth and quality of experience a testament to both the power of the three 'G"s - good food, good wine and good conversation and to the Tour's ability to consistently provide all three in a remarkable atmosphere.

"Stories? I have so very many stories..." enthuses Claude. "Do you remember the friction between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst over Citizen Kane? Well I met Orson after World War II, when Hearst was still trying to stop the release of the film. He asked me how things were, I told him they were good, he asked whether Paris was still beautiful, I said of course, he asked how the Parisian girls were and I said they were still the prettiest, and then he asked if there was anyone special. I said, 'Oh yes, come to think of it there is an American girl, actually who was here with Aly Khan, I think she is married to some crazy fellow, now what's her name? Rita .... Rita. "Rita Hayworth?" He asked very gruffly. 'Oh, yes," I said, 'that's her.' 'That's MY WIFE!" he shouted at him!," Claude laughs, "After that we became the greatest of friends... I stayed with him in Hollywood just after the 'Third Man' became so successful. I met all those girls I had only ever dreamed about...."

Then there was Barbara Hutton, the famed and fated Woolworths heiress who came in one day and was seated at the back of the restaurant. When Claude apologised for the position, she replied, 'Claude, where I sit is always the best table...' Claude relishes his exploits and those of his patrons and is a fine raconteur in recounting them, yet he claims never to have wanted to enter the family business. His choice was somewhat more unlikely and totally at odds with the education and career with which his parents had endowed him. He was, after all the only son amongst five sisters and pre-destined to continue a centuries old tradition. In 1914, Andre Terrail further enhanced the reputation of the Tour in utilising the very special recipes of Adolph Duglere and most specifically, he acquired the 'Precious Bottles,' of the cellars of the Cafe Anglais. Today, the cellars of the Tour d'Argent yield 120,000 bottles of fine wines.

"My father was a lovely fantastic man: He built the George V Hotel in Paris amongst other hotels and when he built it a long time ago, I remember that he was watching two small children playing in the park across from his apartment and he said, 'If I do one business I will do it right across from my apartment because one day there will be nothing but traffic here.' Well, he died and the [George V] opened in 1926," recalls a very fond Claude.

"But you know, I never wanted to be in the restaurant business - that is the funny part of the story, I really wanted to be a comedian! I suppose that I carried on that desire today and I am not doing badly at all... But when my family first heard that I wanted to be a comedian they were absolutely horrified: 'We cannot have a comedian in the family, that is just not possible!' I also wanted to be a diplomat and a lawyer at the same time, you see, but never, ever in the restaurant business, I loathed it! My grandmother intervened and said, 'well, alright, if that is what you want to do but try the restaurant business first, just to see...' I agreed although I knew that I was going to be a flop. Well, I am still a flop, maybe... how do I know?" he smiles, shrugging his shoulders, knowing full well that he is widely considered the consummate restaurateur.

"I did it for a week which grew to a couple of months and then I spent some time working in patisserie which was the thing to do then. I trained in some other kitchens and then returned to the Tour to work in the kitchens here for a short time. I had something that I think they all recognised - I am a taster! I can taste anything! I suppose that the combination matches exactly the kind of business that I am in. And, "he adds with some satisfaction, "I also have to be a comedian, after all I have to speak a different language to everyone, I also have to be a diplomat. I have a real joie de vivre and I bring that to everything that I do here. I particularly like to organise parties and functions for people. I always say: 'you are our accomplices, we are your friends and there is nothing more important in life than pleasure!".

His philosophy of cuisine is inextricably tied with the traditions of Paris and of plain good eating and although he concedes that the passage of time has wrought indelible changes in dining trends, but not in people's habits.

We are overlooking some of Paris's most beautiful monuments: Notre Dame here, St Jacques, over there, you can see Montmartre in the distance... I see no difference from the time I took over 51 years. ago. Maybe the people change, but Paris stays the same, the view, the feeling. I move with the taste but I don't move with the trends. I accept that people eat less and lighter than what they did ten, twenty or thirty years ago but I didn't accept nouvelle cuisine in a country that is as gastronomic as France? There is maybe a different cuisine, maybe a different way to look at cuisine itself but it is not a new cuisine.

"All the great chefs in the world, have been decorated by heads of state for their contributions to food and to life. Escoffier! The President de la Republique went to the Carlyle Hotel in London to give Escoffier the legion of honour because he was a great flag, a great representative of France. This is fantastic! You see, chefs have always been considered amongst the greatest people because they promote the joie de vivre - the pleasure, the joy of life.

"We eat twice, three times a day and each time, it is not a question of quantity it is a issue of quality. It encompasses the five senses my way of cooking and of looking at the world."

Claude and his chef adhere to one strict ruling: Temps et Saison, time and season. Accordingly, only the freshest and best raw materials are utilised at the Tour and only at the peak of their season and time, be that ten days or three weeks. Inscribed at the top of each menu is a guide and this philosophy. Each day, Claude and his chef take time out for at least twenty minutes to sit and discuss menus, past, present and future and work out the passage of service.

"What I look for in the food is equilibrium - that is the most important thing. You cannot eat two sauces, you cannot prepare two dishes with the same colour. But the most important thing is to find the best product that can be found in France and no matter what the'fast food' people say, forget about it! We use only the freshest products, and we prepare and bake everything on the premises.

"I love him my chef, he is truly terrific! We are creating and imagining new dishes all the time. But always the freshest. I am inspired by the people around me too. But I rarely consult the old cookbooks because, you see there is a certain vanity to the chef, who at the last second will withhold a certain secret that makes the dish outstanding.

Despite such protocols, Claude offers to give us the recipe for Caneton Tour d'Argent. Although to attempts its preparation would be a little like sketching a bemused Aunt and calling the results the Mona Lisa. Nonetheless, the recipe is supplied in the same way as one takes home the programme after the show as a reminder of a wonderful experience.

"The art of being a good restaurateur is, I suppose the art of seduction as well," says Claude lending credence to his infamous smooth ways. "Psychology and instinct. Close enough to give attention but not too close to by nosy. The smallest investment in the world is welcome here. All it takes is a smile which costs nothing and people are so very very happy that you made the effort. Remember what Brillat-Savarin said, "to invite a guest implies looking after his happiness the whole time that he is under your roof'. And then, when the curtain is up, the show is on..."