A Well-Prepared Coq au Vin

This is a brown fricassee. This is an authentic and old recipe, without any shortcuts, as is clearly apparent. The great aunt who trained me in the kitchen made a national reputation with it. She received it from the chef who trained her as a young woman in the kitchen of a Loire Valley castle. The chef, born in the second decade of the 1800s, and whose name remains unknown to me, was reputed to have worked in Carême’s kitchen.

The word soigné in kitchen language means finish