Escoffier's London and the Savoy kitchen

Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935), born at Villeneuve-Loubet in Provence, trained in the kitchens of Nice and Paris and made his career in the grand hotels. His London years were spent in the kitchen of the Savoy Hotel, which opened on the Strand in 1889 and where he worked in partnership with the manager César Ritz. Le Guide Culinaire, first published in Paris in 1903, gathers the practice of that professional world into a single working reference for the cooks of large kitchens.

The Savoy gave Escoffier a house in which the French kitchen could be organised for a foreign clientele at scale. Le Guide Culinaire is addressed to the professional cook and treats the repertoire as a body of method: the fonds, the sauces derived from them, the garnishes, and the preparations of fish, meat, poultry, game, vegetables and sweets. Its recipes are brief, as they are written for cooks who already know the craft, and they depend on the foundations being sound before any finish is applied. The central working principle of the book is the brigade, the division of a kitchen into stations, each held by a chef de partie responsible for a defined part of the service. Escoffier set this against the older habit in which many cooks laboured at the same dish, and the arrangement allowed a hotel to serve a large dining room with consistency and speed. The system rests on the fonds and the mother sauces, which are prepared in advance and from which a great number of dishes are composed without repeating the work. Escoffier also reduced the extravagance of the older grand cuisine. Dishes were served in sequence and plated, in place of the vast spread of the service à la française, and garnishes were limited to what could be eaten. This is the manner of the Guide: a clear fonds, a sauce of measured strength, and an accompaniment chosen for the dish. A cook who follows its sauces will find that each stage is meant to be tasted and corrected before the next is begun. London shaped the repertoire as much as the repertoire shaped London. Dishes were named in honour of guests and occasions, and the Guide records preparations that belong to this hotel period beside the classical canon; the pêche Melba and the sweet and savoury garnishes for the table of a cosmopolitan clientele are examples of how the French kitchen adapted to the demands of its patrons. English produce, from game and beef to fish of the northern waters, entered the French method and was treated by it.

At the table the Escoffier method favours a sauce of clarity and restraint, built on a well-made fonds and finished to accompany the main ingredient. The dishes of the Savoy period are designed to be served in order, each course lighter or richer than the one before, so that the dinner is judged as a whole.