Georges Auguste Escoffier
by Chris Bruno
As a chef who received training in the classical French technique, I appreciate the enormous influence of Georges Auguste Escoffier. Born in 1846 in the Provence region of France, the young Escoffier moved to Nice at age 13 to learn the trade at his uncle’s restaurant. By the age of 19, he had become so proficient in restaurant management that he received an invitation to join the fashionable Le Petit Moulin Rouge in Paris. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, Escoffier enlisted as Chef de Cuisine for the French army, where he experimented with techniques for preserving perishable foods. In 1884, several years after opening his first restaurant, Escoffier and his wife, Delphine, relocated to the city of Monte Carlo, where he met Cesar Ritz. With Escoffier as Head of Restaurant Services and Ritz as General Manager, the pair began collaborating at the Savoy Hotel in London before establishing the wildly successful Grand Hotel in Rome, the Hotel Ritz in Paris, and the Carlton in London, among others. As the chef to some of the biggest stars of his time, Escoffier gained widespread acclaim for innovative dishes such as Peach Melba, which he created for the opera singer Nellie Melba. Today, Escoffier may be best known for his integral role in the development of modern French cuisine. In addition to streamlining and modernizing the elaborate menus of traditional haute cuisine, Escoffier introduced the brigade system, which employed several Chefs de Partie to ensure that his kitchens ran smoothly, implementing a system of discipline and sobriety that elevated cooking as a profession. As the first chef to receive the Legion of Honor, Escoffier left a lasting impact that can still be felt today; after more than a century, his 1903 Le Guide Culinaire still stands as one of the authoritative texts of French cuisine.
