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Escoffier. Georges Auguste - With two of Escoffier's original menus.
RITZ'S Carlton Restaurant.
ON BOARD THE S.S. "KAISERIN AUGUSTE VICTORIA" (HAMBURG AMERICAN LINE) Under the Management of THE CARLTON HOTEL, LONDON.
Large 4to. 3feps (with 2 menus tipped in to last fep) Title Page. 160 pages. All pages blank on the reverse of the text. Many photographs of the Ship's different facilities, (including the Restaurant). 3 feps. Many pages strengthened on the the blank side due to brittleness. Internally very clean. The two menus tipped in before the title page are both dated 1908. The 'Kaiserin' one is a breakfast menu and the 'Amerika" one appears to be a Table d'Hote Lunch menu. Both are from Escoffier's time of tenure and responsibility for both of those ship's restaurants. Bound in modern half dark calf and bottle green cloth boards. The spine has blind tooling. The original cover from the Al'a Carte Restaurant pasted on the front cover. All pages very slightly age browned. Overall a very handsome and rare item.
- This book is a very sumptuous production and a joint venture between the 'Hamburg American Line' and 'The Carlton Hotel' advertising the 'S.S. Kaiserin Auguste Victoria's' conception, preparation and maiden voyage from Hamburg to New York on May 10th, 1906. The 705 foot, 24581 ton giantess, S.S. Kaiserin, was launched on August 20th 1905, and for the next year was outfitted with many new features. One that highlighted the new ship and caused a lot of excitement was the opening of an a'la Carte Restaurant, staffed and run by the famous Ceasar Ritz. The Restaurant also boasted its own dedicated Kitchen, staffed and run by the equally famous Auguste Escoffier. This was an important new facility built to a very fine specification and quality. Grill Rooms had featured on previous voyages and had been very popular. The opening of the new a la Carte Restaurant proved to be equally popular and became, against initial expectations, fully booked. This was undoubtably due to Escoffier's involvement and the unusual shipboard experience of being able to sample French cuisine of the highest standard . We are informed in the book that the Kitchens on the maiden voyage were not large enough to meet demand, and that they had to completely alter one of the decks to double the kitchen capacity. Escoffier and Ritz were also responsible for Restaurants on board other Hamburg America Line ships, one other being the "S.S. Amerika". Both of these ships were built side by side at the Harland Wolff shipyards in Belfast. 'Amerika' was launched on April 20th 1905, and the 'Kaiserin' one month later. This well produced book records an aspect of Escoffier's career that is the least documented. It is also very rare, especially with the two Escoffier's menus enclosed that would have been printed and offered to guests just after the expanded kitchen refit.

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Modern category

ref number: 11049

Richard. Poppy - One of only 2000 copies printed privately.
ROBIN LIVIO - TAVERNS, INNS, COFFEE HOUSES.
and Cafes (A large vignette of people dining and entertaining within a square border). of other days and other times. Translated form the French by POPPY RICHARDS. PONT ROYAL.
SOLE ENGLISH EDITION. 258 x 207 mm. Paris Ed, du Pont Royal, 1961). Front inside cover and fep with Photograph of bottle of wine over a map of Paris. [1] Half Title. On verso proclaiming 3000 copies in French and 2000 copies in English of this book printed for friends of C.D.C. Title Page. Page 4&5 Two-page poem by Raoul Ponchon. [1] Full page colour photograph of the 15th Century Tapestry (see insert # 5 below). [1] 7-128. 1fep. Verso and back inside cover photograph of wine glasses. Richly illustrated with something on nearly every page. Original orange silk binding, slightly soiled. Inside in fine condition.
- A splendid monograph on the taverns, restaurants, coffee houses and cafes of Paris. Written originally in French by Robin Livio (Collection Pierre Orsi # 753 for a copy in French). This English edition of which only 2000 copies were privately printed is a an extremely scarce item. So many poems, manuscripts and illustrations that tell the historical story of a fascinating subject. Laced through-out with myriad snippets of French and Parisian gossip. A very interesting book.

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Modern category

ref number: 11274

Escoffier. Georges Auguste - Extremely rare.
Signed photograph.
A group of nine chefs with George Auguste Escoffier, one of whom is also Escoffier's famed pupil - Charles Scotto.
Vintage sepia mounted photograph framed beautifully in a dark brown matte cardboard border and enclosed in a brown and gold frame, measuring 12”x13”. The photograph itself measures 6 ½” x 4 ½”.
- This is a very rare signed photograph. It is a small brigade of chefs outside the legendary ‘Casino Dieppe’ France, circa - 1927. The uniqueness comes about by the inclusion within the group of the famous Chef, Auguste Escoffier seated in a dark suit, and also his famous pupil, apprentice and friend: Charles Scotto -- seated to Escoffier’s left. The signatures of Escoffier and Scotto are respectively on the bottom left and right of the picture. Charles Scotto was born 1887 in Monte Calro and in his youth became a close friend of Escoffier. At the turn of the century Scotto had been a commis chef in the brigade at the Savoy Hotel London where Escoffier was Maitre Chef de Cuisine. Scotto helped Escoffier all thro’ his professional life with planning and opening many new kitchens and restaurants such as the new Carlton Hotel in London’s Pall Mall and the extremely popular, new and innovative al'a Carte 'Ritz restaurants' on board the Hamburg-Amerika line, especially in the kitchens of S.S.Imperator (see item # 11213 on this site) where he was Escoffier's partner in this undertaking. He represented and helped Escoffier in the setting up and the opening of many of his other ventures over the years, including the famous 'Casino Dieppe, Normandy. In 1928, at the Sorbonne in Paris, The World Chefs' Association was formed and it is still in existence today. Scotto was the first president. He also opened other hotels including the famous Pierre Hotel in New York. For the opening Scotto invited Auguste Escoffier (described by Andre L. Simon in his obituary to Escoffier in the 'Wine & Food Society' Magazine as his last official act). In 1935 Escoffier passed away in Monte Carlo. In America ‘Les Amis d' Escoffier’ held their first memorial dinner at the Jensen Suite of the Waldorf with 53 friends of the famous chef attending a memorable feast. In 1936, approximately a year after the death of Georges Auguste Escoffier, members of the American Culinary Federation [ACF] in New York City invited hoteliers and leading citizens to join with the chefs to preserve the culinary traditions of the master. The then - ACF President Charles Scotto, well known as Escoffier's "beloved apprentice," and General Secretary Joseph Donon, hosted the premiere meeting of their new society for gourmets in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on March 30, 1936. Rules were established that forbade drunkenness. Only wine or aperitifs were served. Les Amis prohibited smoking at table, claiming that anyone who smoked between courses did not deserve the title of gourmet. Speech making was not allowed either. Ultimately, dining rules required silence during dinner so guests could focus on the dish at hand without distraction. Charles Scotto passed away in 1937 aged only 51, following kidney surgery. More than 1,000 of his admirers and colleagues attended the funeral. A solemn high mass was celebrated at the Church of Our Lady of Refuge, on Ocean and Foster Avenues in Brooklyn, His widow traveled with his remains to Monte Carlo where he was buried. While photographs of Escoffier are quite common, those of Scotto are scarce and signed images of both chefs together are rare in the extreme.

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Ephemera category

ref number: 11187

Robuchon. Joel - With Robuchon's signature.
Simply French
PATRICIA WELLS presents the cuisine of JOEL ROBUCHON Photographs by Steven Rothfield Jacket photographs by Robert Freson William Morrow and Company, Inc. New York (With coloured borders at the top and bottom of the page and a coloured design)
FIRST EDITION 1991. 4to. 263x210mm. 1fep with small illustration. Half title with a photograph and coloured borders at the top and bottom of the page and a coloured design. [1] 1p Advertisement. Frontispiece coloured photograph. Title page. Verso with printers info and ISBN. Dedication page with a handmade paper planche with Robuchon's signature in ink. [1] 9-10 Acknowledgements. p11 Contents. p12 with Coloured Photo. 13-354. 355-367 Index. Verso - A note about the Authors. 1fep. All pages with border top and bottom. Many full page coloured photographs throughout. A full mylar cream coloured binding with silver writing on the spine. With the original dj. As new inside and out.
- Joel Robuchon's book 'Simply French' is an attempt by Robuchon to 'translate' three star concepts to the home. The chef and owner of the three Michelin starred Parisien restaurant Jamin, describes his cooking, within the context and impact of Nouvelle Cuisine as 'Cuisine Actuelle'. When reading this impressive book one wonders how the housewife would manage with the 'Ivory Turbans of Shrimp and Pasta' or 'Festive Shrimp Salad' or afford the Caviar, Truffles, Lobster etc. To be fair a lot of the recipes are simplified and one may feel inspired after reading the interviews and introduction at the beginning. Robuchon, a very influential force in French, English and European gastronomy, has, with the help of Patricia Wells brought out an impressive and well designed book that belongs at the forefront of any modern cookery book collection.

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Modern category

ref number: 11076

Soyer. Alexis Benoit
Soyer's Culinary Campaign
BEING HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE WAR. WITH THE PLAIN ART OF COOKERY FOR MILITARY AND CIVIL INSTITUTIONS, THE ARMY, NAVY, PUBLIC, ETC. ETC. By ALEXIS SOYER, AUTHOR OF "THE MODERN HOUSEWIFE" "SHILLING COOKERY FOR THE PEOPLE" ETC. LONDON: G.ROUTELEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET. NEW YORK: 18, BEEKHAM STREET. 1857. {The right of translation is reserved.]
FIRST AND SOLE EDITION. 1857. 1fep. [1] Frontispiece of an aged Soyer. Title page. [1] 1pp Dedication to Lord Panmure. [1] 1pp Preface. [1] 2pp Contents. An illustrated drawing of Soyer by H.G.Hine. [1] 1-593. [1] 3pp Index to Addenda. 2pp Advertisements. 1fep. Frontispiece tipped in with a strip of contemporary paper without affecting Soyer's portrait. The title page very lightly browned with slight chipping to edges not affecting the text. The H.G. Hine illustration has some very light foxing. Overall clean inside. Original red cloth binding with gilt pictorial vignette. Red cloth binding has been sympathetically re-laid but with dull gilt lettering. Overall slightly rubbed with a 1"sq. ink stain on the back cover. Tipped in is a B&W newspaper photograph of the last picture of Florenece Nightingale in 1910, lying in a rather plush bed looking out of the window. Also a very nice detailed illustrated drawing cut out from a 19th century magazine of "M. Soyer's Hospital Kitchen, at Scutari Barracks" A very interesting volume and a scarce item.
- On 2 February 1855, Soyer wrote to The Times offering to go to the Crimea at his own expense to advise on the cooking for the army there. He began by revising the diet sheets for the hospitals at Scutari and Constantinople. In two visits to Balaklava he, Florence Nightingale and the medical staff reorganised the provisioning of the hospitals; he also began to cook for the fourth division of the army. On 3 May 1857 he returned to London, and on 18 March 1858 he lectured at the United Service Institution on cooking for the army and navy. He also built a model kitchen at the Wellington Barracks, London. He died on 5 August 1858 at St. John's Wood, London and was buried on 11 August in Kensal Green cemetery. Soyer wrote many other cookery books including: Délassements Culinaires. (1845) The Gastronomic Regenerator (1846) Soyer's Charitable Cookery (1847) The Poorman's Regenerator (1848) The Modern Housewife of Menagere (1850) The Pantropheon; or, History of Food (1853) A Shilling Cookery Book for the People (1855) and lastly this volume, Soyer's Culinary Campaign (1857)

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11009

Soyer. Alexis Benoit
Soyer's Shilling Cookery for the People.
A SHILLING COOKERY FOR THE PEOPLE EMBRACING AN ENTIRELY NEW SYSTEM OF PLAIN COOKERY AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY. BY ALEXIS SOYER AUTHOR OF "THE MODERN HOUSEWIFE" ETC. ETC. Seventieth Thousand. LONDON: GEO, ROUTELDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET. NEW YORK: 18, BEEKMAN STREET. 1855. The author of this work reserves the right of translating it.
Front paste-down and endpaper, recto and verso, with advertisements. [1] Frontispiece of Soyer with signature. Title page. [1] 1pp. Dedication to The Earl of Shaftsbury. [1] vii-viii. Preface. ix-x. Contents. 1-5 Introductory Letters. [1] 7-177. 178-182 Appendix. 1pp. Soyer's Kitchen for the Army. 184-190 Index. 1-6 Advertisements. 2pp Omission. 1-16. Advertisements. Back endpapers, recto and verso, and paste-down with advertisements. Covers and spine with original illustrations in very good condition. Very slightly rubbed. Internally very clean, almost as new. Back guttering slightly cracked but holding. A nice item especially in this original condition.
- During the first half of the nineteenth century, Alexis Soyer (1809-1858), a Frenchman, was the most famous cook and one of the most famous men in London. A combination of self-promotion, talent and energetic social conscience took him into many of the great events of his times. Through each phase of his meteoric career we can see a different aspect of nineteenth-century life, including the destruction of the English peasantry, the growth of London's private clubs, the Irish famine, the Great Exhibition and Britain's disastrous involvement in the Crimea. Soyer rose from obscure origins to early fame in his 20s, as private chef to England's nobility and then as chef de cuisine at London's new Reform Club. A combination of chef, inventor and cookbook author, Soyer designed a kitchen at the club so innovative that it became a tourist attraction, filled with his clever inventions: the first to use gas for stove-top cookery (preventing the carbon monoxide poisoning by charcoal cooking that had killed previous chefs such as Carême), to the drainer and the multi-egg poacher. He went on to open London's first real restaurant in conjunction with the Great Exhibition in 1851. A dashing figure (wearing clothes in flamboyant colours, cut on the bias, or in his parlance - 'ala zoug-zoug'), who never remarried after the tragic death of his first wife and child during childbirth, Soyer was linked to some of the most famous and beautiful actresses and dancers of the day. For all his flamboyance, Soyer was practical and big-hearted, writing cookbooks for the poor and designing his famous 'Magic Stove' (see image 5 below) and progressing the idea further by designing a very large stove for a model soup-kitchen which which he used in Ireland during the potato famine. In 1855 he went to the Crimea to take over the running of the kitchens in Florence Nightingale's hospital at Scutari, having first designed a new army cook-stove, a design that remained in use up until the first Gulf war. When he died in 1858, he was helping Florence Nightingale reform British army catering. Soyer's ‘Shilling Cookery for the People’ and his other famous cookery books, are a testament to this remarkable man who was determined to revolutionize the culinary world and who remains one of the greatest cooks of the nineteenth century. A Shilling Cookery for the People was first printed in 1855. Soyer, who agreed not to attach his name to any other cookery book at a similar or lower price, received £50 for the first edition of 10,000 copies. Within four months sales had reached 110,000, and by 1867 more than a quarter of a million copies had been sold. This edition states “seventieth thousand” on the title page which places it in the third month of the first printing of 1855.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11002

David. Elizabeth - An association copy; from the library of Helen Morris
Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen
ELIZABETH DAVID Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen *** ENGLISH COOKING ANCIENT AND MODERN VOLUME 1 *** PENGUIN BOOKS (with the small penguin emblem in a 1cm oval border)
FIRST EDITION. 1970. Soft cover - as new. 1pp Small biography of E.D. with the signature of the author Helen Morris. [1] Title page. 1pp Dedication 'For Renee' 5-6 Contents. 7-14 Preface. 15-20 Introduction by E.D. 21-262. 263-264 Acknowledgements. 265-279 Index. [1] In excellent condition; as new. A very scarce book and rare with Morris's signature.
- This copy of E.D's book 'Spices, Salts and Aromatics --' is from the library of Helen Morris. She was the author of 'Portrait of a Chef, the Life of Alexis Soyer, Sometime Chef to the Reform Club' (1938). To several generations of postgraduates and undergraduates of King's College, Cambridge, the English literature scholar and champion of education, Helen Morris was an institution - and a hugely benevolent institution at that. For nearly four decades, the welcoming home of Christopher and Helen Morris at No 5 Merton Street, in the Newnham district of Cambridge, was the scene of innumerable parties, including regular gatherings at 11.30am on Sunday mornings. For the benefit of the young, who they felt should meet the distinguished figures of Cambridge, the Morrises would invite E.M. Forster, a regular visitor, and Noel Annan, the philosopher Richard Braithwaite, the anthropologist Meyer Fortes, the economists Nicholas Kaldor, Richard Kahn, Dick Stone, Harry Johnson and Robin Marris, the classicists Sir Frank Adcock and Patrick Wilkinson; the scientists Kenneth Harrison, T.R.C. Fox and E.S. Shire, and many others. Her husband Christopher Morris, Senior Fellow in History, author of 'Tyndale to Hooker' and many other books, one of the great Cambridge teachers of his generation, doted on Helen - and justifiably set considerable store on her opinion of people and students. Her first book, Portrait of a Chef (1938) was about Alexis Soyer, pioneer of the use of field stoves in the Crimean War and one of the originators of soup kitchens for poor people in the 19th century. Spending the Second World War as a temporary civil servant, partly in the Admiralty where her husband - whom she had married in 1933 - also served, she returned to Cambridge to bring up her family and involve herself in tuition. In 1958 she was given a full-time post at Homerton Teachers Training College, being promoted to Head of the English Department in 1960. Her colleague John Ball, lecturer in psychology and education at Homerton relates stories of her assiduous concern for her students - especially those who came without the Cambridge "ease of manner". Ball told me that he and his colleagues were amazed by the perception, detail and kindliness of the reports which she gave on students at Homerton. Her own contribution to literature re-started with her Elizabethan Literature (1958), which attracted the Home University Library. Critics regarded her interpretation of Marlowe as both accurate and in many ways original. In the early 1960s she published pamphlets on Shakespeare which were invaluable for sixth-formers - Lear in 1965, Richard II in 1966, Antony and Cleopatra in 1968 and Romeo and Juliet in 1970. Her most remarkable book was an anthology called Where's That Poem? (1967). It was really a reference book for teachers as to where they could find in British poetry references to a particular subject. Over a quarter of a century this book was revised in several editions, the last of which was in 1992 when Helen Morris was struggling with enormous courage against a myriad of illnesses and the tragedy of the premature death of their talented son, Charles. Her husband predeceased her by two years --- Helen Soutar (Morris): born Dundee 3 September 1909; married Christopher Morris 1933 - died 1993; one daughter, and one son deceased; died Cambridge 13 August 1995. Unfortunately it is not recorded what, with her perceptive intelligence, she thought of E.D. and her writings.

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Modern category

ref number: 11012

MacGeoch. Catriona. A fascinating and dangerous tradition from the Outer Hebrides.
SULAISGIER.
Photographs by James MacGeoch. Catriona MacGeoch / with John Love & Finely MacLeod. A small shield device of Acair Books (the publisher)
FIRST EDITION. 2010. 215 x 250 mm. 2feps. 1p Photograph of Gannets. Half-Title. Title Page. Verso Contents. 1p Preface. Verso with Dedication. 4p James MacGeoch. 1p Graham MacGeoch. A letter reproduced. 1p Map of Sulaisgier. xvi - xviii James MacGeoch 1914-1970. xix - xxvi Eathar Shulaisgier in Gaelic. 1p Photoraph. (2) 4-130 b&w Photographs. [1] 132 - 136 Descriptions of Photographs. 2 feps. Back and front covers with b&w Photographs In fine condition with a CD of film enclosed. Text in English and Gaelic.
- This fine book by Catriona MacGeoch is a dedication to her father, James MacGeoch who took most of the b&w photographs and Catriona wanting to record the strong tradition of the hunters of Sulaisgier. Condensed from an article in The Scotsman newspaper online, about a filmed documentary that centres on a venture every August to a remote Atlantic outcrop called Sùlaisgeir. It is an annual ritual that was first recorded in the 16th century about the young Gannet (called Guga in Gaelic) hunters, who are licensed by Scottish Natural Heritage to kill 2,000 three-month old young Gannets who have just shed their soft white baby feathers and acquired their dark adult plumage Film crews follow the ten men from the remote community of Ness (who are known collectively as Niseachs), on Lewis, on the Outer Hebrides, as they venture for the cull approximately forty miles north by boat. After the team arrive ashore following a five-hour sea trip, they set up their camp, covering an ancient bothy with tarpaulin and building a chute and pulley system so they can move equipment up and dead birds down the soaring cliffs. A radio transmitter is put up to allow contact with home. The men live on the island for two exhausting weeks, sleeping rough in the bothy, which was first constructed by monks over a thousand years ago. Using time-honoured traditional methods, the hunters work ceaselessly and dangerously, killing and processing the 2,000 birds by catching them with a long pole and clip, before it is quickly stunned by hitting it on the back of the head with a stick, then beheaded. The cliffs are very slippery and the men bind their shoes with rough canvas to allow some grip (see image #3 below). The dead Guga are then plucked, cut open and splayed, removing the innards and singeing the skin with flames, then covering with rough salt inside and out, and finally stacked in a neat but tightly layered pile. They are then, at the end of the hunt, sent down the chute to be taken back to Ness with the hunters, whom one imagines that by this time, probably smell pretty ripe themselves. The film gives rare access to the hunters who read from the Bible twice a day, sleep top to tail in the cramped bothy and hold a bar-b-q on their last night, of roasted Guga, marinated in madras powder and whisky. The film features Dods MacPhárlain, who holds the licence for the hunt, as he embarks on his 42nd and final trip to Sùlaisgeir. He said: “I’ve smelt the Guga since I was a year old so I was destined to go. It means so much to me. That’s probably why I have been going for over forty years. A tradition which spans centuries, the hunt is the last of its kind in the UK. The flesh of the young gannet is regarded as a delicacy in Ness today though, for others, it is an acquired taste. The Guga smell very strongly once processed during the hunt and stored. Many Ness women will not allow them into the house. It was a popular meat in earlier times in Scotland. In the sixteenth century it was served at the tables of Scots kings and was a favourite with the wealthy as a ’whet’ or appetizer before main meals. This is a fascinating insight into a community still carrying forward a very old tradition. What is also compelling, is to realize that this extremely dangerous hunt of the Guga would have started as a pragmatic necessity of survival. In other articles online, one reads that the extreme smell of the preserved seabird is almost addictive. It also mirrors the famous Hákarl, the national dish of Iceland consisting of a Greenland shark or other sleeper shark which have been cured with a particular fermentation process and hung to dry for four to five months. The smell being as objectionable to the unsuspecting nose as the Hebridean Guga. Other very obnoxious smelly fare are the dried fish of India and Vietnam that show the same need for preservation as the more easily acceptable Bacalhau of Portugal and Spain. In this time of storage freezers, fast national and international transportation and distribution of fresh fish and meats, it's amazing that a love for those foods has stayed so strong. Just as Dods MacPhárlain said above, that the smell of Guga since he was one year old compelled him to carry the tradition forward and to crave the taste of that preserved young bird.

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Modern category

ref number: 11267

David. Elizabeth - With a small letter from E.D. with her signature.
Summer Cooking
SUMMER COOKING by ELIZABETH DAVID. LONDON MUSEUM PRESS. (With a 1" vignette of carafe and glass of wine.)
FIRST EDITION. 1955. 1fep. Half-title. [1] Title page. [1] 1pp Contents. [1] 7-10 Introduction and Acknowledgments. 11-244. 245-256 Index. 1fep. Light green cloth binding with gilt lines and lettering on spine. Internally as new. With Adrian Daintrey illustrations through out. A touch faded at the spine ends. With the rare original Adrian Daintrey d/j with slight chipping at spine ends and cover folds with little loss. Protected by a plastic cover. Also enclosed is a letter addressed to Richard C. Laade from E.D. postmarked 2.11.88. Inside the letter is a small square of paper stating 'You Must have quite a collection E.D.', also dated 2.11.88. (A little research on the web revealed that Richard Laade is/was an inveterate collector of signatures. This helps to explain the rather cryptic message and size of the letter). Also rather interestingly and unusually, Elizabeth has signed her name in very small writing on the inside of the letter as well. A very nice scarce copy that gets elevated to rare with the original d/j and the signed letter.
- Born Elizabeth Gwynne, she was of mixed English and Irish ancestry, and came from a rather grand background, growing up with three sisters in the 17th century Sussex manor house, Wootton Manor. Her parents were Rupert Gwynne, Conservative MP for Eastbourne, and the Hon. Stella Ridley who came from a distinguished Northumberland family. Her uncle, Roland Gwynne, later became Mayor of Eastbourne and may have been a lover of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams. She studied at the Sorbonne, living with a French family for two years, which led to a love of France and of food. At the age of 19, she was given her first cookery book, The Gentle Art of Cookery by Hilda Leyel, who wrote of her love with the food of the East. "If I had been given a standard Mrs Beeton instead of Mrs Leyel's wonderful recipes," she said, "I would probably never have learned to cook." Gwynne had an adventurous early life, leaving home to become an actress. She left England in 1939, when she was twenty-five, and bought a boat with her married lover Charles Gibson-Cowan intending to travel around the Mediterranean. The onset of World War II interrupted this plan, and they had to flee the German occupation of France. They left Antibes for Corsica and then on to Italy where the boat was impounded, having arrived on the day Italy declared war on Britain. They were eventually deported to Greece, then made their way to the Greek island of Syros living there for a period, where she learnt about Greek food and spent time with famous bohemians such as Lawrence Durrell. When the Germans invaded Greece they managed to flee to Crete where they were rescued by the British and evacuated to Egypt, where she lived firstly in Alexandria and eventually in Cairo. There Gwynne started work for the Ministry of Information, split from Gibson-Cowan, and eventually took on a marriage of convenience to Lieutenant-Colonel Tony David; this gave her a measure of respectability but David was a man whom she did not ultimately respect, and their relationship ended soon after an eight month posting in India. She had many lovers in the ensuing years. On her return to London in 1946, David began to write cookery articles and in 1949 the publisher John Lehmann offered her a hundred-pound advance for Mediterranean Food; the start of a dazzling writing career. David spent eight months researching Italian food in Venice, Tuscany and Capri. This resulted in Italian Food in 1954, with illustrations by Renato Guttuso, which was famously described by Evelyn Waugh in the Sunday Times as one of the two books which had given him the most pleasure that year. Many of the ingredients were unknown in England when the books were first published, and David had to suggest looking for olive oil in pharmacies where it was sold for treating earache. Within a decade, ingredients such as aubergines, saffron and pasta began to appear in shops, thanks in no small part to David's books. David gained fame, respect and high status and advised many chefs and companies. In November 1965, she opened her own shop devoted to cookery in Pimlico, London. She wrote articles for Vogue magazine, one of the first in the genre of food-travel. In 1963, when she was 49, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, possibly related to her heavy drinking. Although she recovered, it affected her sense of taste and her libido. Her other books include: * Mediterranean Food, decorated by John Minton, published by John Lehmann (1950) * French Country Cooking, decorated by John Minton, published by John Lehmann (1951) * Italian Food (1954) * French Provincial Cooking (1960) * Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen (1970) * An Omelette and a Glass of Wine (1984) * English Bread and Yeast Cookery (1977) * Harvest of the Cold Months (1994) * Many various booklets for companies and her shop .

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Modern category

ref number: 11013

Soyer. Alexis Benoit
The Gastronomic Regenerator
THE Gastronomic Regenerator: A SIMPLIFIED AND ENTIRELY NEW SYSTEM OF COOKERY, WITH NEARLY TWO THOUSAND PRACTICAL RECEIPTS SUITED TO THE INCOME OF ALL CLASSES. ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS AND CORRECT AND MINUTE PLANS HOW KITCHENS OF EVERY SIZE, FROM THE KITCHEN OF A ROYAL PALACE TO THAT OF THE HUMBLE COTTAGE, ARE TO BE CONSTRUCTED AND FURNISHED. BY MONSIEUR A. SOYER, OF THE REFORM CLUB. FOURTH EDITION. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, &CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT: AND SOLD BY JOHN OLLIVIER, PALL-MALL. 1847.
8vo. Pp. Frontispiece of 'Soyer' Title Page. Engraved picture of 'Heaven and Hell' 2pp 'List of Patrons' (i-xl) (1-720) (several engraved pictures throughout) 17pp 'Table of Contents' 1pp 'Advertisements' 24pp 'Madame Soyer' 1pp 'Times review. 2 fep. Bound in green half calf with dark green pebbled cloth boards and calf corners. Spine with elaborate gilt and blind tooling, gilt lettering, raised bands and a brown label with "Soyers Cookery" in gilt lettering. Internally very clean however some slight foxing on fep before title page and on frontispiece. A very good copy of a fairly scarce book.
- The illustrations are: The frontis drawn by Emma Soyer and engraved in steel by H.B. Hall and fifeteen wood engraved plates, two folding, including six plates illustrating elaborate dishes, and others showing the famous drawing of the Reform Club Kitchen, a table of a weathy family, Soyer's table at home, a drawing of two Bavarians by Emma Soyer and a self-portrait of Emma Soyer engraved in steel by H.B. Hall. There is also a folding plate on blue paper that is one of Soyer’s menus for a very special banquet at the Reform Club on July 3rd 1846 for 150 couverts that included the guest of honour - His Highness Ibrahim Pasha. It consisted of a massive 46 courses and on a spit in the dining room was a huge roasting Baron of Beef ala Anglaise. The dinner was a highlight of the Amir’s London visit. Four months earlier on March 22nd 1846, Ibrahim Pasha - His Highness, The Amir of Trans-Jordan came to London to sign a treaty with His Majesty The King in respect of the United Kingdom recognising the status of Trans- Jordan as a sovereign independent State. The menu was not in the first edition of 1846 but was in subsequent editions including this one here.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10941