A chef that the Duke of Wellington had on one occasion laid himself out* to prepare a soup which would surpass anything of the kind that had ever been done before. This was produced one evening at a dinner party at Apsley House**, and met with the commendation it deserved.
All would have gone well had not the Duke, who was deep in conversation with his neighbour, helped himself to salt. This was reported to the cook, who, without waiting to change his working attire, came upstairs, and, boiling with indignation, entered the dining room, and before all the guests discharged himself from the Duke's service. "The insult !" he exclaimed as he quitted the house, "the insult, to suggest that my soup required even a grain more salt !"
威靈頓公爵有一個廚師，曾經努力烹調一道羹湯，務求味道之美，歷來同類羹湯無可比擬。有一次，阿普斯利府**夜宴，就以這道羹湯奉客，果然大家都說美味。
一切本來很好。威靈頓一面和鄰席款款傾談，一面給自己的羹湯加了點鹽。有人告訴廚師，廚師一聽，工作服都沒有更換，就跑到樓上，怒沖沖走進飯廳，在所有賓客面前，宣布辭職。他離開阿普斯利府時，還憤憤不平說：「真是奇恥大辱，真是奇恥大辱，我煑的羹湯，一顆鹽都不用加！」
*To lay oneself out是「竭盡心力」的意思。
**阿普斯利府是威靈頓公爵住所的名稱。