AUGUSTE ESCOFFIER

Born; 28th October 1846 - Villeneuve-Loubet, France.

Died; 12 February 1935 - Monte Carlo, Monaco.

   Escoffier was born at Villeneuve-sur-Loup (later renamed to Villeneuve-Loubet), 9 miles (15 km) outside of Nice. His father was a blacksmith and a tobacco grower. Escoffier was very slight of build, and his father may not have thought him suited for the blacksmith business. Consequently, in 1859 at the age of 13, the young Georges-Auguste started working for his uncle who, three years previously in 1856, had opened the Restaurant Français in Nice (the restaurant stayed in business until 1910.) 

Early Years (first 30)

   The culinary arts, the choice of ingredients, and the organisation of a culinary service were strictly taught to the young man who would one day change the history of cuisine. In 1865, was quickly noticed Escoffier met a Monsieur Bardoux who was visiting Nice. Bardoux invited him to come to work for him in Paris on Antin Avenue at his “Reine Blanche” restaurant (later to gain fame as the most popular summertime restaurant in France under the name “Petit Moulin Rouge”.) a Parisian restaurant that was all the rage; by 1867, he had become “Chef Garde-Manger” and by 1870, he had become Rotisserie Assistant; however, when the war with Prussia broke out in July 1870 Escoffier departed for Alsace, where he cooked for the French regiments; he was recruited to cook for Marshal Achille Bazaine and other higher-ups stationed on the Rhine. There were two main armies there. One was headed by a Marshal Mac-Mahon, who surrendered his 83,000 soldiers to the Germans on 31 August 1870. This increased the pressure on the remaining army, commanded by Bazaine, forcing it to take refuge inside Metz. Escoffier became part of the besieged French along with 140,000 other French soldiers. Bazaine surrendered Metz to the Germans on 27 October 1870 (Paris surrendered on 28 January 1871.) Escoffier spent six months at Wiesbaden as a prisoner of war. After the first two months, though, he began working as “chef de cuisine” for Marshal Mac-Mahon and his staff, who were also imprisoned at Wiesbaden (and perhaps overjoyed that Bazaine had finally surrendered so that Escoffier could be sent their way.) Escoffier was freed in April 1871, and returned to Paris. Sadly, Paris was in the middle of the Paris Commune turmoil, and this time, it was a French army that was about to besiege the city he was in. Escoffier left Paris immediately for Versailles, where the French army was organized from, and went back to work for Marshal Mac-Mahon. When he returned, he worked for numerous restaurants in Paris before In 1878, he tried his hand at owing his own restaurant in Cannes, buying a restaurant called “Le Faisan d’Or” (The Golden Pheasant) which he ran for two years. In 1880 (some sources say 1878), he married Delphine Daffis, a publisher’s daughter. He and Delphine would have two sons and one daughter. In the same year, he rented out the Golden Pheasant’s building, and went to Paris to manage a catering firm called “La Maison Chevet” located in the Palais Royal; the firm looked after the great banquets held at the Palace. He then worked for Monsieur Paillard at “Restaurant Maire.” In 1884, he moved to Monte Carlo to work there at the Grand Hotel, newly opened by hotel manager from modest origins named César Ritz. His title was “Directeur de Cuisine.” During the ensuing summers, he worked in Lucerne, Switzerland at the Hotel National. Opened in 1870, and purpose-built as a hotel, the Hotel National was considered the hotel to be at during the summer in Europe. In 1890, he followed Ritz to London, to help at the Savoy Hotel as Head of Restaurant Services (Delphine and the three children stayed in Monte Carlo.) 

32 years in London

   The Savoy had been opened the previous year, 1889, by Richard D’ Oyley Carte, an opera producer, but was losing money. Ritz and Escoffier did a re-opening of the hotel in 1890 at the age of 44 where he spent nine years. By now, Escoffier had his own team of trusted workers, and he insisted on contracts that allowed he and his team to work other places for 6 months of the year. He and his team went on to Rome, where he oversaw the opening of the “Grand Hotel” there. Reputed both for being a gourmand as well as for his passion for the opera, it was whilst he was at the Savoy the name of Escoffier became recognised worldwide, when he created the Peach Melba and Toast Melba. in honour of a famous hotel guest, the opera singer Nellie Melba in 1893. It is evident to me, that the dish called Poiré Hélène was also named by Escoffier after Nellie Melba. Nellie Melba was born Helen Porter Mitchell, and she was always Escoffier’s Belle Hélène. In 1897;Derby "Poularde", a dish of plump chicken Roast with rice, truffles and foie gras, stuffed with smoked and accompanied by a garrison of truffles and foie gras; There were also famous dishes such as "Tournedos Rossini" and "Chicken Jeannette". Some took their name colour dominating in them, such as Carmen or Cardinal, or any historical event, case of "Chicken Marengo", by the battle in which Napoleon defeated the Austrians. According to his own confession, 'the best cuisine came from female inspiration': "my success is due to the fact that my best dishes are created for women". Escoffier and Ritz resigned from the Savoy owing to tensions with the board, and D’ Oyley Carte’s wife. In 1896 the duo had opened their own company called the “Ritz Hotel Development Company”, which drew on Escoffier’s team to help get grand hotels off the ground. Escoffier merely used the freed-up time from the Savoy to oversee preparations for the opening of Ritz Hotel in Paris in the place Vendôme that year. In 1898, Escoffier returned to London to oversee the opening, followed by 23 years at The Carlton Hotel in London by their company, which was to take much business away from the Savoy. This was where he built an outstanding reputation for haute cuisine until his retirement. In 1904, Escoffier was asked by the Hamburg-Amerika ship line to plan the kitchens for their ocean liners. As part of his involvement, he even cooked for German Kaiser Wilhelm II on the ocean liner called “Imperator.” In 1907, his son Paul launched a line of commercially-bottled pickles and sauces under the company name of A. Escoffier Ltd, which were a success. In the summer of 1914, Escoffier was 67 when the First World War broke out. He carried on at the Carlton during the entire war. The first thing he did the instant war broke out was stock provisions for the hotel’s kitchen, remembering the food shortages of the 1870 war. His kitchen staff was reduced by a third, as men went off to war and women went off to munitions factories. The first shortage his restaurant faced was meat and poultry. But Escoffier considered flexibility and adaptability the sign of a true chef. He switched to promoting venison, which was not rationed, braising it to make it tender. Fish was not rationed, but some types became hard to get, so he switched from using sole to the flat fish called “dab”, and to get the 40-odd salmon his restaurant required daily, he bypassed all the middle men and arranged direct buying deals with Irish and Scottish fishermen. On Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, 712 people booked to have dinner that night at the Carlton. That the war had ended officially a few hours before did not instantly change Escoffier’s food supplies for later that day. For that night, he invented a dish called “Mignonettes d’ Agneau Sainte-Alliance”, small patties made from lamb, veal, pork and some chicken, ground and mixed with tinned foie gras, breadcrumbs and some chopped truffle to make the meat go further. In 1919, the French President Raymond Poincaré held a ceremony in London on 11 November 1919 to vest awards on some French people living in London, and surprised Escoffier by presenting him with the Chevalier de la Légion d’ Honneur, making him the first chef ever to receive this award.

Organisation

   Many of the world’s most well-known hotels were established by this visionary team, such as the Carlton, the Grand Hôtel in Rome, and the Ritz in Paris, London, New York, Montreal, among others. Heading such an empire necessitates an outstanding capacity for organisation, Escoffier radically simplified food service by encouraging the use of seasonal ingredients and denouncing elaborate garnishes. He also streamlined the organisation of professional kitchens, with his delegation of tasks gave birth to the “kitchen brigade,” which is still widely used today. Despite the honours and recognition he received from kings and emperors of his time, he never forgot the difficult years at the beginning of his career, and in addition to making numerous food donations, Association Culinaire Française de Secours Mutuels (French Culinary Association for Mutual Assistance) was established by Emile Fetu & Georges Auguste Escoffier in 1932 following the merge of the Club Culinaire c1845 and the Société Culinaire Française founded by Escoffier with Chef Emile Fetu in 1903

Wellbeing

   At his time at the savoy, women didn’t dine out in public places in the Anglo-Saxon world, only men did. Escoffier changed that at the Savoy, he also published his Projet d’ assistance mutuelle pour l’ extinction du paupérisme. In addition to his rationalisation of work, he fought against alcoholism, prohibited tobacco, and demanded cleanliness, thereby putting an end to the lack of hygiene that prevailed in the kitchens of the nineteenth century. A committee of concerned academics and hospitality representatives came together to develop a school for professional cookery. Amongst the committee was Auguste Escoffier, a name synonymous with classical French cuisine, this school was known as Westminster Kingsway's School of Hospitality in Vincent Square. He also had an undeniable talent for drawing and felt it necessary for all of his employees to be educated. 

L’ Art Culinaire

   Escoffier’s first written work was a magazine, L’ Art Culinaire; it was first published in 1883. In 1903 the topics raised in L’ Art Culinaire were updated as a book Le Guide Culinaire (The Culinary Guide), Le Guide Culinaire is usually, today, accredited to Escoffier alone. In reality, this book was the combined work of Escoffier and the then famous chefs Emile Fetu and Phileas Gilbert. Its 5,000 recipes and garnishes from the French tradition, is also a work of reference. It includes famous original creations such as Peach Melba and Tournedos Rossini. The title of the magazine he inaugurated in 1911, Les Carnets d’ Épicure (Epicurean Notebooks), illustrates the unconditional love he dedicated to the art of living. this was followed by The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery. This listed dishes according to their order of presentation and included the first á la carte menus; Escoffier, Emile Fetu, and Phileas Gilbert also wrote that unique book for chefs, Le Livre des menus (1912); “The Book of Menus”); and is available in English. and Ma cuisine (1934); “My Cuisine”).

Escoffier Retires

  From the day Escoffier and Cesar Ritz arrived at the Savoy Hotel, they were an unstoppable combination. From the Carlton Hotel London Escoffier retired to Monte Carlo where his wife and children had been based all those years in 1920 at the age of 74 and in 1928 he was upgraded to become an officer Legion of Honour. he died there in 1935, at the age of 89 on 12 February 1935 at his home at 8 bis avenue de la Costa, just 16 days after his wife had Delphine died, his funeral cortège drove the few miles to the village of his birth Villeneuve-Loubet, today it is a town of over 15,000. Escoffier was interred in the family tomb. You may visit the small, museum in the house where he was born, the Musée Escoffier de l’Art Culinaire. The town of Villeneuve-Loubet is in the department of Alpes-Maritimes, the Côte d’Azur, Provence.

Prosper Montagné

   It would be another thirty years, after Escoffier, before another 20th-century chef, Prosper Montagné, published, with others, another revolutionary work, the Larousse Gastronomique. The Larousse Gastronomique brought French cuisine into the middle of the 20th century. In the midst of the 20th Century would come Fernand Point, the éminence grise behind the creation of Nouvelle Cuisine and today’s Modern French Cuisine. at Westminster Kingsway in 1951 the Vincent Rooms were extended and in 1953, the Escoffier Room opened; a fine dining room that is named after one of the College’s patrons, Auguste Escoffier

Carême, Escoffier, Fetu, Gilbert, Montagné and Point 

   Recipes may have changed; sauces may have been simplified, the equipment may have improved but all French chefs, even today, work with Carême, Escoffier, Fetu, Gilbert, Montagné and Point whispering in his or her ears. In 1966, the house he was born in at Villeneuve-Loubet was made into a Culinary Art Museum, an initiative spearheaded by Joseph Donon, his former Proterge. If you search for the influence of Escoffier, visit this Museum.

Auguste Escoffier is the 'Chef of Kings and the King of Chefs’.

Musée Escoffier de l’Art Culinaire

3 de la Rue Escoffier

Villeneuve-Loubet,

For opening times call 04.9320.8051 or send an email to:: escoffier.conservation@gmail.com

Sources

Ashburner, F. “Escoffier, Georges Auguste (1846–1935)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50441, accessed 12 Nov 2005].

James, Kenneth. Escoffier: The King of Chefs. New York: International Publishing Group. 2006. pp 249 – 253.