*A very important dish at La Côte d’Or. Respectful of the national gastronomic monument that he had inherited from Alexandre Dumaine, and true to his insistence on representing an apotheosis of Burgundy home cooking, Bernard decided to offer one of Dumaine’s specialties on his own menu. Spurning the oreiller de la belle Aurore as too ostentatious and needlessly complicated, he settled on his adaptation of the fabulous funeral pyre that le grand Alexandre had imagined: a fat Burgundy hen cooked in steam. But what a steam. In a big earthenware crock sealed with a cloth, the animal, stuffed with a vegetable julienne enriched with chicken livers, foie gras, and truffles, sits on a tripod above a rich bouillon composed of three “juices” of poultry, chicken wings, and veal, and a separate container filled with cognac, port, and essence of truffles. Stuffed on the inside and dressed “in mourning” on the outside—that is, blackened by truffle slices slid under its skin—the chicken is cooked in the oven by the steam rising from the bouillon and the truffle-accented liquors. The ceremonial delivery of the hot crock to the table is a sure attention-getter, and when the cloth is withdrawn and the lid lifted, the entire dining room is bathed in a cloud of ineffably luscious fragrances. It is so beautiful and so wrenchingly desirable that it seems almost a shame to destroy the creation by carving it up, but such is the fate of all great culinary creations. There are two services: first the breast, accompanied by truffled rice and a portion of the stuffing; and then, after a return to the kitchen for further cooking, the thighs, accompanied by either baby leeks or the famous truffled potato purée. Clients are forgiven for shedding a tear as they turn their knives and forks to the attack.