Cuisinier:
Pellaprat (Henri Paul): French chef (born Paris, 1869; died Paris, 1950). After serving his apprenticeship with Pons, a Parisian pastry cook, Pellaprat obtained work at the
Champeaux and them became assistant chef to Casimir Moisson at the Maison
Dorée, where eventually he became the chef. In the army he was
assigned to the officer's mess at Verdun. Pellaprat became a cookery
instructor at the Cordon-Blue schools in Paris and wrote many books on the
culinary art that are still considered to be important today: L'Art
Culinaire moderne (first edition 1935), La Cuisine familiale et
pratique and Le Poisson dans la cuisine
française.
Oliver (Raymond): French chef (born Langon, 1909). His father, who had been a chef at the Savoy in London, kept a hotel in Bordeaux where Oliver started his apprenticeship. In 1948 he and Louis Vaudable, owner of Maxim's (which had been closed when france
was liberated), reopened the Grand Véfour restaurant and restored
it to its former glory. In 1950 Oliver became the manager of the
restaurant and its success was assured: Colette and Jean Cocteau were
among the early customers and it was soon patronized by other Parisian
celebrities.
Raymond Oliver can be regarded as one of the great innovators and
reformers of French cuisine, as evidenced by such dishes as red mullet
with basil butter in puff pastry, ragout of pike and crayfish with
aniseed, sautéed chicken in honey vinegar, stuffed guinea fowl Jean
Cocteau, or the simpler lampreys à la bordelaise and other
classic regional dishes. French cuisine had gained a great deal from hid
humour and his deep knowledge of the culinary arts, which he demonstrated
in television programmes where he cooked his recipes himself (his son,
Michel, has now taken his place). He has also lectured in other countries
and is the author of various books, including La Gastronomie à
travers le mond (1963), Cuisine pour mes amis (1976) and Les
Amis du Véfour (1983).
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Nignon (Édouard): French chef
(born Nantes. 1865; died 1934), regarded as one of the greatest masters of
French cuisine. His apprenticeship and his exceptionally successful career
took him to the most famous restaurants in France - Potel et Chabot, the
Maison Dorée, the Café Anglais, Bignon, Magny, Noël
Peter's, Paillard and Lapérouse - and also to the Claridges in
London and L'Ermitage in Moscow. He was head chef to the Tsar, the Emperor
of Austria and Pesident Woodrow Wilson. In 1918 he took over the
management of the restaurant Larue, exchanging his white chef's waistcoat
for the black suit of a maître d'Hôtel, causing Sacha Guitry
to comment: "He spent two-thirds of his life dressed all in white or all
in black". He wrote three cookery books in which he recorded his
experiences: L'Heptaméron des gourmets ou les Délices de
la cuisine française (1919); Éloges de la cuisine
française (1933), with preface by Sacha Guitry; and Les
Plaisirs de la table (1926). Some of his recipes, such as beuchelle
tourangelle (rice, calve's kidneys and morels in a cream sauce), are
still much appreciated by gourmets.
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Laguipière: French chef (born mid 18th century; died Vilnius, 1812). He learned his trade in the household of Condé and followed the family into exile. On his
return to France, he went to work for Nepoleon and Crarême was one
of his pupils. Laguipière then moved into the service of Marshal
Murat, travelling to Naples with his employer and then accompanying him on
the Russian compaign. He died during the retreat of the French army from
Moscow and his body was brought back to France on the back of his master's
carriage. Carême paid hid respects to Laguipière in his
introduction to Le Cuisinier parisien: "You were a man of
outstanding gifts which brought you the hatred of those who should have
admired your efforts to improve our existence. You should have died for
Paris, respected by all for your great work".
This great chef left no literary legacy, but his name lives on in
several recipes, some of which may have been merely dedicated to him by
other chefs: sauces; fillets of sole, turbot, or brill (poached, the
coated in a white wine on normande sauce and sprinkled with a julienne of
truffles marinated in Medeira); and a salmis of pheasant (part roasted,
jointed, then casseroled in a stock made from the bones, onions, bacon,
red wine, Madeira and a little bouillon).
La Varenne (François Pierre):
French chef (born Dijon, 1618; died Dijon, 1678). He was in charge of the
kitchens of the Marquis d'Uxelles, the governor of Chalon-sur-Saône,
after whom mushroom duxelles was probably named, since this dish was
perfected by La Varenne. This master chef is also remembered as the author
of the first systematically planned books on cookery and confectionary,
which revealed his attention to detail and showed how French cuisine,
having been influenced by Italian cookery during the previous 150 years,
had now developed a style all of its own. Le Cuisinier
français was published in 1651, followed by Le
Pâtissier français (1653), Le Confiturier
français (1664) and L'Ecole des ragoûts (1668).
These books, especially the first, were reprinted several times before the
end of the 18th century and marked a new direction in French cookery, a
move away from the overelaborate dishes of the past. His books are now
rare, but they have been consulted for centuries and contain recipes that
can still be used today.
La Varenne is particularly remembered for his potage à la
reine, invented in honour of Marguerite de Navarre, the recipe for
which is still usable, as well as his soupresse (terrine) of fish,
his stuffed breast of veal and his tourte admirable (a marzipan
(almond paste) base covered with a lime cream and preserved cherries, the
topped with meringue). His name is still linked with various dishes that
include mushrooms, either as a salpicon or as duxelles.
Montagné (Prosper): French
chef (born Carcassonne, 1864; died Sèvres, 1948). Son of a hotelier
from Carcassonne, he was to have studied architecture but adopted his
father's occupation when his parents opened a hotel in Toulouse. He worked
his way up through the kitchens of the most famous establishments in
Paris, Cauterets, San Remo and Monte Carlo. He then returned to Paris,
where he became chef first at the Pavillon d'Armenonville, then at Lodoyen
and finally at the Grand Hotel (where he had had his first job), finishing
there as head chef. It was then that he published his first culinary work,
with Prosper Salles, La Grande Cuisine illustrée (1900), to
be followed by the Grand Livre de la cuisine (1929). With Dr
Gottschalk, he published the Larousse gastronomique, the first
edition of which dates back from 1938. Among his works are La Cuisine
fine (1913), Le Trésor de la cuisine du Bassin
méditerranéan, la Festin occitan (1941).
During World War I Montagné organized the kitchen of the Allied
armies. After the war he visited the Unated States, where he was adviser
to the management of the Chicago abattoirs. He then returned to Paris and
opened a restaurant in the Rue de l'Echelle, which was considered by by
some to provide the best fare in the whole of France and was frequented by
celebrities during the 1920's. Here he created numerous dishes, but
management difficulties forced him to close this establishment. In
addition to this Prosper Montagné organized the first Concours de
Cuisine and serveral gastronomic exhibitions. His name will live on,
thanks largely to the club Prosper Montagné, an associaton of
gastronomes and professionals founded by René Morand in memory of
the master.
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Escoffier (Auguste): A French chef (born Villeneuve-Loubet, 1846; died Monte-Carlo, 1935). He began his career at the young age of 13 with his uncle, who ran a famous restaurant
in Nice, then worked in Paric, Nice, Lucerne and Monte-Carlo. In 1890, in
association with ritz and Echenard, two masters of the hotel business, he
opened the Savoy Hotel in London and remained in this illustrious
establishment until 1898, when, for personal reasons, he gave up the
direction of the Savoy kitchens to take charge of those of the Carlton
Hotel, then one of the most famous in Europe.
Escoffier's culinary career was brilliant. He was regarded as the
emperor of the world's kitchens, a title conferred upon him by the Emperor
William II, who spent some time on the steamer Imperator of the
Hamburg American Line, which Escoffier had joined to take charge of the
imperial kitchens. In the course of a conversation with Escoffier, the
Emperor, congratulating him, said: "I am the Emperor of Germany, but you
are the Emperor of chefs."
As a reward for all he had done to enhance the prestige of French
cooking throughout the world, Escoffier was made a Chevalier of the Legion
of Honour in 1920 and Officer of the Legion in 1928. Escoffier retired in
1921. He was the 74 years of age and had praticed his art for 62 years. In
all the history of cookery, there is no other example of such a long
professional career. He died in February 1935, nearly 89 years
old.