Escoffier- French Master Chef or The Father of Fast Food?
July 30, 2008
Escoffier was a French chef and restauranteur who was not only responsible for many of the recipes, still in use today in kitchens - but also the disciplines undertaken in a modern professional kitchen.
His modern guide to cooking which is the ?Guide Culinaire? is owned by almost every professional chef ? and most regard it as a vital reference.
As Gordon Ramsay has said of the Guide Culinaire ” I will always refer back to an authority like Escoffier” Escoffier inspired even Gordon Ramsay.
Escoffier says in the introduction of the Guide Culinaire - that his focus was upon delivering Fast Food to a new generation.
Times were changing. The introduction of steam had allowed a travelling generation, that wanted then to do everything at speed! ? Including eat, without spending hours as was the custom of the day.
Escoffier says: Palatial hotels were built, sumptuous restaurants were opened. Modern society contracted the habit of partaking of light suppers in these places, after the theatres of the Metropolis had closed; and the well-to-do began to flock to them on Sundays, in order to give- their servants the required weekly rest.”
He concludes of the need for fast service and the huge changes he brought about to cater for the new generation “Circumstances ordained that I should be one of the movers in this revolution, and that I should manage the kitchens of two establishments which have done most to bring it about.” It was not just recipes that changed - but the organization of restaurants too.
So Escoffier became a father of fast food for his generationreplacing long drawn out dining with rapid meals, and procedures. And he documented these in the Guide Culinaire. He said:
For it was…. with the view of meeting the many and persistent demands for such a record that the present volume was written”
The guide is now available free in downloadable form and is a fascinating insight not just into cookery methods, but also into history.
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