Carême ‘A Recipe for Disaster’: Fouché twirls his villain moustache as the plot surges forward

Recap and review of Carême Season 1 Episode 3

Rating: B+

A vol-au-vent (French for ‘windblown’ or ‘flight in the wind’), to non-foodies like myself, is a small hollow case made from puff pastry. It is a starter that could have a variety of fillings, including the cream-based sauce Antonin used here. It is also a fitting featured dish in an episode that saw Germaine de Staël flee Paris for her safety after Fouché found evidence that she was behind the publication of an anti-Napoleon pamphlet. 

We are three episodes in, and I truly appreciate how Carême moved the plot along (I do, despite that what you'll read here later on). The ‘down with the tyrant’ pamphlets were introduced last episode. Here we saw the aftermath. Rioters turned violent and attacked Catherine’s carriage (that’s Princess Catherine). Fouché crashed Germaine’s posh party, searched her house, and found the printer used to print the pamphlets. Talleyrand gave Germaine his carriage so she could escape, because of course Fouché’s men did not keep an eye on her even after her arrest.

Antonin’s dance with Fouché also moved forward. Fouché tricked Antonin into writing a letter to his father. Now, Fouché had his confirmation that it was Antonin who copied Napoleon’s route and gave him information about Charlotte. Fouché’s enemy was Talleyrand, however, and he told Bailly that if Antonin could provide him with evidence of Talleyrand’s involvement in the attack on Napoleon, father and son could return to baking pastries.

This episode was packed, and as much as I enjoyed it, as much as I understand this pacing is part of Carême’s show DNA, I also wish it slowed down on certain parts to allow some of the politics and domestic espionage to breathe. Was it really necessary to send Germaine into exile this quickly? Could we not have spent a couple more episodes fleshing out her activities against Napoleon in Paris? There is a broader conversation here about the trend in recent years of shows with shorter seasons but which take longer to produce but, very briefly just to explain what bugged me a bit on an episode that I really liked –  I began my TV addict days at a time when a season meant 20-plus episodes, and we had a new season each year. Of course, this was for American shows, I don’t know what the norm was for French shows back then. My point is, while quick pacing and a short season have its merits, a gentler story movement and a longer season do too. What is gained in the excitement of narrative propulsion (audience attention) carries with it a loss of deeper character connection and a better fleshed out setting.

A gentler pacing would also hopefully address silly scenes like discussing political plotting in a kitchen with all the other cooks around, in the middle of a violent crackdown on protesters and purported anti-Napoleon forces. Like, what was that? Of course Talleyrand was an aristocrat who likely did not think much of the servants around him. But he was also a political player who was using a peasant as his spy. Did he not think the other members of his household could also be spies? Was it not a peasant who complicated his life, revealed his secret daughter, and led him to being forced to marry a woman he did not love? Later, Antonin burnt the original pamphlet that could have proven that Germaine wrote the anti-Napoleon missive right there on a table in the kitchen while Fouché and his men were still around, where his cooks who could be questioned could see him. Like master, like chef?

The challenge with having an overall good show – and Carême is good, it flies on screen with the flair of one of Antonin’s charming gastronomic creations – is that viewers like me will want more, of many things. We have of course seen Talleyrand and Germaine together in the first two episodes, but here we got to dip our toes in their deeper connection. That scene when Talleyrand tried to persuade Germaine to give him the original text of her pamphlet, his plea to do it for him if not for herself, for he could not bear to see her in jail or facing the guillotine, was a more intimate scene than all the sx, and elevated Carême with a different kind of love. Talleyrand and Germaine were not lovers but they had a connection that Catherine recognised and resented. It was a meeting of two brilliant minds who may not always agree with how they work toward their political goals, but who understood each other, always, in every room where they may be misunderstood. Yes, I’m afraid I’m turning into a shipper. 

What of our titular Carême? He remained bound to Talleyrand and his schemes. When he snuck into Germaine’s bedroom to retrieve the original pamphlet Talleyrand wanted, he accidentally came across another secret – Charles De Flahaut (Talleyrand’s son) and Hortense de Beauharnais (Napoleon’s step daughter) were having an affair. Hortense was pregnant with Charles’ child, but she planned to claim the child to be her husband Louis’. A mess.

Benjamin Voisin did great work at the scene with Antonin and Fouché, when Fouché smoothly got Antonin to give him a handwriting sample in the guise of a letter to his father. Antonin has mostly been portrayed as ambitious, arrogant, a charmer of women. He looked so young in that scene, begging to be allowed to see his father even once. His face was suddenly stripped of guile, he was just a boy who longed for his one remaining parent, the man who taught him everything, to be safe.

Bailly was alive. He also now knew that Antonin received a letter purportedly from him. The schemes swirl and the plot marches on. The next episode cannot come soon enough!

Strays

🧑‍🍳Young Etienne is alive! The way I worried about this kid. He did not seem to be too badly hurt. As soon as he was released, he headed to Hōtel de Galliffet and Antonin. Of course, he was released precisely so Fouché could have his men tail him. He knew soon enough that the source of the Charlotte intel was in Talleyrand’s household. 

🧑‍🍳People died because Catherine insisted on driving through rioters. Princess indeed. 

🧑‍🍳Talleyrand mentioned to an angry and jealous Catherine that he was beholden to Germaine because she was the only one who helped him while he was in exile. 

🧑‍🍳Germaine’s pamphlet advocated for fair trial for those in prison. Antonin appreciated her for that. Talleyrand argued that Germaine was going about her advocacy the wrong way. The violence her pamphlets inspired would only lead to more brutal reprisals by Bonaparte. Talleyrand wanted the original pamphlet, make them disappear, and organise a reconciliation between Germaine and Bonaparte. That would give her a chance to plead the cause of the Jacobins and Bailly. As he was wont to do, Talleyrand tied his own plans with Antonin’s desperate desire to free his father. 

🧑‍🍳Whilst Fouché suspected Germaine of being behind the riots, Germaine was at home having just spent the night with two men, one of whom was Grimod de la Reynière, one of the first food critics in history and best known for the influential Almanach des Gourmands. Google says that though real life Germaine had several romantic relationships outside her marriage, there was no evidence of this relationship with Grimod. 

🧑‍🍳Antonin found a ‘down with the tyrant’ pamphlet in Germaine’s room, but it was fake, the writing was an ode to Napoleon’s glory. Germaine wrote it because she knew that Talleyrand would try to retrieve the original. Later, with Fouché and his men at her house, Germaine gave Antonin a coded message via wine to let him know where the damning original pamphlet was. Antonin found it and destroyed it, but Fouché used the printer itself  (one of the metal letters had a distinctive flaw) to prove Germaine’s guilt. 

🧑‍🍳Germaine was persuaded to hand over the original pamphlet to Talleyrand, but before they could get to it, Fouché and his men arrived. 

🧑‍🍳Grimod really took his monkey to the kitchen. He was rather dismissive of Bailly’s skill as a cook, in the kitchen and at the ballroom. Antonin threatened a duel to defend his father’s honour, and Fouché intervened as Minister of Police. 

🧑‍🍳Grimod unknowingly let Fouché know that Germaine’s wine talk was code, when he told the minister the wine that was served was not Chambertin, but a Bordeaux.

🧑‍🍳As someone who can barely cook rice, I enjoy watching Antonin cook and plate his dishes. 

🧑‍🍳The secret printing room in Germaine’s house was behind fake casks of wine. Pretty cool. I love houses with secret rooms. 

🧑‍🍳Agathe has really been keeping Antonin’s kitchen together whilst he played his spy games. That she stood there and refused to leave whilst Antonin was literally on top of Henriette, because she wanted to share Grimod’s review of the vol-au-vent, just made me love her more. 

🧑‍🍳Henriette was under Fouché’s thumb, though it looked like she was giving him as little information as possible. She didn’t even tell him about Charlotte. He was catching on, however; he questioned why she did not tell him about Talleyrand’s new cook. He told her to sleep with Antonin if necessary, but he wanted whatever tie he had with Talleyrand.

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