Stendhal at the table

At the Parisian table where Stendhal dined, the "service à la française" was followed: dishes arrived in successive courses — a soup or vegetable dish, then a main course, finally the sweet entremets and dessert. But Henri Beyle's heart beat for Milan: his table readily mixed French bourgeois solidity with the Lombard flavors discovered in Italy. Coffee, for its part, belonged to no course: it accompanied writing, at any hour.

Filaments of gold that color and perfume Lombard risotto, emblem of the city Stendhal loved above all — so much so that he wanted "Milanese" engraved on his tomb.