PARIS—The saying “revenge is a dish best served cold” was confirmed by chefs from the legendary Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris, France, who performed blind taste tests of different versions of revenge, lust, rage, and anger on their students.
Using standard recipes along with the finest ingredients, the chefs cooked up cafeteria-sized portions for the tests. In addition to confirming that revenge is best served cold, lust was found ideal when red hot, and rage was perfect when white hot. Anger, however, surprised the chefs, who thought that it would be best boiling but found that it evaporated too quickly to leave a lasting impression. They discovered that reducing it by simmering, which is at a lower temperature, made it much more memorable, even evoking childhood memories of, for example, their parents’ anger when they’d driven the family car without permission.
The tests were performed over the course of several weeks to minimize any lingering aftertastes as well as to allow the students to recover from any psychological and physical damage. (Revenge also needed a long time to cool.) Ginger was served between tests to cleanse the students’ palates. A few students dropped out after tasting the chefs’ cold and hot versions of revenge and one student needed medical attention after getting second-degree burns from a frozen version of lust. When asked whether indifference was best cold or warm, a Le Cordon Bleu representative said that the chefs just didn’t care enough to cook up any to test.
