THE CHEF FROM HELL

My food blog post today pays tribute to "Diamond" Jim Brady, one of the great American eaters of all time. Brady was a larger than life figure in America during the Gilded Age of the late 1800's who sported flashy jewelery (hence his nickname) as well as a gargantuan appetite.  Over the years, his feats at the dinner table have become legendary!

Brady, a railroad tycoon whose sizable wealth gave him unlimited access to the best food in America and Europe, was a fixture in many of the best restaurants at the time.  Charles Rector, the owner of Brady's favorite Broadway eatery, Rector's, remembered Brady as "the best 25 customers I ever had!"  Let's take a look at what an average day's eats were like for "Diamond" Jim:

He would start each day with a rousing breakfast of eggs, pancakes, pork chops, fried potatoes, cornbread, hominy, a large slab of beefsteak and some muffins.  All of those vittles would be washed down with a gallon of fresh squeezed orange juice.  "Diamond" Jim like to call orange juice his "golden nectar."  If the big fellow got hungry before lunch, he'd stave off hunger with a few dozen fresh schucked oysters or clams.

Lunch would usually consist of two large lobsters, devilled crabs, oysters, clams and some beef.  For dessert, Brady's taste ran to pies of all sorts.  No, he wouldn't eat slices of pie.  "Diamond" Jim consumed several whole pies at lunchtime!  In the late afternoon, hunger would strike again, so Jim would chow down on a large platter of seafood.  This would be accompanied by copious amounts of lemon soda, another favorite.

Brady's usual evening meal started with some appetizers; three dozen oysters, six crabs and several servings of turtle soup.  The main course involved two whole ducks, seven lobsters, a sirloin steak, several servings of terrapin (turtle meat) and mixed fresh vegetables.  He concluded the festivities with several platters of fresh baked pastries and a two pound box of candy.

After dinner, "Diamond" Jim, being a big fan of theatre, would wander out onto the streets of Broadway and attend on of the shows that were playing.  During the performance, Brady often snacked on a couple of pound boxes of candy.  "Diamond" Jim knew his stuff when it came to the theatre; he claimed that George Bernard Shaw's works were best enjoyed with bonbons and Henrik Ibsen's shows with glace fruits.

When it came to food, Brady knew what he liked and if he liked something, he would find a way to get his hand on it!  Once, while in Boston, Brady tasted some chocolates that he declared were the "best God damned candy I ever had!"  The makers of the chocolates, a small factory, were overwhelmed by Brady's enthusiasm for their product when he ordered several hundred boxes of their chocolates to send as gifts to friends and business clients.  They told Brady they could not fill his order as it would deplete their entire stock of candy.  Unfazed, "Diamond" Jim wrote out a check for $150,000 to put towards the construction of a larger factory so they could produce enough of the cherished chocolates to satisfy his request!

Another legendary story about Brady's food lust concerns a dish called "Filet de Sole de Marguery" which was only served at a restaurant in Paris named Cafe Marguery.  The recipe for this dish, which contained a delicous sauce, was a closely guarded secret by the chefs who worked there.  A fellow customer at Rector's had described the dish to Brady and he decided he had to have it.  After Brady told the restaurant owner, Charles Rector, that he would take his business elsewhere, Rector knew he had to act fast.  He removed his son from Cornell University and sent him to Paris to get the recipe.  Rector's son went to great lengths to accomplish this task: Using an assumed name, he took a job washing dishes at the Cafe Marguery and toiled in the kitchen for two years until he worked his way up to food preparation.  Eventually, the young man was taught the recipe for "Filet de Sole de Marguery".  Upon his return to New York, he found "Diamond" Jim Brady waiting for him at the pier where his ship had docked.  Brady called out in a thunderous voice, "Did you bring the sauce?"  Click on this link to view the recipe for  FILET DE SOLE A LA MARGUERY

Once, at a dinner party, a woman, who had been watching "Diamond" Jim attack several large platters of food, asked him how he knew when he was full.  Brady answered, "Whenever I sit down to a meal, I always make it a point to leave 4 inches between my stomach and the edge of the table.  And then, when I can feel 'em rubbin' together pretty hard, I know I've had enough."

(Editors Note: Two porkchops, three baked potatoes, a Waldorf Salad and a large bag of Cool Ranch Doritos were consumed while writing this article.)

For further info on "Diamond" Jim Brady read:

Diamond Jim Brady: Prince of The Gilded Age by H. Paul Jeffers (Wiley Books, 2001)