French Chef Kills Himself Because He Was Ashamed of a Banquet
Fussy and histrionic French chefs have long been a comedic trope, but few people have embodied that fussiness and histrionics in real life as much as French chef Francois Vatel (1631 – 1671). Born Fritz Karl Watel, later gallicized to Francois Vatel, he apprenticed as a pastry cook, then went to work for Nicolas Fouquet, who became King Louis XIV’s finance minister. Vatel became a celebrated master chef, often credited (inaccurately) for inventing Chantilly cream, and rose within Fouquet’s household to become his majordomo – the highest-ranking employee in an aristocrat’s household.
Vatel supervised the grand inauguration fete of Fouquet’s chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte – now a famous tourist site southeast of Paris – in 1661. He did such a great job, and the inauguration was so splendid, that Louis XIV grew jealous of his finance minister’s display of opulence. So the Sun King fired Fouquet and threw him in jail, charged with maladministration of state funds and lese majeste. Foquet was kept behind bars until his death in 1680.
With his employer in jail, Vatel was out of a job, but he did not remain unemployed for long: throwing a party so great it made Louis XIV jealous and ruined one’s boss was a positive rather than a negative in the French aristocracy’s eyes. Vatel was quickly snatched up by prince Louis II de Bourbon-Conde, who made him his master chef and majordomo.
In1671, Vatel was put in charge of a grand banquet for 2000 people scheduled for April 25th, in honor of Louis XIV, who was to visit prince Louis’ Chateau de-Chantilly that month. The banquet was scheduled on short notice, and Vatel, who had only 15 days to prepare, grew increasingly stressed by a series of minor mishaps in the runup to the royal banquet.
A preliminary dinner a few days before the banquet saw more guests than expected, and two out of twenty-six tables had to go without roast. Vatel was mortified, and he wept that he had lost honor and could not bear the shame. Despite reassurances that the dinner had been a success, and that Louis XIV had been pleased, Vatel was inconsolable, and he kept obsessing about the tables that had gone without roast. Later that night, a fireworks display flopped because fog and low clouds descended, which lowered Vatel’s spirits even further.
In the early morning of April 24th, one day before the banquet, Vatel encountered a supplier bringing two loads of fish, and asked him if that was all. The supplier, unaware that Vatel was referring to all fish from all suppliers, not just himself, replied that it was. That was the final straw for a frazzled Vatel, who had hardly slept in the preceding fortnight. He broke down, crying “I won’t survive this insult. My honor and reputation are at stake“. Unable to endure what he thought would be a royal humiliation when the royal banquet turned into a flop, the master chef grabbed a sword and ran himself through. As it turned out, the fish misunderstanding soon resolved itself, as fish from other suppliers began arriving soon after Vatel had stabbed himself. Wagonloads of fish arrived at the Chateau de-Chantilly, even as the master chef lay dying of his self-inflicted wound.