Marcel Fournier is the hero in A Suitable Husband, and the love interest of Cedrica Grenford, a distant cousin of the Duke of Haverford and secretary to the Duchess of Haverford.
Marcel is an émigré, bought to London as a child when his parents fled the Terror in France. He grew up determined to become a chef, and even had himself smuggled into France so that he could apprentice himself to the great Marie-Antoine Carême, chef to Talleyrand and through him to the diplomats of Europe.
When he takes on the role of chef to the Hollystone Hall house party, he is saving for his dream: to open a restaurant. Here’s how he describes it to Cedrica. (An ordinary is a shop that sells food and drink–the modern equivalent would be McDonalds or Pizza Hutt.) Cedrica praises him for his generosity in making up the baskets that she and the duchess had distributed to the poor.
He shrugged. “I have been hungry, Mademoiselle. When I was a little boy, after my family fled France, we had very little. I do not forget.”
“Will you feed the poor of London with the leftovers from your Ordinary once you have it?”
“Did the excellent Cissie tell you of my plans? But she is wrong, you know. I do not plan a French Ordinaire, Mademoiselle. Say, rather, Extraordinaire. As they have in France. Un restaurant, Mademoiselle, with the finest cuisine listed on a menu from which patrons can choose, an excellent cellar, a quiet setting—perhaps with music playing, prompt and efficient service. A place where gentlemen would be proud to bring their guests or could dine alone without the expense of keeping a kitchen and a chef.”
Now it was his turn to spin out the words, while she asked quiet questions, her eyes turned up to his in the light of the quarter moon.
“And so I take work wherever I can find it, Mademoiselle, and one day, I will have sufficient money, and Fournier’s of London will open for business,” he finished.
Of course, he and Cedrica set up Fournier’s of London. The grand opening is in mid-1813, and by 1814, they are so successful that they have added a tea shop, where ladies and families can enjoy Marcel’s cakes and ices, as well as other food and the beverages of their choice.
Fournier’s Tea Shop features in both To Claim the Long-Lost Lover and To Tame the Wild Rake.
