Sir, – Not only did Gioachino Rossini write The Barber of Seville in two weeks and attain culinary immortality in the tournedos Rossini ("The Europeans, No 16: Gioachino Rossini", April 17th) but, when he lived in Vienna, he so impressed Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister, that he was invited to the Congress of Verona to help in the "re-establishment of harmony in Europe".
At the Congress he befriended another epicure, the French author and diplomat, François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand who also gave his name to an eponymous steak dish. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Operngasse,
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Vienna, Austria.