“My dear Heinrich,” the Hofrat said, with a magnificent sweep of his hand, and accentuating every single syllable, “You might just as well have offered me a veal cutlet.”
Joseph Wechsberg (1907-1983)

Wechsberg’s Tafelspitz for the Hofrat is a particular favorite of Blank’s for its depiction of a European world all but gone, a world in which meals are prepared, served and consumed at every point by seasoned connoisseurs. In this short story, Wechsberg contends that traveling Viennese aficionados of the beef cut tafelspitz once carried charts with them to instruct foreign butchers on exactingly specific cuts that do not exist outside the Viennese tradition.

Blank maintains fat dossiers on thousands of food topics. His encyclopedic file on tafelspitz bulges with notes, clippings and manuscripts.