LE LIVRE DES MENUS
A. ESCOFFIER avec la collaboration de PHILEAS GILBERT et EMILE FETU LE LIVRE DES MENUS Compliment in indespensable du Guide culinaire FLAMMARION EDITEUR 26, rue Racine, Paris.
FIRST EDITION. 1912. 253x164mm. 1fep. On verso – Du Meme Auteur Half-title. Title page. [1] p.5-6. Avant-Propos dated Avril 1912,. 7-164. (165) [1] Folding chart titled - "Tableau de Service dans une Grande Cuisine". The covers are the original terra-cotta colour with red and black lettering. They are slightly browned, with the spine cracked but holding well. Internally, it’s very clean and bright. Also enclosed is a draft menu written by Escoffier at the Carlton Hotel, and dated by another hand in blue crayon - Mercredi 24-7-07 for Johnston Esq. Also enclosed, one of Escoffier’s Carte du Jour printed menus from the Carlton Restaurant, the Carlton Hotel, Pall Mall, London, dated Dimanche, 21 Octobre 1906. In fine clean condition. All housed in a beautiful clamshell box bound in half dark brown leather with marble boards. The spine with raised bands, gilt lines and gilt tooling. Also with a red and green label and gilt lettering. The interior lined with fawn felt. Wonderful rare Escoffier items in fine original condition.
- The folding plate at the back of the book first appeared in 1903 in the first edition of Escoffier's major work "Le Guide Culinaire" The system laid out in the plate indicates the very precise way that Escoffier had re-organised the modern Kitchen from that of the Bel-Epoque era. It assigns the precise duties and dishes of each 'Partie' with the number of tables, couverts and times. However this chart does not indicate that each individual dish eventually served to the guest would have been sourced from numerous Kitchen 'Parties' before being cooked by one Chef de Partie (either Chef Saucier, Poissonier, Entremetier etc) and assembled on a platter for the waiter to carry to the Dining Room. The one enclosed rare draft menu written by Escoffier is a clear example of how the process works. Escoffier writes the menu in his typically messy scrawl and it is then sent to a comptroller who writes on the menu, the date and the name of the recipient of the special Dinner. It’s then sent to be printed up on the formal designed menu cards to be placed before each guest at the Dinner. This special menu would also be written up in a more legible hand and posted on the kitchen banquet notice board one week before the dinner. As delineated in the folding plate, each menu is then broken down into the relevant kitchen department tasks, and each dish is then cooked and assembled for the whole dinner to served at the designated time. The Carte du Jour menu is also one of Escoffier’s daily menus. His tenure at the Carlton Hotel lasted from 1899 to 1919. The book and the very rare items of Ephemera are a true and fantastic testament to Escoffier's far-reaching gastronomic influence within the highest reaches of English, European and American Society.
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Modern category
ref number:
10980