Auguste Escoffier | A taste of France

Auguste Escoffier was the instigator of classical French dining. He modernised professional kitchens. It was he who masterminded the famous British desserts Peach Melba and Cherries Jubilee. He brought glamour to the culinary stage and pushed restauration into the 20^th century. However, in the 88 years since his death, his innovative practices, unswerving dedication to flavour and his belief that “above all, make it simple”, a phrase we don’t often associate with elegant French cooking of the 19^th century, have largely been forgotten. Ex-chef Ally Mitchell looks into the life of one of France’s greatest culinary artists…

Auguste Escoffier an extraordinary chef

Born in 1846, Auguste was thrown into the world of professional kitchens when he was only a child – aged 13, he started an apprenticeship at his uncle’s restaurant in Nice. Torture is the word to best describe his experience. Restaurant conditions were abysmal as the profession involved negligence, alcoholism and vulgarity, and the apprentices bore the brunt of it. His uncle even laughed at Auguste’s “diminutive stature” as he struggled to see over the stoves. Even so, almost immediately, Auguste proved he was brilliant. He later wrote, “I said to myself, ‘Although I had not originally intended to enter this profession, since I am in it, I will work in such a fashion that I will rise above the ordinary, and I will do my best to raise again the prestige of the chef de cuisine’.”

In 1865, aged 19, he was invited to work at the most fashionable restaurant in Paris, Le Petit Moulin Rouge. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, he was appointed chef de cuisine for the army based on the Rhine in Metz. He even continued to cook for his brothers-in-arms once captured. It is highly likely that during these times of scarcity, Escoffier learnt the value of reducing waste. He became the first chef to study canning techniques in order to preserve ingredients, and later established a canning side-business, which in 1893, started selling tins of crushed tomatoes.

Escoffier at the Ritz Hotel

Returning to civilian life, in 1880, he met and married Delphine Daffis. It is rumoured he won her hand in a game of billiards, but whether this worrisome story is true or not, they remained together until their deaths. I say ‘together’ loosely, as Escoffier’s career eventually whisked him away from her for around 30 years. First though, they moved to Monte Carlo. Escoffier had been headhunted as Director de Cuisine at the Grand Hotel, the new and flourishing casino hotel. There, he met the person who would have the biggest impact on his life: Cesar Ritz.

The two men, a chef and a hotelier, shared a visionary outlook on hotel operations, and used the Grand as their playground to trial new ideas. Escoffier fashioned the prix fixe menu and the new dining service of à la russe in which each dish appeared one after the other. This was highly unusual as everything normally arrived together in the fashionable à la française banqueting style. Presentations too were simplified, dishes became lighter, and anything inedible was removed from the plates.

Escoffier and the Savoy Hotel

By 1890, Escoffier and Ritz were summoned to London’s Savoy Hotel. It was here that Escoffier’s name became legendary, promoting the elegance of French cuisine on a global stage.

Escoffier transformed not only the Savoy into one of the most fashionable dining spots in London, but also rewrote the rule book on British dining culture. The unsophisticated British palette fell in love with his Cuisses de Nymphes à l’Aurore (‘Nymph Thighs at Dawn’) – frogs’ legs on a glassy pool of champagne jelly. Both royalty and the nouveau riche were his clients. As such, his food instigated a transition in societal dynamics. Women, who throughout the 19^thcentury would have been deemed unrespectable if they dined in a restaurant, were swept up in that shift, and what we now recognise as modern restauration was arriving, all thanks to Escoffier.

His and Ritz’s creative efficiency was an unbelievable success, and their hotels bloomed around the world, yet in 1898, they were sacked for alleged malpractice. In 1899, they opened the Carlton Hotel. Escoffier devised a simplified dining experience that was considerably easier for chefs to produce quickly: à la carte menus were a modern creation for guests to select specific dishes.

He introduced English clientele to more simplified French food – fresh vegetables and the five mother sauces, the most popular today being bechamel. For his modernising views and peculiar attitudes towards fashionable society, he was deemed an eccentric. He loved to attend the theatre and opera and collected celebrities as companions which he usually accomplished by naming a dish after them, such as the Peach Melba, dedicated to the famous Australian opera singer Nellie Melba.

Author of a masterpiece

Since his apprenticeship, he wore platform shoes so he could see over the stoves, adding a flamboyance to his attire. Residing in London, this Frenchman was outspoken (quelle surprise), openly holding traditional English cuisine in contempt. In 1903, he published a 5000-recipe masterwork Le Guide Culinaire (‘A Guide to Modern Cookery’). Although it was scattered with peppery remarks about the English upper classes, it also cemented his core techniques and confirmed his culinary mastery.

It was in the kitchens where his influence is greatest – he developed la brigade de cuisine and streamlined kitchen organisation. Kitchens had to quickly serve haute cuisine to clients with limited time. Escoffier believed that the food should never be jeopardised and his new system ensured that no specific tasks were repeated. Instead, duties were delegated depending on the station. He created numerous roles – a pâtissier, saucier, rotissier, and a garde manger who organised the pantry. He banned alcohol and instead served a refreshing malt drink to keep his chefs hydrated. Bad behaviour was forbidden and whenever he himself felt angry he would leave the kitchen to calm down. He insisted chefs keep their whites clean and change to go home. It is thanks to Escoffier than kitchens became considerably more humane places to work, and his rules have become a matter of instinct for chefs today.

An enduring legacy

Despite all of these incredible breakthroughs in gastronomy and service, for which he was the first chef to be awarded Legion d’Honneur, Escoffier’s reputation has tarnished with time. In 1914, an abbreviated version of Escoffier’s Guide was published. Although the authors insisted that the original was of more value – and for a time, the post-WWI society of the 1920s lived by Escoffier’s teachings of good food and lavish excess – it was eventually forgotten in favour of the simplified version. This had the problematic effect of destroying Escoffier’s legacy. Not only were many of his recipes outdated, but the abbreviations redacted his enthusiasm and passion, his dedication to food and flavour. His lifetime’s work became associated with old-fashioned, rigid instructions devoid of reasoning. Accordingly, the French devised Nouvelle Cuisine in the 1960s, while British gastronomy, which continued to cling to the Escoffier practices, fell into a rut.

Escoffier died in 1935. He was an eccentric character ahead of his time. He shaped our culinary repertoires, and it is thanks to him that we all know how to make a bechamel sauce!

Ally Mitchell is a blogger and freelance writer, specialising in food and recipes. Ally left the UK to live in Toulouse in 2021 and now writes about her new life in France on her food blog NigellaEatsEverything.

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