Ex-chef Ally Mitchell

Ex-chef Ally Mitchell looks into the life of one of France’s greatest culinary artists Taste of FRANCE: Auguste Escoffier The chef who changed French cuisine forever Auguste Escoffier was the instigator of classical French dining. He modernised professional kitchens. It was he who masterminded the famous British desserts Peach Melba and Cherries Jubilee. He brought glamour to the culinary stage and pushed restauration into the 20th century. However, in the 88 years since his death, his innovative practices, unswerving dedication to flavour and his belief that “above all, make it simple”, a phrase we don’t often associate with elegant French cooking of the 19th century, have largely been forgotten. Born in 1846, Auguste was thrown into the world of professional kitchens when he was only a child – aged 13, he started an apprenticeship at his uncle’s restaurant in Nice. Torture is the word to best describe his experience. Restaurant conditions were abysmal as the profession involved negligence, alcoholism and vulgarity, and the apprentices bore the brunt of it. His uncle even laughed at Auguste’s “diminutive stature” as he struggled to see over the stoves. Even so, almost immediately, Auguste proved he was brilliant. He later wrote, “I said to myself, ‘Although I had not originally intended to enter this profession, since I am in it, I will work in such a fashion that I will rise above the ordinary, and I will do my best to raise again the prestige of the chef de cuisine’.” In 1865, aged 19, he was invited to work at the most fashionable restaurant in Paris, Le Petit Moulin Rouge. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, he was appointed chef de cuisine for the army based on the Rhine in Metz. He even continued to cook for his brothers-in-arms once captured. It is highly likely that during these times of scarcity, Escoffier learnt the value of reducing waste. He became the first chef to study canning techniques in order to preserve ingredients, and later established a canning side-business, which in 1893, started selling tins of crushed tomatoes. Returning to civilian life, in 1880, he met and married Delphine Daffis. It is rumoured he won her hand in a game of billiards, but whether this worrisome story is true or not, they remained together until their deaths. I say ‘together’ loosely, as Escoffier’s career eventually whisked him away from her for around 30 years. First though, they moved to Monte Carlo. Escoffier had been headhunted as Director de Cuisine at the Grand Hotel, the new and flourishing casino hotel. There, he met the person who would have the biggest impact on his life: Cesar Ritz. The two men, a chef and a hotelier, shared a visionary outlook on hotel operations, and used the Grand as their playground to trial new ideas. Escoffier fashioned the prix fixe menu and the new dining service of à la russe in which each dish appeared one after the other. This was highly unusual as 84 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 85