Sausages, Soups & Operatic Cooks | 2
article
D
David Hackett23. March 2023
This is part 2 of 3 in a series about composers' eating habits, by David Hackett. Read part 1 and 3.
Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) was unusual in his day for doing all his own cooking.
He made a tempting sounding macaroni with parmesan cheese, and a slightly less tempting sounding bread soup to which he would carefully add ten raw eggs. He was also a keen coffee aficionado, grinding up exactly sixty beans every day for his morning brew.
He liked to cook for others, though not always successfully. When once throwing a dinner party, Beethoven kept his guests waiting for many hours before eventually serving up something that was close to inedible: “the beef was but half-done and calculated to gratify only an ostrich”, recalled one guest in dismay. “The vegetables floated in a mixture of water and grease; and the roast seemed to have been smoked in the chimney…” The chef de soir was probably better at writing symphonies.
When not writing his giant, German-Romantic operas, Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) was extolling the virtues of a vegetarian diet.
It was partly an ethical response to what he saw as the unnecessarily cruel treatment of animals. But it was also ideological: Wagner believed the human race would be morally better for a meat-free diet.
Being a vegetarian in nineteenth century Europe wasn’t always an easy thing to pull off – there were less nutritional options than today. Wagner’s second wife Cosima once said her husband was a vegetarian “in principle” only: his doctor wouldn’t allow him to be one “in practice”.
In practice, Wagner’s favourite dish was “Blaue Zipfel” (Blue Tips) – two minced pork sausages cooked in white vinegar and served with finely chopped carrots and onions.
This is part 2 of 3 in a series about composers' eating habits, by David Hackett.
To read more from David Hackett, go to www.musicbytheyear.com.