Chapter 108 Famous Painting

Barnabé never thought that as the royal chef of His Royal Highness the Dauphin of France, he would one day cook for sans-culottes on the streets of Paris.

However, this was the order of the crown prince, and 14 other palace chefs had the same fate as him.

Barnabas fixed the peeled potatoes on a special fork, held the knife in his right hand, and cut them in a very dazzling way.

Then he skewered the potatoes on the iron skewers and pulled them apart evenly. The potatoes suddenly turned into a curly whirlwind shape.

He put the string of "whirlwinds" into the oil pan and fried them for a while. After taking them out, he sprinkled them with various condiments, and then inserted them on a wooden board with holes on the side.

The assistant next to him immediately raised his head and shouted to passers-by: "The most popular palace delicacy-whirlwind potato tart! The kind-hearted Crown Prince invites everyone to taste it for free."

The cooking tent was surrounded by people, sniffing the aroma of the "whirlwind potato tower", but no one came up to take the food.

That is the "devil under the ground". If you eat it, you will get lung disease or leprosy!

After an unknown amount of time, a dirty little boy with sticky hair came over and stared at the potato skewers, swallowing hard.

Finally, under the repeated urging of hunger, he grabbed the iron pick and took a big bite.

fragrant!

The little tramp's eyes widened. This thing tasted better than the bread with brown sauce that the kind lady gave out at Christmas.

He ignored the pity looks from everyone and ate three skewers in one go. Because he was worried about being blamed, he reluctantly turned around and left.

Not long after, a few more dirty children came and divided up the rest of the tornado potato tarts.

The onlookers shook their heads and sighed as they looked at them, as if these children would soon turn into corpses.

"Selling newspapers!" At the street corner not far away, a newsboy waved the latest "Paris Business Journal" and shouted, "Read the newspaper! 2 sous a copy. The latest novel, Adventurer Travels across the Caribbean, Wins Wealth and beauty!”

Someone bought the newspaper, read the latest issue of "Refining the Sphere" first, then turned to the third page, and was immediately attracted by the new novels there.

It was a story about an adventurer nicknamed "Popeye" who drove a clipper ship named the Black Pearl to explore the Caribbean.

The most attractive thing is that Mr. "Popeye" has a unique physique. As long as he eats potatoes, he will immediately become infinitely powerful and successfully solve all his troubles...

Palace of Versailles.

Under Brian's personal supervision, the plan to promote potato cultivation was completed in less than three days.

Joseph and Brian came to the Little Trianon Palace early in the morning with the planning book in hand.

In the garden outside the queen's palace, Queen Mary gave her son a warm hug and looked extremely happy: "Dear Joseph, I am preparing to have someone go to Paris to call you back."

She turned to Count de Berninac and said: "Please ask Madame Le Brun to come over and tell her that the Dauphin is here too. Oh, be sure to ask her to bring the painting."

Joseph had heard this name and knew that this was a famous court painter. Many portraits of the king and queen were painted by her.

He looked at the queen in confusion: "Mother, what did you ask Madame Le Brun to do?"

The queen smiled and said: "Mrs. Le Brun has conceived a very good painting about you. It's called "The Son of God". Oh, I believe you will like it after reading it."

"Oh, okay..." Joseph suddenly had an ominous premonition for some reason, but he immediately turned to the topic and said, "By the way, mother, Archbishop Brian and I have something important to tell you."

"Oh? What is it?"

Brian hurriedly handed the plan to the queen and said: "Your Majesty, according to the analysis of several scholars such as Count Lamarck, there will be a drought this year, and it is likely to be more serious than before."

Queen Mary suddenly looked worried: "Do you have any good solutions?"

Brian hurriedly said: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had the idea to promote potatoes across the country and use the extremely high yield of this crop to reduce the possibility of famine."

The queen listened to his detailed plan to promote potatoes and nodded: "In Austria, people use potatoes to cope with famine. Joseph must have carefully studied the pros and cons of many countries' systems and flexibly used the beneficial parts. France."

She took the pen from the maid beside her, signed the document, and murmured with raised corners of her mouth: "Sure enough, just like in Madame Le Brun's painting, my Joseph is extremely talented and must have been favored by the Lord. .”

Joseph didn't expect things to go so smoothly. If he had known it would happen, he would have come to the queen to sign it three days ago. There was no need to wait for the detailed plan to be made.

You know, there is only more than a month left before sowing wheat. Once farmers plant wheat, it is absolutely impossible to dig it out and plant potatoes instead.

To transport potatoes from northeastern France to the southern provinces, one month is probably barely enough, so time is very tight.

The queen handed the document back to Brian, and saw an elegant middle-aged woman walking over and saluting the queen, Joseph and Brian one after another.

Queen Mary smiled and nodded, and then ordered: "Mrs. Lebrun, show your painting to the Crown Prince quickly. I can't wait any longer."

"Yes." Mrs. Le Brun immediately signaled to the assistant behind her. Several young people hurriedly and carefully moved a picture frame that was nearly a person tall and lifted off the dust-proof sheet covering it.

Joseph froze the moment he saw the picture - the upper part of the picture showed God floating in the air, holding a lamb in one hand and an unknown book in the other, with a dazzling light shining behind him.

At the feet of God, there is a young man in gorgeous clothes, with his hands in prayer and a pious face, looking up to listen to the holy teachings.

And the appearance of that young man, isn't it his own...

Joseph felt that his toes were about to dig out of the three rooms and one living room. How did Mrs. Le Brun paint such embarrassing works? !

Queen Mary smiled brightly and said: "Joseph, I gave this painting to you. You can hang it in your living room."

ah! No - Joseph's heart is twitching. Seeing this thing every day will definitely give him embarrassment cancer!

Madame Le Brun said: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it will take a few days. Strictly speaking, this painting is not completed. I still need to complete some details."

Joseph was slightly relieved when he heard this, and said hurriedly: "You must improve it more, and don't think about time."

Brian looked at the painting on the side, nodded and commented: "Mrs. Le Brun, your painting skills are simply wonderful! I can already feel the holy aura of the Son of God from this painting. The Son of God will eventually be born from this. Praise to the world!"

Feeling the breath of holiness? When Joseph heard this, his heart suddenly moved, yes! People of this era most like to use oil paintings to promote religion. In people's minds, the content in the oil paintings is almost what happened in reality.

That's why the queen cares so much and appreciates this painting so much.

Perhaps, this is the best way to break the French superstition on potatoes!

An image appeared in his mind almost instantly.

Joseph made the sign of the cross on his chest - because he often had to do this action after traveling through time, and it was already a conditioned reflex - he thought to himself: God, it seems that I need to trouble you to speak for me on this matter.