choron is also remembered for the food he served during the siege of paris by the prussians, which began on 19 september 1870. during the siege, parisians were reduced to eating cats, dogs, and rats. the bourgeois did not want to eat such "low" animals, and the "de luxe" restaurants had plenty of customers. as food reserves dwindled, these restaurants, including voisin, improvised. choron served exotic animal dishes at voisin. for the midnight christmas meal of 1870, choron had a menu mostly of the best parts of the animals kept in the "jardin d'acclimatation" (one of the paris zoos). the menu – stuffed head of donkey, elephant consommé, roasted camel, kangaroo stew, bear shanks roasted in pepper sauce, wolf in deer sauce, cat with rat, and antelope in truffle sauce – has become legendary. the menu's wines were mouton-rothschild 1846, romanée-conti 1858 and château palmer 1864.