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Escoffier was a French chef and restauranteur who was not only responsible for many of the recipes, still in use today in kitchens - but also the disciplines undertaken in a modern professional kitchen.

He left a legacy in writing that is the “Guide to Modern Cookery” - a reference book, not only on recipes but also allows an insight into the thinking of a great chef

As Gordon Ramsay has said of the Guide Culinaire ” I will always refer back to an authority like Escoffier” Escoffier inspired even Gordon Ramsay.

If you read the introduction to the Guide Culinaire - it is amusing to notice that Escoffier was also the father of fast food too!

Steam had brought transport, and transport brought a culture of short term visitors who wanted to eat fast!- They no longer wanted the long drawn out meals of a bygone age.

Escoffier says: Palatial hotels were built, sumptuous restaurants were opened. Modern society contracted the habit of partaking of light suppers in these places, after the theatres of the Metropolis had closed; and the well-to-do began to flock to them on Sundays, in order to give- their servants the required weekly rest.”

So he explains why he started to focus on fast food “It is a mere hindrance to the modern, rapid service. The complicated and sometimes heavy menus would be unwelcome ; hence the need of a radical change not only in the culinary preparations themselves, but in the arrangements of the menus, and the service”

So Escoffier became a father of fast food for his generationreplacing long drawn out dining with rapid meals, and procedures. And he documented these in the Guide Culinaire. He said:

I therefore venture to suppose that a book containing a record of all the changes which have come into being in kitchen work ? changes where of I am in a great part author

The guide to modern cookery is now available free in downloadable form and is a fascinating insight not just into cookery methods, but also into history.