December 29

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson's Birthday
 

Sophia Myles as  Madame de Pompadour  and David Tennant as Dr, Who in The Girl in the Fireplace (2006)

Jeanne-Antoinette was attractive, beautiful, intelligent, witty, and multitalented. She could recite more than twenty plays by heart and play the clavichord to perfection. She was an notable graphic artist and an expert in architecture. She had been married for four years when she caught the eye of the King in February 1745 at a royal masked ball at Versailles. It was lust at first sight for Louis XV who was in mourning the death of his second official mistress. By March his mourning ended and Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson became the King's third official mistress, for which  he created her a marquise with the title Marquise de Pompadour, after which she became legally separated from her husband. In the Gospel according to Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame de Pompadour, the wages of sin were approximately 36 million livres (about $140 million in today's currency) which is what some historians claim that the extravagant mistress of  Louis XV cost the royal treasury. Even if Louis XV was as virile as Louis XIV, Jeanne-Antoinette would have earned a minimum of $10, 000 a piece (no pun intended) for her sexual favors based on sex twice-a-day for seventeen years. At $20,000 a day, the wages of sin were at least a hedge against inflation.

The Marquise de Pompadour had a significant influence on the flourishing of French arts during the reign of Louis XV, a reign that is often considered the peak of French architecture and interior design and during which she amassed a a major collection of furniture and objets d'art. One of her lasting contributions to French culture was her establishment of the china factory at Sevres which became one of the most famous porcelain manufacturers in Europe and developed into one of France's more profitable industries. She loved fine china and. worked with the leading French artists to create many of the classic patterns and porcelain figures.

One of the great ironies of history is that the woman who was the world's most famous and expensive courtesan was sexually frigid.  Jeanne-Antoinette constantly worried about her frigidity and resorted to exotic diets based on popular but ineffective aphrodisiacs. Every morning she drank truffle and celery soup followed by  a cup of hot chocolate laced with vanilla and ambergris which eventually made her fat, and the worry about her weight gave her wrinkles. When she eventually became too fat and wrinkled to stimulate the king's passion, she stayed on at court as Louis' s procuress, managing the king's royal whorehouse, Parc-aux-Cerfs (Stags Park), which was populated with a succession of teenaged girls.

To celebrate Jeanne Antoinette's birthday, we turn to her family name Poisson (which means "fish" in French), and suggest enjoying Sole Pompadour (sole poached in wine with shrimp and mussels) named after the Marquise,  and pairing it with The Girl in the Fireplace episode of Dr. Who (2006) in which Sophia Myles plays de Pompadour.
 

Sole Pompadour
 

Ingredients

1. Poach fillets gently in white wine, fish stock, salt and pepper and bouquet garni for 10 minutes. Cook and shell shrimp, leaving tails on. Reserve liquid.
2. Steam and shell mussels.
3. Reduce reserved fillet and shrimp liquid to 2&1/2 cups.
4. Carefully place sole fillets on a service plate and arrange shrimp, mussels and rnushrooms around fish. Keep in warming oven
5. Make a roux with the butter and flour. Slowly whisk in  cups in all and add. Thicken with egg yolks and cream. (DO NOT BOIL). Add  salt and pepper to taste.
6. Remove serving platter from warming oven. Spoon sauce over fish, shrimp, mussels, and rnushrooms. Serve immediately.            

© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes