What I learned from reading Ritz and Escoffier: The Hotelier, The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure Class by Luke Barr.
Ritz was not humiliated.
He was furious.
After all he'd done for the Savoy, this was his thanks, to be cast out under a cloud of suspicion and false allegations.
It was outrageous.
Everything he'd done had been for the betterment of the Savoy.
Of course, he'd sign for checks and extended credit.
Sometimes that was his job, as the manager, the host, the personification of the hotel and its generosity.
All those who'd been given credit would certainly be paying their bills.
It was insulting to suggest otherwise.
And as for his dealings with the backers of the Ritz hotel syndicate, he had been perfectly abhorred from the outset.
Richard had always understood that Ritz maintained his independence and would be involved in outside projects.
Indeed, from the very beginning, this freedom had been written into his contract with the Savoy.
For Richard to be holding it against him now was nothing less than a betrayal.
But it was what Richard had said, that Ritz and Escoffier had forgot that they were servants and assumed the attitude of masters and proprietors.
Those words echoed in his head even now.
The idea that they should be seen as servants was the cruelest of insults.
Cesare Ritz, August Escoffier, servants.
That was an excerpt in which Cesar Ritz and Auguste Scoffier are fired from the grandest hotel in London called the Savoy.
And it comes from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Ritz and Escoffier, the hotel, the chef, and the rise of the leisure class.
And it was written by Luke Barr.