'The Culinary Home of Escoffier'
About us
About us
Association Des Disciples Escoffier International
The Disciples d’Auguste Escoffier were created in 1954 by Jean Ducroux, a chef from Nice and President of the Fraternelle des Cuisiniers culinary order. Within this association, he organized a contest, the Grand Prix Auguste Escoffier. However, at that time no culinary organization existed in the south of France; he therefore had the idea of bringing together the chefs of the region’s important hotels. They developed a “proclamation” which then served as statutes, a guide to the induction ceremony, etc.
A first chapter was created at the beginning of the 1960s ender the presidency of Eugene Herbodeau, who had worked with Escoffier and had written a book about him with Paul Thalamas, one of his other followers.
Eighty Disciples were inducted on that day. The Disciples d’Auguste Escoffier have since developed throughout France and abroad.
When Jean Ducroux passed on, different presidents took up the reins. In the 1980s, Henri Ricottier contributed greatly to widening the Disciples’ influence, and regional Delegations flourished. Then came a new president, Jean-Claude Guillon, chef at the Grand Hôtel du Cap Ferrat. Along with the new secretary general Bernard-Louis Jaunet and the organization’s management, he revised the statutes that were no longer appropriate and attempted to build a dynamic, well-organized organization that brought together all of the delegations under one single banner
“Esprit Escoffier”
“Esprit Escoffier”
In 2007, the International President set a goal to bring together all of the Disciples Escoffier from around the world, modernise the Disciples, and commit them to a campaign of :
Equality and Appearance
There is no distinction of rank amongst the Disciples; their induction is identical.
Knowledge and Transmission
Escoffier's make an effort to share and pass on their knowledge.
Culture and Modernity
Escoffier's respect culinary history & encourage continual evolution.
Generosity and Unity
Disciples support charity.
Strategies & Plans
Strategies & Plans
The goal of the International Order of Disciples of Auguste Escoffier has been to
honour the memory of Auguste Escoffier. It promotes and preserves his work and maintains the great culinary traditions, especially as they pertain to educational, secondary, higher, and professional training for chefs, and to apprenticeships, the traditional path taken by 80% of starred chefs.
- To
organise culinary events worthy of these traditions and to
honour people of haute cuisine.
- Today, there are more than 20,000 members around the world.
- Our main goal is to lead a true push for young people and to encourage them to rediscover the desire and motivation to be chefs.
To do this, the International Order of Disciples of Auguste Escoffier is working in closer cooperation with schools, establishing contacts between professionals and students. The Order also makes a particular effort with students’ parents, in order to explain the dignity of a chef’s job and the considerable opportunities for promotion offered in their companies.
- To earn the loyalty of young people—whether apprentices, employees, or assistants—by continually reminding them of the actions and thoughts of our great master chef, a kind-hearted and deeply altruistic man.
- To always remember a subtle yet essential notion:
“man should respect man.”
Escoffier & Charity
Escoffier & Charity
Escoffier and Humanism
Escoffier was always very concerned by social injustice. One of his greatest concerns was to help young chefs’ careers take off.
"Unable to bear injustice and misery, he was always a good Samaritan towards the unfortunate.” – Paul Thalamas, Eugene Herbordeau
At the Savoy and the Carlton Hotels London, he always hired a few people more than he needed so that they would have a job.
During World War I, he took care not only of soldiers but also of the families of chefs that were at the front, organising charity parties, the profits from which were given to these families. For my workers who fought in the war, I had made provisions to ensure that when the war ended they would be able to find work in our kitchens.”
Waste nothing and give it all away
Unfortunately, hygiene regulations were not once what they are now! Escoffier therefore recovered everything that could still be used or consumed: coffee grounds and tea leaves for fresh brews, bread trimmings by the pound (it was good bread!), cheap cuts, fowl and game carcasses carefully collected in enameled pails, etc. In London, both at the Savoy and at the Carlton, all of that was intended for the Little Sisters of the Poor, who would come with their cart to pick it up at the kitchen everyday.
Projet d’assistance mutuelle pour l’extinction du paupérisme
Compared to the people he spent time with, the luxury world in which Escoffier worked and which was flooded with money probably made him even more sensitive to social inequalities.
In 1910, he published his Projet d’assistance mutuelle pour l’extinction du paupérisme (Mutual Assistance Project for the Elimination of Poverty), in which he established, almost nonchalantly, the main guidelines of a social policy that would be developed years later.
The work carried out by the Disciples Escoffier
The Disciples Escoffier follow their master’s path. Each year various activities take place in different regions and countries.
Every year at the beginning of January, the Escoffier's from Paris gather with those from Toques Blanches to prepare and sell Galettes des Rois cakes for the “Nez Rouges” (Red Noses); that is, the Fédération des Maladies Orphelines (Federation for Ill Orphans). At the Escoffier’s yearly chapter meeting, a raffle is held, and the proceeds brought in from this raffle also go to the Federation.
The Escoffiers from Var Alpes du Sud use their annual profits to buy and present wheelchairs to disabled people. As for the group from Lyon France Centre, they hold a big dinner in support of the “Petit Monde” (Small World) organisation, which assists parents of seriously ill children.
Education
Education is in partnership with
Westminster Kingsway College acknowledging their historical ties. A committee of concerned academics & hoteliers came together to develop a school for professional cookery. Amongst the committee was Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935)
Honours
We work in partnership with the
The Conseil Culinaire Francais the awarding body behind the Association Culinaire Francaise. This was first established by Emile Fetu and Georges Auguste Escoffier in 1953; under patronage to the French Ambassador to London
Introduction Video Clip to Westminster College
Escoffier and Education
Westminster College began as a School of Hospitality in Vincent Square in 1910 when in 1908 a consultative committee which included Sir Isidore Salmon, Auguste Escoffier and César Ritz was established to design training programmes in professional cookery in readiness to produce graduates that could work in London's finest hotels. The first course to be developed was the Cookery Technical Day School, which was soon to be formulated into the Professional Chef Diploma. Within a couple of years, the school had added food service to its course portfolio and a training restaurant was opened. Records show that this was in fact the UK's first Hospitality School established in 1910.
The school developed during the interwar years as additional kitchens, cold rooms and larder and pastry areas were added. A two-year hotel manager's course replaced the food service course. There were plans for a 50-bedroom 'training hotel', which had begun construction in 1939. This unfortunately was stopped as a result of the outbreak of war and was never completed.
Following the Second World War, the Vincent Rooms restaurant was extended, and in 1953 the Escoffier Restaurant was opened. Further kitchens were added as well as a wine cellar. The restaurants have evolved over a considerable period of time alongside the School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts at Westminster Kingsway College producing graduates who are now working in hotels and restaurants all over the world. In 1985 there was a substantial and comprehensive refit of the whole school.
International members
International members
30,000
30,000
Deligations
Deligations
52
52
UK Members
UK Members
125
125
UK Chapters
UK Chapters
17
17
