Escoffier: Britain’s first Master Chef

Tags

A Guide to Modern Cookery, Georges Auguste Escoffier, Le Guide Culinaire, Michel Roux Jr., The First Master Chef: Michel Roux on Escoffier

He may not be a household name but Frenchman Georges Auguste Escoffier changed the face of British cuisine – only he did so more than 100 years ago. He introduced French ‘Haute Cuisine’ to some of London’s finest hotels, such as the Savoy, the Carlton and the Ritz.

Auguste Escoffier (born October 28, 1846, died February 12, 1935) was a French chef and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmets, and was one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine. He codified the recipes for the five mother sauces. He published “Le Guide Culinaire”, which is still used as a major reference work, both in the form of a cookbook and a textbook on cooking. His recipes, techniques and approaches to kitchen management remain highly influential today, and have been adopted by chefs and restaurants not only in France, but also throughout the world.

“Escoffier put a love of great food at the heart of modern Britain,” says French chef Michel Roux Jr. “He revolutionized the professional kitchen and brought glamour and drama into the dining room.” You can watch Michel Roux Jr. pay homage to one of his greatest food heroes in the BBC Four programme The First Master Chef: Michel Roux on Escoffier.

Escoffier is especially praised in the small town of Palm City, Florida, more commonly known as “America’s French Kitchen.” The annual French Sauce Competition is held here, where aspiring home chefs compete to produce the best béchamel, espagnole, hollandaise, tomato, and veloute sauces, more commonly known as the ‘five mother sauces’.

I actually found the translated English open library edition of this book free online and was able to download it in pdf or ePUB formats. You don’t actually have to download it even, just save the link and you can access it whenever needed (https://archive.org/details/cu31924000610117). Now you can get practicing those five mother sauces! I think it would take a lifetime to study the whole book myself!