Auguste Escoffier in black with two of his chefs. In my impecunious salad days, I was backpacking through Europe, staying at Youth Hostels and pensiones, having the time of my life. On this occasion, I was at a bargain restaurant in Brittany examining the menu.
One item intrigued me: " Pommes Anglaise. The price was right cheap , so I decided to take the leap to this obviously wonderful culinary experience. After all, it was French. When the plate was brought to table, I discovered that what I ordered was stinking lousy boiled potatoes!
Was this potato sobriquet a scathing Gallic indictment of English cooking? Boiled potatoes indeed. A child of six could do it. This taught me to be a little more discriminating when examining floridly written menu items with exotic French names. Having just completed our Escoffier event, it would be hard not to notice that most courses had a fanciful name.
I thought I would run through the menu for the benefit of those who were not there, as well as to remind those that were, to learn more about how these foods got their names. Nowhere does the name give a clue to what is in the dish. This subterfuge was purposely done. The French, however, had been eating frog legs since prehistoric times.
In fact, in the Tenth Century, French monks got frog legs classified as a fish to get around Lenten prohibitions on meat, and this classification has stuck in the culinary world to the present time. In some accounts, it is said that the prince was partial to frog legs, so he was in on the hoax. In other accounts he did not know of the deception and was not partial to frog legs either.
The dish was served in a buffet with the above name so as not to disturb the delicate sensibilities of the diners, but really, Escoffier was miffed that the English would not eat a favorite French national dish.
The dish was a sensation, and so Cuisses became a great hit that London social season. Imagine that. Setting your prejudices aside, through sleight of hand or just an iron will, could result in a wonderfully tasty dish.
Melba Toast. If I told you that toast had been named after Helen Porter Mitchell, you would not recognize the significance. But if I told you that same toast was named after opera singer Dame Nellie Melba , you might remember that.
Escoffier came up with this innovation in toast after the singer became ill in and wanted something light and simple to eat. It is simplicity itself. Lightly toast slices of bread, remove from heat source, trim off crust and split the bread in half, then toast the untoasted sides again.
Melba toast is used even today in dieting, and for hors d'oeuvres as a base for spreadable toppings. Peach Melba was created for the opera star when she was staying at the London Savoy Hotel, where Escoffier ran the restaurant. She was starring in Richard Wagner's Lohengrin. She gave Escoffier tickets to the opera, which featured a boat in the shape of a swan, and the next night he created a dessert for her.
Peaches served over vanilla ice cream and topped with spun sugar were placed in a silver bowl and inserted into a ice sculpture formed in the shape of a swan. He called it Peach with a Swan. A few years later he refined the dish by removing the ice sculpture, and adding pureed raspberry as a topping.
He then called it Peach Melba. Any variation on this recipe ruins the delicate balance of its taste. Tournedos Rossini. In Escoffier's cooking bible, Le Guide Culinaire , numerous recipes are named after Gioachino Rossini , enough to create a whole menu. Rossini insisted on overseeing the preparation of this dish near his table. The chef finally became fed up with his constant interference, whereupon the Maestro told him "So, turn your back. But it is true that the combination pan fried tenderloin, served over a crouton topped with fresh foie gras, and garnished with demi-glace or Madeira sauce and topped with truffles is a classic gastronomic opus worthy of the maestro.
This was impossible since the fiddle would not be invented for another years, but Suetonius, in his The Lives of Twelve Caesars , mentions that Nero played the lyre.
Despite being out of town during the fire, many of his enemies suggested that he set the fire to make room for an imperial palace. A bombe is a French frozen dessert made in a spherical mold. Layers of ice cream or sherbet would be spread on the mold and successively frozen before another layer was added.
Finally, the mold was closed and frozen as a whole. In Escoffier's Bombe Nero a mold of vanilla ice cream, caramel and chocolate truffles was opened on to a punch biscuit. Meringue was piped over the ice cream and placed briefly in an oven to lightly brown the meringue.
Once removed from the oven, flaming rum was ignited and the dessert was served immediately. It is the flaming rum that reminds us of Emperor Nero and his fiddling about while Rome burned. So, the question remains: What's in a name? Apparently, a lot. An elegant name enhances a menu card. It can be used to disarm your prejudices and get someone to try something if only their narrow-mindedness would get out of the way think of your kids The next time you think that oysters are not indigenous to the Rocky Mountains, beware, be aware, and think what's in a name!
With over ten thousand recipes in his repertoire, the menu designer has many choices to choose from. Here are some more stories behind the names Escoffier used for his recipes.
R-rated mushroom soup! It was a tumultuous time to be king of France, and Charles, beginning with the help of St. Joan of Arc , eventually succeeded in ridding France of the English. She became the love of his life.
She was exceptionally bright, politically astute, and incredibly beautiful. She was also said to have the most shapely and beautiful breasts in Europe. One of the stricter moralist courtiers complained upon first meeting her that he could see her nipples! When she became Charles' mistress, she had to give up being the mistress to two other courtiers but she kept a third, the Royal Chamberlain and fellow advisor to the king, Pierre de Breze.
She became the first official mistress in a long line of French kings. She helped Charles to conquer his depression and transformed him from a timid, indecisive king into a strong ruler. She met an untimely death by mercury poisoning shortly after giving birth to her fourth illegitimate royal daughter.
She was only 28 years old. Charles' estranged son, the future Louis XI, was suspected, but it was never proven. She was only the king's mistress for six years, but those were Charles' most prosperous years. How appropriate for the woman with the most beautiful bosom in 15th century France! Eventually, it was performed in all the major capitals in Europe. Vicomte Florestan is forced by his uncle to either marry or go to debtor's prison for his overspending.
She has never seen his intended, but goes to a florist to buy her corsage before the ceremony. By coincidence, Florestan goes there too. She overhears Floristan's conversation and discovers that she is his intended. Buried in his work while at the London Savoy, only getting four to five hours a sleep a night, with his wife and family away in France, Escoffier could at times be a lonely man, but always a private man.
He did have one great admiration, and that was for Sara Bernhardt. They had been friends for years and he knew all her stage roles by heart. It was well known that she admired him as well and was one of her favorites. She would have Auguste prepare scrambled eggs accompanied by Champagne privately for her birthday dinners.
There has been much speculation if they were lovers, but Sarah usually would comment on her leading men. Her powers over men was magical. Her biographer wrote "For Sarah, to admire a man was, as often as not, to sleep with him" and she would usually talk about her conquests. But, showing discretion unusual for her, all she would ever say about Auguste was that he made the best scrambled eggs in the world.
So it was never proven that the two were more than just great friends. With his working philosophy, he reformed gastronomy at the beginning of the 20th century and, as the "king of chefs", still inspires the most important chefs around the world today. In , Auguste Escoffier tried his luck in Paris — leaving Nice where he had been an apprentice to his uncle since the age of On recommendation, he lands a job at the renowned nightclub "Petit Moulin Rouge".
Soon, the hard-working and talented young chef was able to work his way up to become head saucier. Returning to Paris, he advanced to become head chef at the Petit Moulin Rouge at only the age of He added: "He was a man who understood the real meaning of gastronomy and hospitality.
The legacy he leaves will last forever. It was a privilege to have known him and shared a table with him. Chef Simon Hulstone who represented the UK at four Bocuse d'Or competitions said: "Paul Bocuse wasn't just an icon to me, he was an icon to chefs over six decades.
His presence was beyond any chef in this world past or present. There's not a chef living that has had the influence and stature that Paul Bocuse had. Nick Vadis, culinary director for Compass Group UK, who held the post of team manager for Team UK at the Bocuse d'Or for many years, commented: "Paul was a man who epitomised what a great chef should be.
He leaves a legacy that will live on in the Bocuse d'Or, and Team UK will always be indebted to him for his vision for a global competition that brings all the culinary world together.
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