Dining Room and Office

"There is a feast tradition in Chantilly, dating from the Grand Condé. It is passed to his grandson, Prince Louis-Henri of Bourbon at the eighteenth century; then to the Duke of Aumale, on the following century". Nicole Garnier, general curator of the Heritage, in charge of the Condé Museum.

The Dining Room or Stag Gallery.

Architect Honoré Daumet converted the Stag Gallery, the Duke of Aumale's gigantic party/dining room, from 1875 to 1880.

The prince hosted the entire artistic and intellectual elite of his time with the hunting tapestries of Maximilien from Bernard van Orley' sketches. This series was made at the Gobelins at the end of the seventeenth century for the Count of Toulouse, Louis XIV's natural son. A tribune dominates the entrance door to accommodate musicians during dinners.

The Office Gallery: Open to the public for the first time in 2006, the Office Gallery of the Château of Chantilly is adjacent to the Stag Gallery (1880), the Duke of Aumale's party and dining room. It is the intermediate room between the kitchens (located at the château's ground floor) and the guests. The office adjoins with the kitchen through an acoustic orifice. The dishes are carried from the kitchen and kept warm with a dish warmer. The food is then served on platters by the head-waiter and his assistants, before being carried to the table. The exhibited objects give information on how the diner ceremonial of Chantilly in the nineteenth century. The kitchen's copper battery of Chantilly, the menus from our archives and the old seating arrangements can be seen. The porcelain (china) services, the silverware pieces, the crystal glasses, and a particular hunting piece, formerly garnished at the center of the tables, are reminiscent of the time's table manners.

To learn more about the kitchens, click here.