A Lady Older Than I, with a great deal of experience of international business conferences, once told Etiquetteer “Feed people well and they will always remember you.” The reverse is also true. These wise words came back to Etiquetteer yesterday along a path that includes Queen Elizabeth II, Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, and of course the White House Housekeeper We Love to Hate, Henrietta Nesbitt. The unifying ingredient: chicken salad.
February 6 marks the start of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee Year, an unprecedented anniversary even for the Sun King Himself. Etiquetteer was amused to read that Her Majesty met at a Sandringham reception the woman who invented Coronation Chicken, the chicken salad served at the 1953 coronation. The recipe includes mango, not something Etiquetteer ever considered a Pantry Staple, but could otherwise be put together with easily available ingredients.
The closest event the United States ever had to a Platinum Jubilee was the unprecedented fourth inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 20, 1945. Mrs. Nesbitt recorded “President Roosevelt wanted chicken à la king for his inaugural luncheon, but I had to say ‘No, we can’t keep that dish hot for two thousand guests.’” Eleanor negotiated a compromise menu of “chicken salad, rolls without butter — I hoped the salad would be rich enough to make them forget the butter — unfrosted cake, and coffee.”*
Mrs. Nesbitt went on to record Mrs. Roosevelt’s letter of thanks for everyone’s hard work, but not the failure of her chicken salad. According to Doris Kearns Goodwin, “. . . the chickens Mrs. Nesbitt had bought for the chicken salad weren’t frozen properly, leaving only a small amount of usable chicken . . . the problem did not go unnoticed.”** In fact, Eleanor got called out on it publicly that night at another function, and with her usual forthrightness acknowledged that she had a hard time finding any chicken, too.*** Sometimes the only Perfectly Proper thing to do is acknowledge that things could have gone better, but we’re all still here to joke about it. It’s worth noting that, while Coronation Chicken continues to be made and celebrated, there doesn’t seem to be a recipe for Mrs. Nesbitt’s chicken salad anyplace.
The Dymoke coat of arms.
Later today, That Mr. Dimmick Who Thinks He Knows So Much will observe Accession Day privately. Descended somehow from the Champions of the Kings of England****, what could be more Perfectly Proper than to offer a toast to Her Majesty’s health with the final stanza of the Ode?
Then let us cry with Dymoke bold
“Long may the King triumphant reign!”
Or if fair hands the sceptre hold,
Then braver still, “God save the Queen!”
*White House Diary, by Henrietta Nesbitt, page 303.
**No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, Doris Kearns Goodwin, page 573.
***Ibid.
****The definite connection has never been firmly established between Thomas Dimmock, the first Dimmock in the colonies in 1630, and the Dymokes of Scrivelsby; indeed, it has been suggested that Thomas deliberately changed the spelling of his name to disassociate from the family. But the connection is widely accepted.