Un menu pour honorer une grosse légume

When one is lucky enough in life to know someone in high places, it never hurts to have a very fancy menu in your repertoire–one where the dishes are quite refined or a bit unusual–to flatter a terribly important personage at your table. I myself have given a few dinners of this sort over the years, and I remember one especially when my husband was decorated by the Legion of Honor for distinction in military service during the war. After the ceremony I gave a dinner for Jean’s colonel with the best dishes I could manage in those post-war years, which surely could not have included anything so rare as avocados. But I did serve this special leg of lamb (which I probably went all the way to Normandy for!), and the dessert would unquestionably have been chocolate, as in this present menu.