Larousse Gastronomique
Paris, France, Librairie Larousse, 1938
FIRST EDITON. 4to. Patterned paste-downs and endpapers. Preface by A. Escoffier and Ph. Gilbert. 1850 engravings and 16 full page plates in colour. French text. Black and white photos & illustrations throughout. Contents very clean and bright with very little sign of use. Original embossed and decorated cloth boards and spine. Gilt lettering is bright and clean. A wonderful copy.
- Alongside Georges-Auguste Escoffier's ‘Le Guide Culinaire’ and Louis Saulnier's ‘Le Répertoire de la Cuisine’, the Larousse Gastronomique became one of the key reference works on French national and regional cuisine for the professional chef. It is a reference text that codifies a history of the French culinary arts from the distant past to the present day in encyclopedic form. Entries cover such items as culinary terminology, foods, kitchen equipment, techniques, national cuisines, regional French cuisines, and historically significant chefs and restaurants. Philéas Gilbert was a collaborator in the creation of this book and also 'Le Guide Culinaire' with Escoffier, leading to some cross-over with the two books and causing Escoffier to note when he was asked to write the preface that he could “see with my own eyes, and Montagné (a Chef himself) cannot hide from me the fact that he has used 'Le Guide' as a basis for his new book, and certainly used numerous recipes.” Montagné's work signaled a break with the preceding era of French cookery (albeit with a big helping from his collaboration with the true Master; Escoffier) as exemplified by the architectural creations of Marie Antoine Carême. Montagné emphasized dishes that were simple by Carême's standards, and the shortened menus were delivered in the Russian style of service; meals served in courses on individual plates. This philosophy inspired the name of his culinary encyclopedia. Montagné covered the range from the relatively new haute cuisine to French provincial and home cooking with some attention to classic dishes of other nations Three editions of the Larousse gastronomique have been published in English. The first edition was published in 1961. Jennifer Harvey Lang edited the second English edition, published in 1988, from the 1984 French edition compiled and directed by Robert J. Courtine. Courtine's introduction describes the first edition as a monumental work, albeit one in need of some refurbishment. The new editions take into account technical innovations, advancements in food science, and a new culture of dining characterized by simpler meals and a dietary palette expanded through travel and global commerce. Yet the core achievements of Montagné including his recipes and technical advice on classical and regional French dishes are preserved. For the third English edition, published in 2001, Jennifer Harvey Lang worked from a new French edition edited by Joël Robuchon, the president of the Gastronomy committee of the Librairie Larousse. This edition claims to have retained the classic dishes and techniques of the original edition with a new found sensitivity to global influences in technique, presentation, ingredients, and recipes. It is 1,350 pages, over 150 pages longer than the preceding English edition and it includes two hundred new recipes and four hundred new entries. The Larousse Gastronomique no longer sits alone —- if it ever did. It does not provide the detail of the more narrow but specialized cookbooks. Nevertheless, it covers an immense breadth of culinary material, justifying its continued importance as a great volume of reference of French gastronomic tradition.
click on image to enlarge
Modern category
ref number:
11020