If you trawl through my previous posts, you'll see that the name of Auguste Escoffier seems to crop up quite a bit. Of all the great chefs, Escoffier, perhaps, is the greatest of them all, and his influence is still with us today, albeit in a diluted form.
Auguste Escoffier was born in 1846, and with Cesar Ritz, took over the Savoy Hotel in London: using this as a base, the pair opened various Ritz hotels around the world. Escoffier was eventually forced out of the Savoy Hotel after an investigation revealed that Escoffier had been receiving back-handers from his suppliers.
Escoffier took the sophisticated cusine of Antoine Careme, and then rewrote it with a simplified twist. He championed "service a la Russe", where dishes were served in order; as on today's printed menus, rather than all at once- as had previously been the case. Genius.
If you pick up a cookery book from the 1960's, you will see that the Escoffier influence reigns supreme. Rich sauces made from stock, with added cream; meat flambeed in cognac, puddings such as Peach Melba, lots of aspic.
Then in the late 80's and 90's there was a change in taste; and the peasant food of the Mediterranean became popular. It was lighter in touch, and healthier too; using simple fresh ingredients. This new style of cooking coincided with an huge improvement in living standards and the general availability of ingredients in supermarkets, which ordinary working people could buy for the first time.
Many of the relatively sophisticated dishes published today, would have been impossible to make back in the 1950's and 60's, as the ingredients (arborio rice, pancetta, sun-dried tomatoes, butternut squash, bird's eye chilis et al) weren't available- unless, perhaps you visited a specialist delicatessen. In Michael Smith's "Fine English Cookery" published in 1973 (hugely acclaimed at the time), kedgeree is made with tinned salmon. We've come a long way since then.
Having said that, I have to say that I'm a fan of classic French cuisine, and aspiring cooks and chefs should ignore Escoffier at their peril. I was in Hatchard's bookshop the other day, and it was revealing to see that the French section in the cookery department was far smaller than say, the Indian or Italian section. The same goes with wine shelves at the local supermarket. The French section is smaller than the New World sections. I would like to see a return to the appreciation of French food (at least in this country). It's still pretty good, and if so inpsired, Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire, will help you with your all-important technique. Once you've mastered the basics, the battle's almost half won.
