OldCooksBooks.com


Showing page 21 of 43 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

Frewin. Leslie [Editor] - With a Cafe Royal Christmas menu.
The Cafe Royal Story
A Living Legend EDITED BY Leslie Frewin WITH A FOREWARD BY Graham Greene LONDON: HUTCHINSON BENHAM.
FIRST EDITION. 1963. Large 4to. Paste-down and end-paper with sepia photograph. [1] Half title. [2] Frontispiece copy of a Charles Ginner painting of the Cafe Royal. Title page in black with a large ornamental decoration in red. Verso with printers info. 1p Introduction. [1] 2p Contents. 9-10 Paste-down and end-paper with sepia photograph. With numerous photographs and illustrations in-text, some full page. Fully bound in cream cloth. Spine with red writing and boards with fine illustration in red and black. All in excellent condition; as new, protected by a plastic wrapper. Also enclosed is a Christmas Luncheon menu for December 11th 1964, for 'The Horticultural Press Club'. Cream coloured with black text, in fine condition.
- The Cafe Royal, established in 1865, boasted its famously opulent Grill Room, considered one of London's finest dining rooms; the great Empire and Napoleon suite, elegantly lit by chandeliers made of Venetian glass, was favoured by those looking for a memorable party venue. For more than a century after it was built on Regent Street by a Parisian wine merchant, the rich and famous would flock there to eat, drink, dance and be merry. The Grill Room was also once its most notorious. It was there that the Marquess of Queensberry spotted his son, Lord Alfred Douglas (aka Bosie), lunching with Oscar Wilde "in the most loathsome and disgusting relationship". He later wrote a furious letter to his son, threatening to shoot Wilde on sight, to which Bosie insouciantly telegrammed back: "What a funny little man you are." The Café Royal was a favourite haunt of Wilde, who had a famous absinthe hallucination there when he thought the waiter, who was stacking chairs, was in fact watering the floor, covered in tulips, with a watering can. Other famous Patrons included Rudyard Kipling, Noel Coward, Sir Winston Churchill, Cary Grant, Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor, Vitrginia Woolf, Mick Jagger, Princess Diana, Margaret Thatcher and Muhammad Ali. On 2oth January 2009, the curtains came down, literally, in the Café Royal. After 143 illustrious years, the fixtures, fittings and all the equipment of this venerable London institution was being put under the hammer of Bonhams the Auctioneers, after the Crown Estate decided to redevelop the site at that end of Regent Street. Had it spent its life almost anywhere else, the slightly battered silver serving trolley with the fickle steering would have barely raised an eyebrow in the dining room, let alone a flurry of paddles in an auction house. But this piece of functional furniture has had an extraordinary history. Amazingly, the electroplated trolley sold for £12,000 in the Everything-Must-Go sale. By the end of the two-hour auction, more than £200,000 had been raised. All 110 lots had been sold, some for as much as 10 times their asking price. An early 20th century Venetian chandelier adorned with 20 lights was the most expensive lot, going for £15,600, twice its guide price. Lot 93, a pair of late 19th century oak coopered barrels long drained of the alcohol they once contained, went for £8,400, almost five times their estimate. A number of pictures by artists so undistinguished their names weren't even listed in Bonhams' brochure sold for thousands of pounds – purely, it seemed, because they depicted scenes from the Cafe Royal, and had once hung in the venue's famously opulent chambers. One, a scene of the grill room filled with men in top hats and tails, sold for £4,800, despite Bonhams estimating its value at between £200 and £300. One buyer who bid purely for sentimental reasons was Susan Hughes, an antique dealer from Weybridge, who snapped up one of the auction's most curious lots. She ended up paying £4,200 for what the brochure, giving a guide price of £100-£200, described as "a 19th century electroplated duck press". It was in fact the press for ‘Canard a’la Presse’ – for more than a century the celebrated speciality of Paris’s grandest restaurant, La Tour d’Argent. This niche piece of equipment, which resembled a large grapefruit press, is used to squeeze out the juices of a freshly killed and roasted duck carcass, which in turn are used to thicken the duck jus. Hughes's father, Eric Hartwell (see image #3 below) was chief executive of the Forte catering and hotel empire, which bought the Cafe Royal 1954. "I spent much of my childhood playing in the Cafe Royal, and my father was very proud of the duck press," she said. As her husband loaded the contraption into the back of their car, he admitted that though the couple were delighted to own this piece of history, they wouldn't be using it. "We're both vegetarians," he said. So that is the final chapter that should be in the book. Overall it is a fascinating story of a grand eating establishment that was on a par with The Savoy, Claridges, The Ritz et al. One will never see the same again. This interesting volume is a meal, a fine wine and a waltz thro’ a different age with a hearty dose of gossip thrown in to round of a memorable time.

click on image to enlarge

Modern category

ref number: 11111

Herbage. Peter F.
A History of the Worshipful Company of Cooks.
THE COOKS and THE CITY OF LONDON A HISTORY of the WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF COOKS LONDON published for the QUINCENTENARY of the INCORPORATION OF THE COMPANY by PETER F. HERBAGE Master 1974/5 LONDON 1982
12mo. 1fep. Half title. On verso - frontispiece of past Masters. Title page. Verso with printer's info. 1p Dedication [1] 1p Acknowledgements. [1] 1p Contents. [1] 1p Preface. [1] 2p Author's Forward. [2] 1-237. [1] 239-242 Appendix A.B&C. 243-247 List of Masters. 248-255 Appendix D.E.F.G&H. 2p Engravings. 258-260 Index. 1fep. Original full red cloth binding with gilt text on spine and gilt armorial and text on front cover. As new.
- The earliest guilds in England were the ’Frith Gilds’[sic] of Saxon Times. They were not yet associations of craftsmen. Members accepted responsibility declaring “Lets share the same lot, if any misdo lets all bear it”, and they also took an oath of fidelity. They met once a month for a guild feast, their leader being known as an Alderman. We learn from this well informed text that in 1327 a King’s writ was issued to the Mayor and Alderman ordering them to “punish such bakers, cooks etc -----, as are found lax in their work and ministries -----“. One such case of a punishment made to fit the crime, was meted out to Richard Rouse, cook to the Bishop of Rochester. In 1530, he poisoned sixteen persons with broth intended for his Master, and was subsequently sentenced to be boiled to death. Besides the stern treatment of miscreant cooks, the book informs that the ‘The Worshipful Company of Cooks’ is the smallest of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Company traces its origins back to the 12th Century, founded from two guilds of cooks in medieval London - the Cooks of EastCheap and the Cooks of Bread Street. The Company received its Royal Charter in 1482. As you would expect from a Company whose roots can be traced back to 1170, the Worshipful Company of Cooks has a rich and colourful history from the earliest records of Cooks in the Middle Ages and their control of the craft until the 19th Century to the Company’s current charitable works. The Company is no longer an association of tradesmen in its original sense of control; yet its membership today still includes craft tradesmen, as well as active engagement with a broad range of organisations associated with cooking. The Company's purpose in contemporary times can be summarised by three principal objectives: *1- To support the modern day craft of cooking including catering excellence through competition, scholarly and scientific culinary research, and the development of food policy; *2- To fund a range of charitable activities associated with the welfare and education of the catering trade, as well as the City of London *3- To pursue a fellowship of association that can mobilise the necessary resource, skill and wisdom to bring the other two about. The Cooks' Company ranks thirty-fifth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. Its motto is ‘Vulnerati Non Victi’, Latin for ‘Wounded not Conquered’. This is a well researched history that brings the reader thro’ the ages of a London Livery Company and its total of nine charters granted by various Kings and Queens. A 1st edition of this book was compiled in 1932 with 207 pages. See item -ref: # 11222, on this site.

click on image to enlarge

Modern category

ref number: 11112

Escoffier. Georges Auguste - ‘Officier de la Legion d’honneur’.
Menu of a banquet for Escoffier at the Palais d'Orsay.
In homage to Maitre Auguste Escoffier by the society of the 'Cuisiniers de Paris'. for the occasion of his promotion to ‘Officier de la Legion d’honneur’ on March 22nd, 1928 at the Orsay Palace.
A four page menu within covers, with a print of a painted portrait of Escoffier (courtesy of the Foundation A. Escoffier at Villeneuve-Loubet), plus the wine list and menu. Very clean on white handmade paper with a red place ribbon and untrimmed edges, with the outside covers lightly age browned at the edges. A very handsome and unique item. The menu comprises: Creme de Volaille. Consomme Riche. Saumon de la Loire braise au Clicquot. accompagne: d'ecrevisses de l'Issole. Baron de Bebague. garni aux: primeurs de la Provence. Coq en Pate Palais d'Orsay. avec: une Salade Rosettte. Glace Legion d'Honneur. Roseaux pralines des bords du Loup. Corbeilles de Fruits. Friandises. The Wine list comprises: Five vintage Champagnes from 1919 and 1920. A Medoc et Graves. A Bitard Montrachet. A La Tache Monople 1918. The menu is housed in a handsome cardboard folder covered with red marbled paper and a label on the front cover.
- From 1890 to 1920, Escoffier took over the management of the kitchens in many luxurious & prestigious hotels like The Savoy Hotel and The Carlton Hotel in London and Ritz Hotel in Paris. For almost thirty years, he served many of the most famous people of the time, creating for them unique dishes that became renowned, even to this day. After he left London in 1920, Escoffier returned to Monte Carlo and undertook a very active retirement. He never ceased writing culinary books until his death in 1935. Due to the gratitude and unforgettable memory of Escoffier, people, including his best friends and colleagues in London and Paris, created the Auguste Escoffier Foundation. This eponymous museum was established in 1959 in the house where he was born. Mon. Raymond Poincaré was a French conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of France on five separate occasions and as President of France from 1913 to 1920. For Escoffier's work in promoting French cuisine, President Poincaré personally presented him with the cross of ‘The Légion d'honneur’ or ‘The Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur‘. This is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the First Republic, on 19 May 1802. Escoffier in 1919, was the first chef to receive such an outstanding award. On March 22nd, 1928 he was promoted to the highest French honour as an ‘Officier de la Legion d’honneur’ and again became the first chef to have received this distinction. He was presented his medal by President Edouard Herriot at the Palais d'Orsay. The ceremony was followed at the Palais by, quote “a remarkable banquet" with Escoffier as the guest of honour. In the last b/w photograph below, Escoffier can be seen shaking President Herriot's hand at the Palais as he is leaving. He is also surrounded by the brigade of chefs that cooked the banquet. This extremely rare menu is from that memorable occasion.

click on image to enlarge

Ephemera category

ref number: 11113

Escoffier. Georges Auguste - A fine copy of Escoffier's first book
Les Fleurs en Cire
A. ESCOFFIER LES FLEURS EN CIRE (An elaborate printers floral device) BIBLIOTHEQUE DE L'ART CULINAIRE 4 Place Saint-Michel, - PARIS MDCCCCX Nouvelle Edition
Fourth Edition, Paris, 1910. 188x141mm. 1fep. Half-Title. On verso Headpiece & printer's details for all editions. [1] Frontispiece. Title page on thick photographer's card and tissue guard. [1] (1)10-92. 3p Index. [1] 1fep. Original publisher's printed cover, in good condition. Internally very clean. Illustrations: Halftone frontispiece portrait of Escoffier and halftone illustrations titled "Fleurs de Magnolia en Cire" and 40 photo engraved illustrations in the text. A very nice untrimmed copy with many uncut pages. A very scarce and sought after book.
- This slim volume was originally published under the title 'Traite sur l'Art de Travailler les Fleurs en Cire' Paris, 1884. During this period Escoffier married Delphine Daffis, the daughter of a publisher. Writing poetry herself, she contributed to this publication. Escoffier was a major writer of culinary classics and is still consulted as an authority. Besides 'Les Fleurs en Cire', his other best known writings are --- 1903 - 'Le Guide Culinaire'; 1907 - 'A Guide to Modern Cookery', 1st english edition; 1910 - 'Les Fleurs en Cire', a new edition; 1911 - 'Le Carnet d'Epicure'; 1912 - 'Le Livre des Menus'; 1919 - 'L'Aide-Memoire Culiniare'; 1927 - 'Le Riz'; 1929 - 'La Morue'; 1934 - Ma Cuisine. This is a collectors item. Editions of this early work by Escoffier are very scarce and much sought after, especially in this fine original condition. With the bookplate of Tore Wretman.

click on image to enlarge

Modern category

ref number: 11114

Acton. Eliza - In very bright original condition.
Modern Cookery
FOR PRIVATE FAMILIES BY ELIZA ACTON NEW EDITION LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1897
151 x 172mm. 1 fep. [1] Frontispiece (plate 1) Title page. [1] (1)iv-viii Preface. (1)x Vocabulary of terms. (1)xii-xxvii Table of Contents. [1] (1)xxx-xlii Introductory Chapters. [1] 7p Plates. [1] (1)2-622. (1)624-643 Index. [1] 40p Classified catalogue of general literature published by Longmans, Green & Co. Engravings throughout the text. Clean and crisp original tan cloth covers embossed in red and black. Very slightly bumped corners. Occasional light marking to some margins, otherwise very clean.
- Elizabeth 'Eliza' Acton, an English poet and cook, produced and aimed this book at the domestic reader rather than the professional cook or chef. Elizabeth David rated it one of the best written nineteenth century cookery books. It also has numerous fine illustrations throughout the text. Although it is a rather late edition (the first was printed - 1845) it is none the less a very desirable copy due to the very clean original condition.

click on image to enlarge

Antiquarian category

ref number: 11115

Shackleford. Mrs Ann - The very rare Dublin imprint.
THE Modern Art of Cookery IMPROVED:
OR, Elegant, cheap, and Easy Methods, of preparing most of the Dishes now in Vogue; In the Composition whereof Both Health and Pleasure have been consulted. BY Mrs Ann Shackleford, of Winchester. TO WHICH IS ADDED. An APPENDIX; Containing a Dissertation on the different Kinds of Food, their Nature, Quality, and various Uses. By a PHYSICIAN. AND A MARKETING MANUAL, And other useful Particulars. By the EDITOR. ----- She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent, What choice to chuse for delicacy best; What order, so contriv’d as not to mix Tastes, not well join’d, inelegant, but bring Taste after Taste, upheld with kindliest change. MILTON. ----- DUBLIN: Printed for William Colles, in Dame-Street. [c. 1771]
12mo. 1fep. 2p Advertisements. Title Page. [1] iii-iv Preface. (1)vi – xxiii Marketing Manual. xxiv – xxiii. xxiv - xxv 2 pages of Marketing Tables. [1] 1-281. P15 Index. 1fep. Modern binding with half brown cloth with gilt tooling separating the marbled boards. Gilt lines on the spine and two black leather labels with gilt writing. Very light age browning to the first and last few pages and some minor staining to some of the pages. Overall, a nice bright copy of a very elusive book.
- Nothing is known about Mrs Ann Shackleford but her cookery books appear to be extremely scarce. MacLean [p130] displays Mrs Shackleton’s title page of the first English addition of 1767 and interestingly, reckons it has a crafty worded description in “Modern Cookery Improved”. She also notes that Milton’s quote gives the mere cookbook a literary fillip. MacLean also cites a Dublin edition that had been owned by the BLB, undated without printer’s details but destroyed. (Confirmed in a letter from the BL Ref. Div. to MacLean). She also references (Pub. Adv. of 23rd Jan 1771) another London edition of 1771 printed for T. Carnan and F. Newbury. Oxford also notes an undated Dublin edition. Cagle has an English first of 1767 but unusually misquotes Oxford as stating the London edition instead of the Dublin one. Besides MacLean, all of the other bibliographies give sketchy or no information about this Dublin edition. One must assume great scarcity.

click on image to enlarge

Antiquarian category

ref number: 11116

MACKENZIE COLIN - Very scarce.
Five Thousand Receipts.
IN ALL THE USEFUL AND DOMESTIC ARTS, CONSTITUTING A COMPLETE AND UNIVERSAL Practical Library, AND OPERATIVE CYCLOPAEDIA. - Mr Hobbes, of Malmesbury, thought the accumulation of details a hindrance of learning; and used to wish all the Books in the world were embarked in one ship, and he might be permitted to bore a hole in its bottom. He was right in one sense; for the Disquisitions and Treatises with which our Libraries are filled, are ofter merely the husks and shells of knowledge; but it would be to be wished, that before he were permitted to bore his hole, some literary analysts should select all the facts, Recipes, and Prescriptions, useful to Man, and condense them into a portable Volume. LOCKE. By COLIN MACKENZIE, AUTHOR OF ONE THOUSAND EXPERIMENTS IN MANUFACTURES AND CHEMISTRY. A NEW EDITION. LONDON: SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER, PATERNOSTER-ROW; AND TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY. 1834. Price 10s 6d. Bound.
Thick 143 x 150mm. 1 fep. Title page. [1] (1)iv Preface. (1)6 – 798. (1)800 – 827 Index. 1p Advertisements. (1) [1] (1)4 – 22 [2] Catalogue of Modern Books. 1fep. Original full brown calf boards with gilt writing on the front. A little rubbed. Re-backed spine in modern mid-tan calf with raised bands, gilt lines and blind tooling. Black label with gilt writing. Internally quite clean. A nice copy of a very scarce book.
- Nothing is recorded nor known about MacKenzie. Oxford appears to have a first edition of 1823 and cites a third of 1824. He also states that there was reprints in America as late as 1870. Bitting has a fourth American edition of 1829 and cites a Philadelphia edition of 1866.

click on image to enlarge

Antiquarian category

ref number: 11118

Dods. Matilda Lees - An original copy with silver cover.
Handbook of Practical Cookery
New and enlarged edition In which special prominence is given to the preparing of New Cakes, Jellies, etc; to the very simple recipes for Cottage Cookery; also to various modes of preparing food for the Sickroom BY MATILDA LEES DODOS Diplomee of the S.K. School of Cookery With an Introduction on the Philosophy of Cookery London: EYRE & SPOTTISWOODE (BIBLE WAREHOUSE). Ltd., 33, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. Edinburgh and New York 1906
44 x 54 mm. Marbled front paste-down but no fep. Half-title. [1] Title Page. [1] Preface v-xii. Contents xiii-xiv. [1] p34. Diagrams of Meat cuts (with the engraving on the recto with the versos blank) [1] p51 Plates of made dishes with blank versos. [1] xvii-Ixix Directions for Carving and Philosophy of Cooking. [1] Pp 1+2-795. [1] 1+798-836. [1] Marbled fep and paste-down. The stitching in the text block is split in the middle but holding well and not affecting the spine. The spine has a small split on the bottom left seam but holding and not affecting anything. All pages and text on very fine India paper. Original full red cloth covered in bright gilt lines, design and lettering. With a small dark stain on the back covers, but not detracting. The front cover has a beautiful silver cover attached of a old fashioned camp cooking pot hung from a tripod over an open fire. Very slightly rubbed edges to covers and ends of spine. Overall a very nice bright copy with the fine very scarce silver front cover .
- Copies in this bright red cover are much scarcer than the others bound in maroon and black. There are also copies bound in light emerald green that are also very rare. The first edition of Lees Dods's work appeared in 1881. All copies of this miniature edition are charming and this one has a rare original red cover. Louis Bondy in his fascinating book on the history of miniatures describes this as "the most extensive cookery book in miniature" (Louis Bondy, Miniature Books. p.139) The red cover is very scarce but with the finely crafted embossed cover attached it becomes altogether very rare and collectable.

click on image to enlarge

Modern category

ref number: 11119

Massialot. Francois - The very rare 1st English edition.
THe Court and Country Cook:
GIVING New and Plain Directions How to Order all manner of ENTERTAINMENTS, And the best sort of the Most exquisite a-la-mode Ragoo's Yogether with NEW INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONFECTIONERS: SHEWING How to Preserve all sorts of Fruits, as well dry as liquid: Also, How to make divers Sugar-works, and other fine Pieces of Curiosity; How to set out a Desert, or Banquet of Sweet-meats to the best advantage; And, How to prepare several sorts of Liquors, that are proper for every Season of the Year. A WORK more especially necessary for Stewards, Clerks of the Kitchen, Confectioners, Butlers and other Officers, and also of great use in private Families. Faithfully translated out of French into English by J.K. London: Printed by W.Onley, for A. and J.Churchill, at the Black Swan in Pater-noster-row, and M.Gillyflower in Westminster-hall. 1702.
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. 12mo. 1fep. Title page with double lined border. [1] 5p Preface. 3p Table of Entertainments. 7p A Table. 14p A General Table. [1] 4p Preface to the Reader. 2p Contents of instructions to Confectioners. 1p Contents of instructions for Liquors. 8p A Table. [1] 8 Engraved plates of set tables. 1-276. 1-130 New Instructions for Confectioners (with 2 in-text engravings on P126 & 128). 1-20 New Instructions for Liquors. 2feps. Original full dark calf boards with fillet design very slightly rubbed on corners. Sympathetically re-backed with dark brown calf, gilt lines with brown label with gilt writing. In good condition with some worming up to the end of the tables. Overall a good copy of the very rare first edition.
- This is a translation into English of Massialot’s two famous books. Firstly his best; 'Nouveau cuisinier royal et bourgeois' first appeared in French, anonymously, as a single volume in 1691, and was expanded to two in 1712, then three volumes in a revised edition of 1733-34. His lesser cookbook, 'Nouvelle instruction pour les confitures', also appeared anonymously in French, in 1692. In an article online by Douglas Muster titled ‘The Origins and History of Meringue’, he informs – “François Massialot, the first chef of Louis XIV (1638 - 1715), published the recipe for a beaten and baked egg white and sugar confection he called meringue in a cook book published in 1692. In his book, Massialot dubs, what he calls “... a little sugar-work, very pretty and very easy ... can be made in a moment ...”. As Massialot’s book was translated and published into English by 1702, strangely, the citation in the Oxford English Dictionary for the first use of the term meringue in English is 1706. Although Massialot’s recipe for a baked beaten egg white and sugar confection was not the earliest, it appears it is embedded firmly in French and English and phonetic variations in other languages; Spain: merengue. Germany: meringe. Italy: meringa” - 8th century. Massialot also had the first printed recipe for Burnt Cream (Creme Brulee). This translation of Massialot's important books is among the scarcest and hardest to find. There are no translated copies recorded in any of the great collections that have come up for auction.

click on image to enlarge

Antiquarian category

ref number: 11120

Mollard. John - The rare first edition with very rare menu.
The Art of Cookery
MADE EASY AND REFINED; COMPRISING AMPLE DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING EVERY ARTICLE REQUISITE FOR FURNISHING THE TABLES OF THE NOBLEMAN, GENTLEMAN, AND TRADESMAN. BY JOHN MOLLARD, Cook; One of the Proprietors of Freemasons’ Tavern, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY J, NUNN, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. 1801. T. Beasley, Printer, Bolt Court, Fleet Street.
FIRST EDITION. Large octavo. 1fep. Half-Title. [1] Title page. [1] 1p Engraved Dedication leaf to the Original Proprietor of The London Tavern, very slightly browned. [1] (1)vi-viii Preface. (1)x-xxiv Contents. 12 Plates of Monthly Table Settings with each verso blank. (1)2-314. 21p Index. 1fep. The whole text block with wide margins. Modern dark brown full calf with with elaborate gilt tooled edges to the boards and the inner edges of the paste-downs. The spine with raised bands with elaborate gilt tooling and gilt devices in the compartments. With a black leather label and gilt letters. ALSO enclosed: A Freemason's Tavern Menu enclosed: Dated January 18th 1890. Mr E. Stanford’s Dinner. Consisting of six courses and seventeen dishes. Written in English. Printed on cream coloured card with gilt edges and fine decorative text. A very clean handsome copy of the very rare first edition, with the equally rare enclosed menu.
- Before John Mollard owned the Freemason's Tavern he had been Head Cook at the London Tavern. In this book the beautifully scripted and engraved page is dedicated to the London Tavern Proprietor - Laurence Laforest, therein Mollard proclaims Laforest as a man of high reputation in the same Profession. In the Old Bailey records for May 14th 1777 at the trial of a George Hawkins who had stolen an engraved silver bowl and spoon from the London Tavern, we learn that Laforest was the owner of the Tavern with three other partners, Thomas Simkins, John Bladen and Henry Caridge. The unfortunate George Hawkins was found guilty, branded with a hot iron and received 8 lashes of the whip. In the same records we learn that two ladies were sentenced to be carried and whipped for 100 yards along Bishopsgate Street past the London Tavern. The contrast between the fine dining establishment of high standards and repute and the raw life-scenes outside are startling in the extreme. Lieut-Col. Newnham-Davis in his book 'Victorian London' 1899, writes extensively of the Freemasons' Tavern, and it is worth repeating parts here to give a glimpse of Mollard's past workplace and jointly owned establishment. -- The Tavern is not what the name implies. It was a restaurant, with a large public dining-room, with a fine ballroom, and with many private dining-rooms. Its outside was imposing (see picture 1 below). Two houses stand side by side. Built of red brick, with windows set in white stone and Elizabethan in appearance. At the entrance to the Tavern stand two great janitors. Facing the doorway, at the end of a wide hall, is a long flight of stairs broken by a broad landing and decorated with statues. Up and down this ladies and gentlemen are passing, and I ask one of the janitors what is going on in the ballroom. "German Liederkranz. Private entertainment. What dinner, sir? Victory Chapter. Drawing-room,” is the condensed information given by the big man, and he points a white-gloved hand to a passage branching off to the right. On one side of the passage is a door leading into a bar where three ladies in black are kept very busy in attending to the wants of thirsty Freemasons. On the other side is a wide shallow alcove in the wall fitted with shelves and glazed over, and in this is a curious collection of plate, great salvers, candelabra, and centre-pieces. Beside the alcove is a glass door, and outside it is hung a placard with “Gavel Club. Private” upon it. At the end of the passage a little Staircase leads up to higher regions, and on the wall is an old-fashioned clock with a round face and very plain figures, and some oil paintings dark with age. On the first landing there is a placard outside a door with “Victory Chapter” on it, and higher up outside another door another placard with “Perfection Chapter” on it. From the stream of guests and waiters which is setting up the stairs it is evident that there are many banquets to be held to-night. The drawing-room is white-and-gold in colour. Four Corinthian pillars, the lower halves of which are painted old-gold colour, with gold outlining the curves of their capitals, support a highly-ornamented ceiling, the central panel of which is painted to represent clouds, with some little birds flitting before them. The paper is old-gold in colour with large flowers upon it. There is some handsome furniture in the room— a fine cabinet, a clock of elaborate workmanship, and some good china vases. The curtains to the windows are of red velvet. At the end of the room farthest from the door is a horseshoe table with red and white shaded candles on it, ferns, chrysanthemums, and heather in china pots, pines, and hothouse fruits, and at close intervals bottles of champagne and Apollinaris. At the other end of the room, where stands a piano, with a screen in front of it, the gentlemen in evening clothes are chatting, having put their coats and hats on chairs and piano wherever room can be found. The waiters, in black with white gloves, are putting the last touches to the decorations. I have eaten some good dinners at the Freemasons’ Tavern, and others not so good. Tonight the cook is not up to his best form, and has not responded to the inspiration of the meuu --- Crevettes - Tortue clair - Filets de sole Meunière - Vol-au-vent aux huîtres natives - Faisan Souvaroff - Selle de mouton - Céleri braise Bordelaise - Layer. Pommes Parisienne - Poularde rôtie - Lard grillé - Salade - Bombe glacée Duchesse - Os à la moëlle - Dessert - Café. The turtle soup is not like that of the excellent Messrs. Ring and Brymer, or that of Mr. Painter; the faisan Souvaroff is dry, and the cook’s nerve has failed him when the truffles had to be added; but, on the other hand, the sole Meunière and the vol-au-vent are admirable, and the marrow-bones are large and scalding-hot. After dinner, one by one the guests who have appointments elsewhere, or who are going to the theatre, say good-night and go off; but a remnant still remain, and these make an adjournment to a cosy little clubroom on the top story of Freemasons’ Hall, where good stories are told, and soda-water-bottle corks pop until long after midnight. There is a small Masonic dining-club, called the Sphinx Club, which dines at the Freemasons’ Tavern, and which I mention because the dinner I last ate in company with my brother Sphinxes was one of the best efforts of the chef and of the manager Mons. Blanchette — which means that it was very good indeed. The club was founded as an antidote to the large amount of soft soap that Freemasons habitually plaster each other with in after-dinner speeches. No Sphinx is allowed to say anything good of any brother Sphinx, and when a candidate is put up for the club his proposer says all the ill he knows or can invent about his past life. A candidate can only become a member of the club by being unanimously blackballed. It is needless to say that the best of temper and good fellowship is the rule amongst the Sphinxes, and the Freemasons’ Tavern seems to always have a very good dinner for them. This was the menu of their last banquet --- Huîtres - Tortue clair - Rouget à la Grenobloise - Caille à la Souvaroff - Agneau rôti - Sauce menthe - Choux de mer - Pommes noisettes - Bécasse sur canapé - Pommes paille - Salade de laitues - Os à la moëlle - Petit soufflé glacé rosette - Fondu au fromage - Dessert - Café. THE MENU enclosed with this book: Dated January 18th 1890. Mr E. Stanford’s Dinner at the Freemason's Tavern; Consisting of six courses and seventeen dishes. Written in English, the menu offers relatively plain sounding fare compared to the more elegant dinner of the above Sphinx Club, that is presented in French, by Lieut-Col. Newnham-Davis, nine years later, in his book of 'Victorian London' dated 1899. The bibliographies have their usual variance. Oxford & Vicaire have each a first of 1801 and Oxford a 3rd of 1807 and a new edition, 1836. Bitiing has a 2nd of 1802. Cagle also has a 2nd and a 4th of 1808.

click on image to enlarge

Antiquarian category

ref number: 11121