Twenty years ago there were not over three _chefs_ in private families in this city. It is now the exception not to find a man of fashion keeping a first-class _chef_ or a famous _cordon bleu_. In the last six years Swedish women cooks have come over here, and are excellent, and by some supposed to be better than _chefs_. No woman, in my opinion, can give as finished a dinner as a man. There is always a something in the dinner which has escaped her. It is like German and Italian opera,--there is a finish to the Italian that the Germans can never get. But Swedish cooks deserve special mention; they are really wonderful--cleanliness itself. That is where the French _chef_ fails. He must have scullions tracking his very footsteps to keep things clean, while the Swedish woman does her work without making dirt. These women get nearly as large wages as the men,--sixty dollars a month and a scullion maid. What a contrast to living in France! I had the best _chef_ in Pau in 1856 for twenty-five dollars, and the scullion received three dollars a month. The question is often asked, What is the difference in expense to a household between a _chef_ or a woman cook? This question is only learned by experience, which teaches me that with a woman, my butcher’s bill would be $250 to $275 a month; with a _chef_, $450 to $500. Grocer’s bill, with woman cook, say, $75; with a _chef_, $125. This does not include entertaining. For a dinner of twelve or fourteen one’s marketing is easily sixty dollars, without the _foie gras_ or fruit. An A1 _chef_’s wages is $100 a month; he takes ten per cent. commission on the butcher, grocer, baker, and milkman’s bill. If he does not get it directly, he gets it indirectly. In other words, besides his wages, he counts on these commissions. I speak now of the ablest and best; others not quite so capable take five per cent. Always remember that the Frenchman is a creature of impulses, and works for two things, glory and money. An everyday dinner wearies him, but a dinner _privé_, a special dinner, oh, this calls forth his talent, which shows that the custom some have of calling in and employing a _chef_ to cook them a special dinner is correct. If you do not keep a _chef_ out of respect for your purse or your health, it is a good plan to know of an “artist” whom you can employ on special occasions, with the express agreement that he submits the list of what he wants, and lets you make the purchases, for these gentry like to make a little _economie_, which always benefits themselves, and such _economie_ gives you poor material for him to work upon, instead of good.