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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Okay, so

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Speaker 1: we are officially into fall and winter at least in

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Speaker 1: our hemisphere. Yep. Uh, and it for a lot of cultures.

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Speaker 1: This is this season where there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: holidays and celebrations that often involve super delicious things. So

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Speaker 1: this seemed like a good time to finally do the

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Speaker 1: episode that I had more or less promised that I

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Speaker 1: was going to do back when we talked about Chef

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Speaker 1: Marie Antoine Karem. So we are delving into the man

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Speaker 1: who followed right after Karam and became known as the

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Speaker 1: King of Chef, Chef of Kings, Augusta Scoffier. And if

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Speaker 1: there are any chefs in our listening audience, they already

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Speaker 1: know about a Scoffier. Uh. He is that important to

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Speaker 1: basically everything involving professional cooking at this point. But people

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Speaker 1: who haven't studied cuisine may not realize that this one

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Speaker 1: man really revolutionized food preparation and restaurant dining in ways

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Speaker 1: that are still part of just about any meal that

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Speaker 1: you would be served today. George Auguste Escoffier was born

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Speaker 1: on October eighteen forty six and Villeneuve, Lube, France, and

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Speaker 1: that's in the country's southeastern shore. His parents were Jean

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Speaker 1: Baptiste Escoffier, was a blacksmith, and Madeleine Savat. Although Jean

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Speaker 1: Baptiste had no formal education, he and the other children

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Speaker 1: of the village had been taught to read and write

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Speaker 1: from a priest, and then in turn, Jean Baptiste shared

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Speaker 1: that knowledge with the children of the community and his

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Speaker 1: own children once he became an adult. Yeah, I sort

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Speaker 1: of love that tradition of teaching that they had in

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Speaker 1: their family, even if it wasn't formal education. The young

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Speaker 1: august Escouvier did not initially want to cook. His dreams

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Speaker 1: as a kid where that he was going to be

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Speaker 1: an artist and specifically a sculptor, but there was sum

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Speaker 1: early indication that he was curious about things that happened

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Speaker 1: in the kitchen. The happened when he watched his grandmother

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Speaker 1: make herself coffee. This is at a time when coffee

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Speaker 1: was not guzzled at the rate for example, that I

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Speaker 1: guzzle it today. It was more of like a a

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Speaker 1: special drink you would have from time to time. But

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Speaker 1: after he watched her, he waited until everyone had left

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Speaker 1: the house so he could try making it himself, which

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Speaker 1: he did, and he was just ten at the time.

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Speaker 1: At the age of thirteen, Scoffee began working for his

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Speaker 1: uncle as an apprentice at a restaurant in Nice, which

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Speaker 1: was just northeast of where they were living. So basically

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Speaker 1: his career choice had been made for him. He would

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Speaker 1: go into cooking, and so he headed into the restaurant

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Speaker 1: Francais to begin learning in eighteen fifty nine, and he

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Speaker 1: stayed at his apprenticeship there until eighteen sixty three, and

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Speaker 1: early on he realized that while cooks weren't especially highly regarded,

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Speaker 1: he also saw the potential of the job and he

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Speaker 1: decided also very early on, that he was going to

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Speaker 1: work as hard as he could to quote improve the

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Speaker 1: standing of the kitchen chef. I will also point out

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Speaker 1: that this is a time when the word chef did

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Speaker 1: not have the connotations it had today. It meant chief

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Speaker 1: like the person that runs the kitchen, although he wrote

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Speaker 1: that particular line much later on, when it also had

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Speaker 1: the connotation of being in the kitchen I just want

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Speaker 1: to make clarity for that. Uh. He started writing menus

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Speaker 1: very very early on in his apprenticeship. He took a

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Speaker 1: great interest in menu writing specifically, and he carefully selected

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Speaker 1: words to name and describe dishes that he thought would

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Speaker 1: sound quote, gentle and pleasing, and when it came to

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Speaker 1: menus for special occasions, he described them as a sort

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Speaker 1: of poem recalling the happy hours spent. After his apprenticeship,

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Speaker 1: August was very busy with the whole series of jobs. First,

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Speaker 1: he was hired as first assistant at a restaurant called

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Speaker 1: Circle Massanna in November of eighteen sixty three. When that

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Speaker 1: kitchen closed for the summer in April of eighteen sixty four,

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Speaker 1: he moved on to Le Frere Provenceau and Nice as

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Speaker 1: kitchen chef. He trained there for six months before being

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Speaker 1: hired at Sa Philip, and then in the spring of

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five, he moved to Paris to work as

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Speaker 1: a kitchen aid at a restaurant called Le Petit Mulin Rouge,

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Speaker 1: which catered to the high society, including the royal families

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Speaker 1: of Europe. Yeah, he basically was always kind of jumping up,

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Speaker 1: even though the rankings of those positions as we know

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Speaker 1: them today may sound lower in some cases. When he

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Speaker 1: went from one to another, he was going to a

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Speaker 1: bigger restaurant, so it was still a move up. And

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Speaker 1: a little more than a year into his Paris job,

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Speaker 1: Escoffier was called up for mandatory military service. So from

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Speaker 1: September eighteen sixty six until the following spring he served

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Speaker 1: in the active Army reserves at vinfran chamer and as

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Speaker 1: soon as his military service was complete, he returned to

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Speaker 1: Lepertine Mulan Rouge. A few years later, military service called again.

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Speaker 1: The Franco Prussian War had begun, and in July of

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy August was selected to be chef de cuisine

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Speaker 1: at the Ryan Army headquarters. He was feeding the chief officers,

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Speaker 1: and his accounts of providing meals during this time show

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Speaker 1: how really committed he was to his ideals as a

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Speaker 1: f Even while he was camping in mud with the

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Speaker 1: rest of the men, he wrote out menus for every

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Speaker 1: day the night before. Sometimes he would start food prep

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Speaker 1: at night. He became really adept at improvising to create

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Speaker 1: these multi course meals, even in very rough circumstances. The

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Speaker 1: men who he served a roast, beef, potato salad, soft

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Speaker 1: boiled eggs, and sauteed rabbit, along with fresh sausage that

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Speaker 1: he and his assistant made themselves. In camp. He would

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Speaker 1: catch wild animals, sometimes procure things like eggs from nearby farms,

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Speaker 1: always with a mind towards creating very filling, balanced meals. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he really was quite nutritionally minded at a time when

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Speaker 1: people weren't really thinking about nutrition necessarily and how they

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Speaker 1: put together meal menus and literally when you're in the military,

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Speaker 1: that's probably not always your first priority. But he really

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Speaker 1: took great care and great pride and how he handled things,

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Speaker 1: and Escoffier saw this work as making room in the

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Speaker 1: minds of officers so that they could worry about more

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Speaker 1: important things than what they would He was like, I

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Speaker 1: will take care of your nutritional needs, you worry about

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Speaker 1: the other stuff. But he also saw the horrors of

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Speaker 1: war during this time. He for example, watched the injured

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Speaker 1: being carried into a makeshift hospital that was set up

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Speaker 1: on the same farm where he and his regiment camped

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Speaker 1: during the Battle of Gravelotte, and he hurried to bring

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Speaker 1: what he could to the men who needed treatment. Well.

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Speaker 1: Continue talking about his experiences during the war. But first

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Speaker 1: we're going to pause for a little sponsor break. As

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Speaker 1: the war stretched into months, rationing began to impact the

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Speaker 1: men used that Escoffier prepared. Horse Meat was used to

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Speaker 1: supplement because beef was unavailable, but even so the chef

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Speaker 1: was keenly aware of the drop in his ability to

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Speaker 1: provide for the nutritional needs of the men that he

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Speaker 1: cooked for. On October eighteen seventy, which was his twenty

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Speaker 1: four birthday, august A Scoffier became a prisoner of war

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Speaker 1: when the French surround undered after the Siege of Metz.

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Speaker 1: He remained a pow until the end of the war,

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Speaker 1: although his skills let him move out of the camp

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Speaker 1: proper and into a kitchen role. Yeah, there's a great

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Speaker 1: story in his memoir about how even though he was

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Speaker 1: kind of in like a better situation than the men

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Speaker 1: he had left behind in Camp uh, at Christmas that year,

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Speaker 1: he made a point to take as many things as

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Speaker 1: he could from the kitchen that he was allowed to

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Speaker 1: take and bring them back to them so they could

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Speaker 1: have sort of their own little celebration and he could

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Speaker 1: try to help them have a better Christmas than they

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Speaker 1: would otherwise have had, and after the war ended, A

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Speaker 1: Scoffier moved into the role of chef de cuisine at

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Speaker 1: the Hotel Luxembourg in Nice. But in spring of eighteen

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Speaker 1: seventy three he was back at Le Petit Boulan Rouge

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Speaker 1: as Chef de cuisine, and he parlayed his success there

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Speaker 1: into a side business for himself when he bought a

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Speaker 1: small grocery in can called Andre that means golden pheasant,

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Speaker 1: and he bought that in eighteen seventy six and over

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Speaker 1: the next two years while he continued to work at

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Speaker 1: Timulin Rouge, he renovated the store and added a winter

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Speaker 1: dining room to it. He moved into running his new

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Speaker 1: business full time in eighty eight after the end of

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Speaker 1: the summer season at Leptine Mulin Rouge. That August was

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Speaker 1: really busy for him. He got married to his fiancee,

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Speaker 1: Delphine Daffist, and he did that in between the two jobs.

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Speaker 1: But after only two months and his new venue and

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Speaker 1: his new marriage, his father in law suddenly died. That

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Speaker 1: meant that he took on a lot of responsibility and

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Speaker 1: to help the family get through the strain of this period.

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Speaker 1: A Goost gave up his little fledgling shop and can

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Speaker 1: to take more stable work in Paris. He became the

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Speaker 1: general manager of Le Maison Cheves, but he worked there

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Speaker 1: only eight months before a new opportunity presented itself, and

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Speaker 1: that was Chef de cuisine at the new Cafe Restaurant

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Speaker 1: du Casino, which was, as the name suggests, part of

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Speaker 1: a larger luxury casino property, and the scoffier had been

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Speaker 1: hired simply to get the restaurant up and running, and

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Speaker 1: he did this job admirably. This is something he did

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Speaker 1: throughout his career after this, where he would kind of

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Speaker 1: come in and set up a new restaurant and then

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Speaker 1: he would go back to his regular thing and the

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Speaker 1: restaurant would continue on its own. But he did this

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Speaker 1: so well with the casino and restaurant that when they

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Speaker 1: had a press event to promote this new luxury entertainment complex,

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Speaker 1: all of the reporters there were way more interested in

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Speaker 1: a scoffier's food than any other aspect of the business

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Speaker 1: that they were trying to talk about. After the casino,

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Speaker 1: while working as the restaurant manager of the Grand Hotel

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Speaker 1: in My Carlo, August Escoffier met Swiss business in Caesar.

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Speaker 1: Ritz was four and Ritz was already a successful hotelier,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't quite have the name recognition that he

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Speaker 1: would have later. Ritz wanted an expert in the food

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Speaker 1: service end of the hotel industry, and a scoffier really

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Speaker 1: fit that bill. So when Ritz began managing the Hotel

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Speaker 1: Nacional in lucer And Switzerland, he eventually hired a scoffier

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Speaker 1: on there, but their partnership in business truly cement did

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Speaker 1: when Ritz became the manager of London's Savoy Hotel, and

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Speaker 1: he brought a goost right along with him, so in

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Speaker 1: eighteen ninety Escoffier took charge of the kitchens at the

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Speaker 1: Savoy Hotel. Ritz was hired at the Savoy to fix

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Speaker 1: its problems. It had only been opened since eighteen eighty nine,

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Speaker 1: and while it was glamorous and beautiful, it was managed

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Speaker 1: really terribly and was facing bankruptcy. The hotel offered an

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Speaker 1: ola carte menu in the restaurant, but the chef that

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Speaker 1: had been in charge had really only managed fixed price

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Speaker 1: menus where all the courses were part of one order,

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Speaker 1: handling the different supply and prep needs. Of a kitchen

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Speaker 1: that had more items in play on the menu was

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Speaker 1: a really different skill set and it just had not

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Speaker 1: gone well. Escoffier, though, was excellent at this and he

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Speaker 1: walked into a mess, but he straightened it all out. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he claimed that the day that they got there and

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Speaker 1: he was like, I can't imagine why anyone would do this,

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Speaker 1: but I'm like, maybe angry on the way out that

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Speaker 1: all of the kitchen equipment had been broken and all

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Speaker 1: of the food stores had been damaged in some way.

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Speaker 1: Like basically, someone was really angry on their way out

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Speaker 1: the door. Um. And so he had to call around

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Speaker 1: to chef friends and be like, do you have stuff

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Speaker 1: I can borrow today? And so he got through that

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Speaker 1: first day. Uh, he said he didn't even have salt

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Speaker 1: to begin with, But he got through that first day

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Speaker 1: with the help of of the chef community. And then

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Speaker 1: the next day he kind of got all of his

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Speaker 1: contacts with suppliers and got everything right and could move

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Speaker 1: forward from there. And a Scoffier instituted a number of

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Speaker 1: processes to get the hotel's restaurant running smoothly. So often

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Speaker 1: when high profile London clients would want to book a

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Speaker 1: dinner party, for example, they relied on the Metro d'hotel

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Speaker 1: to make decisions on the food because the French menus

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Speaker 1: were sometimes a little daunting for them, and A Scoffier

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Speaker 1: began keeping copious records of what they served at each

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Speaker 1: meal like this so that if the same person booked

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Speaker 1: another high end dinner party with them at a later date,

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Speaker 1: they could be sure that they would never serve them

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Speaker 1: the same meal twice and they would always be getting

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Speaker 1: different dishes. Everything about the restaurant was amond and optimized

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Speaker 1: to attract the best possible clients. Hell, even the lighting

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Speaker 1: was really carefully designed to be soft and glowing so

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Speaker 1: that their customers would look their absolute best while they

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Speaker 1: were eating their Royalty, heads of state, the wealthy, and

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Speaker 1: the famous all flocked there as Ritz and A Scoffier

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Speaker 1: put their mark on the place. It was during his

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Speaker 1: early years at the Savoy. In eighteen ninety three that

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Speaker 1: august Escoffier invented the dessert peach Melba in honor of

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Speaker 1: prior podcast subject Dame Nellie Melba, although it didn't appear

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Speaker 1: on a menu for a number of years. Yeah, we'll

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Speaker 1: talk about when it pops up, but he made it

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Speaker 1: basically especially for her one night, and then he always

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Speaker 1: remembered it uh and used it later. And it was

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Speaker 1: also early on in his Savoy days that a scoffier

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Speaker 1: made charity a priority for his kitchen. So when he

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Speaker 1: first started working there, he was visited each morning by

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Speaker 1: two nuns from a group called Little Sisters of the Poor,

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Speaker 1: asking for things like coffee grounds or tea that could

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Speaker 1: potentially be brewed a second time, or a crusts of bread,

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Speaker 1: and these they would take back to what was essentially

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Speaker 1: a poor retirement house, and the chef was inspired by

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Speaker 1: them to incorporate giving into the kitchen's normal routine. So

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Speaker 1: first he always made sure that he had some good,

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Speaker 1: clean supplies to give to them. He would always make

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Speaker 1: sure the food was as as high end as he

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Speaker 1: could possibly manage, and always very clean, but he also

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Speaker 1: instructed his staff to save any cuts of meat that

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Speaker 1: they could during preparations for banquets and set it aside

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Speaker 1: just for the Little Sisters. For example, when they served

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Speaker 1: a dish like quail to a large group, they'd normally

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Speaker 1: only be serving the breast, and that meant the legs

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Speaker 1: could be given to the nuns, along with instructions on

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Speaker 1: how to prepare it for the people they were feeding.

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Speaker 1: Since the Savoys banquets were often really huge affairs, this

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Speaker 1: was a substantial amount of food to donate, but it

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Speaker 1: was also a substantial amount of food to otherwise be wasting. Yes,

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Speaker 1: he was not a fan of that kind of waste.

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Speaker 1: People were hungry, as Scoffy a continued to do this

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Speaker 1: through his whole career. Yeah, he basically instructed his people

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Speaker 1: like any cut of meat that was edible but was

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Speaker 1: not considered like high end enough for some of their

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Speaker 1: fancy meals he was. He would be like, okay, you

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Speaker 1: know where to put it, and they just had a

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Speaker 1: place in the kitchen where they would always put those things.

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Speaker 1: At the end of every night, everything that was edible

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Speaker 1: went to the poor and then they started each new

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Speaker 1: day fresh. A. Scoffier also engaged in this wonderful little

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Speaker 1: bit of devious ingredient renaming while he was at the Savoy,

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Speaker 1: So he had prepared frog legs many times as a

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Speaker 1: chef in France, but he also knew that the English

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Speaker 1: thought this whole idea was gross and that they often

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Speaker 1: mocked the French for eating frog, and he was adamant

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Speaker 1: that frog meat was a very fresh and light tasting

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Speaker 1: option and it was easy to digest. So during a

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Speaker 1: large banquet again remember that often these people would just

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Speaker 1: order a banquet and let them select the menu. One

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Speaker 1: of the dishes that he served was called nymph a

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Speaker 1: la rour or Nymphs at Dawn, and the nymphs were

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Speaker 1: in fact frog and his English guests ate them up

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Speaker 1: in a chaufroise sauce, with Paprika declaring the dish absolutely delicious.

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Speaker 1: This sounds appalling to you. I encourage you. If you

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Speaker 1: see things on your menu that you don't recognize, ask yes.

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Speaker 1: It makes me laugh so hard. And there were cases

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Speaker 1: where he particularly I think it was the Prince of

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Speaker 1: Wales at the time, who was well traveled in New

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Speaker 1: French food, recognized what it was and what was going on,

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Speaker 1: and it was like their little shared secret of like

293
00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:35,640
Speaker 1: we're kind of pulling one over on these people. While

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00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:38,520
Speaker 1: the Savoy years of A. Scoffey's career were overall really

295
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Speaker 1: happy and they made him very well known, he didn't

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Speaker 1: finish the nineteenth century there, and we will talk about

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Speaker 1: his next career shift. After another quick sponsor break in.

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Speaker 1: Things started to unravel at the Savoy for Rits and A. Scoffier.

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Speaker 1: So throughout their time with the hotel, both men had

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Speaker 1: worked side jobs opening new hotels and restaurants, and per

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Speaker 1: Escoffier's memoir, a misunderstanding over the nature of these side

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Speaker 1: businesses led to him and his partner Rits being fired.

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Speaker 1: In recent years, journalist Paul Levy has made the case

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Speaker 1: based on documents which he's come into the possession of,

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00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:23,480
Speaker 1: that in fact, the two men were taking kickbacks from

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Speaker 1: suppliers and stealing from the hotel supplies to an exorbitant degree.

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Speaker 1: Part of this was because Ritz was also working on

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Speaker 1: some other projects and he would have potential business partners

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Speaker 1: from those projects come to the Savoy and they would

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Speaker 1: feed them sumptuous, very very expensive meals without charging of

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Speaker 1: course for them. And so that was kind of considered

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Speaker 1: part of this theft. Because Ritz was also signing agreements

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Speaker 1: that made him in charge of like large development projects,

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Speaker 1: some that would bear his name eventually. Uh So this

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00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:57,560
Speaker 1: is part of the problem. Uh Descendants of Escoffier have

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Speaker 1: challenged these claims, but we wanted to make sure we

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00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,760
Speaker 1: mentioned it at least, and regardless of the reason for

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Speaker 1: their sacking, A Scoffier and Rits moved into a new venue,

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Speaker 1: the Ritz Hotel in Paris, named for Caesar Ritz, which

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Speaker 1: opened on June five. This is all the same kind

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Speaker 1: of stuff that if you work for a big company

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Speaker 1: today when you have to take your business ethics and

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Speaker 1: compliance training, absolutely similar to all that kind of stuff. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Once the Paris Ritz was up and running, A Scoffier

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Speaker 1: and Rits both returned to London in eight to work

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Speaker 1: at the brand new Carlton Hotel. While A Scoffier's career

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00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:37,679
Speaker 1: before this involved constant shifting around, either seasonally or just

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Speaker 1: to take better jobs, he stayed at the Carlton for

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00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:44,040
Speaker 1: over twenty years, and on the menu for the opening

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Speaker 1: of the new hotels restaurant was Peach Melba appearing Autumn

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Speaker 1: You for the first time and for the record, a

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Speaker 1: lot of the clientele from the Savoy chose to follow

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Speaker 1: Ritz and A Scoffier over to the Carlton. In nineteen

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Speaker 1: o three, Escoffier wrote what is probably his most famous book,

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Speaker 1: lagid Cullinaire, which he co wrote with Phileas Julbert, and

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00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:07,880
Speaker 1: this book which is still in print, by the way,

337
00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:11,320
Speaker 1: became the Bible of French cooking, but really cooking in

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00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:15,320
Speaker 1: general in terms of restaurant cooking, and it features recipes

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00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:18,800
Speaker 1: for all possible courses. It's laid out in the narrative

340
00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,359
Speaker 1: form that shows dishes and the order that they should

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00:18:21,359 --> 00:18:24,919
Speaker 1: be prepared and served. And August saw the need for

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00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:27,440
Speaker 1: such a book because he saw that the restaurant industry

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Speaker 1: was growing and that it was increasingly important for chefs

344
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Speaker 1: to be able to manage kitchens that served huge numbers

345
00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:36,040
Speaker 1: of guests, and there was not at this point formal

346
00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:39,239
Speaker 1: training for it. He saw this writing as quote a

347
00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:42,560
Speaker 1: work tool more than a book. He was adamant that

348
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,280
Speaker 1: even though it had more than five thousand recipes, it

349
00:18:45,359 --> 00:18:48,000
Speaker 1: was incomplete. He knew that the industry would always be

350
00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:50,560
Speaker 1: evolving and progressing, and that any new edition of the

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00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,400
Speaker 1: book would need to be updated to reflect all those changes.

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Speaker 1: He also thought the basics would remain constant, and he

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00:18:57,680 --> 00:18:59,840
Speaker 1: thought he could write what would be in essence of

354
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Speaker 1: foundation document that chefs could use for years and years

355
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Speaker 1: to come. And he was correct, because most chefs that

356
00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:09,960
Speaker 1: run restaurants today have a copy of this book. Somewhere.

357
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Speaker 1: When the fiftieth anniversary of A. Scoffier's professional career loomed

358
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Speaker 1: in nineteen o nine, his colleagues took up a collection

359
00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:19,639
Speaker 1: with the intent that they would use the money to

360
00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,680
Speaker 1: buy him a piece of art with it. But when Augusta.

361
00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:25,359
Speaker 1: Scoffier was told how much money had come in and

362
00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:27,040
Speaker 1: that they were planning to do this, it was about

363
00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:30,440
Speaker 1: six thousand francs, he asked that it instead be donated

364
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Speaker 1: to a retirement home that took care of elderly chefs

365
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Speaker 1: who had little or no money, and on the night

366
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Speaker 1: of the celebration of his career, he was gifted with

367
00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:41,520
Speaker 1: a silver cup from the hotel rather than a lavish

368
00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:47,720
Speaker 1: piece of art. In Escoffier published a pamphlet on suppressing poverty.

369
00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:50,960
Speaker 1: He felt that if every person followed the adage to

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Speaker 1: love your neighbor as yourself like really truly followed it,

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Speaker 1: that poverty would be erased. He advocated for a universal

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Speaker 1: old age pension system, particularly citing the people who had

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Speaker 1: worked their whole lives and jobs that just hadn't allowed

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Speaker 1: them to put money aside for retirement. Yeah because he

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00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:10,959
Speaker 1: had worked in the service industry, his entire life. He

376
00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:13,120
Speaker 1: had been very keenly aware that the people that were

377
00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:16,040
Speaker 1: kind of at the lowest levels in any organization, and

378
00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:18,800
Speaker 1: we're getting paid the least, we're often working the hardest.

379
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,159
Speaker 1: And he thought their work was just as honorable as

380
00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:23,240
Speaker 1: anyone else's, and that they should not have to rely

381
00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:26,560
Speaker 1: on charity in their elder years to get by, and

382
00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:28,439
Speaker 1: that there should be some sort of system put in

383
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:31,439
Speaker 1: place to make sure that all people had an equal

384
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:35,080
Speaker 1: shot at a lovely retirement. Starting in nineteen eleven, A

385
00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:38,359
Speaker 1: Scoffee started publishing a magazine which came out monthly called

386
00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:42,159
Speaker 1: Le cow ne depucu That's a Gourmet's Notebook. And he

387
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,159
Speaker 1: published that magazine for three years, and his hopes were

388
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Speaker 1: that it would spread knowledge of French cooking to other

389
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Speaker 1: countries and in turn would help French tourism. But when

390
00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:55,320
Speaker 1: World War One began, the magazine which put aside. Also

391
00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,040
Speaker 1: in nineteen eleven, a fire started in one of the

392
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Speaker 1: elevators at the Carlton Hotel that had an estimated two

393
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:04,439
Speaker 1: million franc's worth of damage. There weren't any fatalities, but

394
00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:08,679
Speaker 1: all of the rooms were damaged. A Scoffier rallied the staff,

395
00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:12,440
Speaker 1: and the restaurant was immediately open and serving meals. Yeah,

396
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:15,560
Speaker 1: the the rooms that they could run out to guests

397
00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:17,359
Speaker 1: could not be filled for a while while they fixed

398
00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:20,080
Speaker 1: things up, but the restaurant at least could continue to

399
00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:24,160
Speaker 1: bring in a little bit of money. In Escoffier participated

400
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:27,560
Speaker 1: in what I think is a fabulously interesting dinner with

401
00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:29,879
Speaker 1: his friends from a club that he had formed called

402
00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:34,480
Speaker 1: Lalage de gament, and Escoffier created a menu that was

403
00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:39,240
Speaker 1: served simultaneously to club members in restaurants throughout Europe. So

404
00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:42,760
Speaker 1: each kitchen prepared all of the dishes as outlined by

405
00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:46,520
Speaker 1: the famous cook, and then, according to A. Scoffier's memoirs,

406
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:49,960
Speaker 1: throughout the continent at the same time, four thousand people

407
00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:53,560
Speaker 1: were eating the same meal. And during this event called

408
00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:58,480
Speaker 1: the DNA Depucu, Escoffier received telegrams from friends and fellows,

409
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:00,840
Speaker 1: some of whom were very famous, taking part in this

410
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,959
Speaker 1: celebration and marveling at what a wonderful thing it was.

411
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 1: While his magazine was underway, Escoffier also published a book

412
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:11,679
Speaker 1: titled Lalvra de Menu or the Book of Menus in

413
00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:14,440
Speaker 1: nineteen twelve, and as we said, uh. Once the war

414
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:18,080
Speaker 1: began in nineteen fourteen, things changed. His magazine ceased publication,

415
00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:22,040
Speaker 1: but Escoffier also faced ration ng and shortage issues, not

416
00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:24,680
Speaker 1: unlike when he had been a cook in the military,

417
00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,240
Speaker 1: but this time it was his job not two feed soldiers,

418
00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:31,120
Speaker 1: but to keep a luxury restaurant running despite those shortages.

419
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,240
Speaker 1: And to that end, he once again got very creative

420
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:37,560
Speaker 1: with menus. So he increased the use of venison, eggs

421
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:41,600
Speaker 1: and bacon, among other non ration food ingredients, and he

422
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:44,440
Speaker 1: made contact directly with fisherman so that he could get

423
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,320
Speaker 1: fresh seafood without having to go through the rationed markets.

424
00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:50,720
Speaker 1: And he substituted cocoa butter for dairy butter, which was

425
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:54,680
Speaker 1: not available at the time. He kind of through this

426
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:56,959
Speaker 1: really started getting a sense of what we would call

427
00:22:57,040 --> 00:22:59,000
Speaker 1: today farm to table, where he was like, oh, yes,

428
00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:02,160
Speaker 1: fresh directly from the supplier is the best way to go. Uh.

429
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:04,760
Speaker 1: And he had always been excellent and improvising when faced

430
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:07,880
Speaker 1: with problems of supply, and it really served him well

431
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:10,920
Speaker 1: during these lean times because he created some very very

432
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,280
Speaker 1: beloved dishes. He also kept on with his philanthropic work

433
00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: during the war. He created a support committee to help

434
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:20,280
Speaker 1: raise the funds for the families of staff that had

435
00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:23,159
Speaker 1: been sent to the front to fight, and he distributed

436
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,639
Speaker 1: the funds that were raised on a weekly basis. He

437
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,240
Speaker 1: also hired more staff than he really needed to try

438
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:31,120
Speaker 1: to keep families afloat, and he worked to make sure

439
00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:34,160
Speaker 1: that when men returned from fighting they could once again

440
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 1: find a position at the Carlton. On November eleventh, nineteen eighteen,

441
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:41,479
Speaker 1: when the armistice was announced, the hotel's restaurant was almost

442
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 1: immediately booked to capacity with reservations for people who were

443
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,439
Speaker 1: eager to celebrate the end of the war. And so,

444
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:50,760
Speaker 1: with seven hundred and twelve seats booked for the night

445
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: and food restrictions still emplace that limited his options, Escoffier

446
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:58,160
Speaker 1: got very very creative, indeed, so for the main dish

447
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 1: that night, he combined all of the areas meats he

448
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:02,679
Speaker 1: had on hand in a mentser because he didn't have

449
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 1: a whole lot of any one meat, and then he

450
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,320
Speaker 1: mixed that result with a patte and bread and that

451
00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:10,600
Speaker 1: had been soaked in cream so it was soft, and

452
00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 1: he made what he called little mignonetts, so they were

453
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:16,160
Speaker 1: almost like a French meatball on the one year anniversary

454
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 1: of the armistice, Escoffier was orded the Legion of Honor

455
00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 1: and he became an officer of the Order in nineteen yeah.

456
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,160
Speaker 1: He described uh becoming part of the Legion of Honor

457
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,359
Speaker 1: as one of the greatest honors of his life and

458
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:33,040
Speaker 1: Augusta Scoffier, after the war was tired and he retired

459
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:37,520
Speaker 1: from running kitchens in nine He has this unique distinction

460
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: of having never worked for a private household in his

461
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:43,359
Speaker 1: career as a cook or chef. But even after he

462
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 1: and his wife, Delphine moved to Monte Carlo for their retirement,

463
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 1: he continued to write books about cooking and running a

464
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,359
Speaker 1: kitchen professionally, and in his writing he codified a lot

465
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 1: of the innovations that he had implemented during his long career.

466
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 1: He wrote about the importance of sanitation and kitchen safety,

467
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,280
Speaker 1: and his brigade the cuisine system of kitchen management, which

468
00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:06,760
Speaker 1: is organized military style, with the chef de cuisine, which

469
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: is the chief of the kitchen, as the leader, and

470
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 1: all the other positions ranked below that one. He also

471
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:15,119
Speaker 1: wrote about something that we mentioned earlier in UH his

472
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 1: first book of serving meals one course at a time,

473
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:21,120
Speaker 1: because prior to that the standard practice had been everything

474
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:23,400
Speaker 1: hitting the table at once, and then people just knew

475
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:26,040
Speaker 1: to eat them in order. Uh. And he also outlined

476
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 1: his method of canning vegetables, which was new that was

477
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,639
Speaker 1: something he had pioneered in response to rationing during his

478
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 1: time in the military. And he also was entirely ahead

479
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 1: of his time when it came to helpful cooking. I

480
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 1: mentioned already that he thought about nutrition in a much

481
00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:45,280
Speaker 1: broader way than most people did, and as you may

482
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:49,360
Speaker 1: recall from our Marie Antoine Carime episode, France had shifted

483
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:53,399
Speaker 1: to less decadent cooking trends over time after the French Revolution,

484
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 1: and Escoffier took that idea even farther by extolling the

485
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 1: virtues of the freshest possible ingredients obtained erectly from farms

486
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:04,719
Speaker 1: and fisherman. He felt and wrote that everyone should have

487
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:07,919
Speaker 1: access to good, healthy food and what he called a

488
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,919
Speaker 1: courteous style of living, meaning meals shared among friends and

489
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 1: loved ones using fine cooking traditions and shared from one

490
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 1: generation to the next. Yeah, he thought like fine cooking

491
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:20,760
Speaker 1: should not be something that only someone who ran a

492
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:24,040
Speaker 1: professional kitchen should know. But that families should know it

493
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:26,160
Speaker 1: and share it with one another, and that it should

494
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:28,119
Speaker 1: just be part of life. And when you went to

495
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,159
Speaker 1: a restaurant it was just so you didn't have to

496
00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 1: do that, but you had the knowledge. Uh. And of

497
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:37,159
Speaker 1: course Escoffier built on the four mother sauces established by

498
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 1: Marie Antoine, and the result ended up being a little

499
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,800
Speaker 1: bit of a rework that landed at five mother sauces,

500
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:48,760
Speaker 1: which remains standard in French cooking. So those are Beshema, tomat, velute,

501
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 1: espanol and hollidaise. Thank you, Missieur Scofier, because they have

502
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:58,720
Speaker 1: all given me great joy. Augusta Scoffier died in Monte Carlo,

503
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 1: Monico and his home on February twelfth n just a

504
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:06,680
Speaker 1: few days after his wife died. He was eighty nine.

505
00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:09,879
Speaker 1: His remains were buried in the town where he was born,

506
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:14,879
Speaker 1: in his family's vault. Escoffier's memoirs were published well after

507
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,959
Speaker 1: his death. When he died, his son Paul had assembled

508
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,080
Speaker 1: all of the notes and documents that he had gone

509
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:23,560
Speaker 1: and collected from the Monte Carlo house, as well as

510
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 1: a Scoffee's apartment that he kept in Paris, and those

511
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,199
Speaker 1: notes included a memoir that the chef had written, and

512
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:33,359
Speaker 1: those works were finally published by A. Scoffey's grandson in

513
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:37,800
Speaker 1: Nive in French, and those were expanded and translated beginning

514
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:42,480
Speaker 1: in nineteen to mark Augusta Scoffier's hundred and fiftieth birthday. Today,

515
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: the Augusta Scoffier Foundation runs the Escoffier Museum of Culinary

516
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:51,440
Speaker 1: Arts at his birthplace. The august Escoffier School of Culinary

517
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 1: Arts offers training at several campuses and online courses as well,

518
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:59,840
Speaker 1: and Michel Escoffier, who was the great grandson of the

519
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 1: Chef of King's, sets on the advisory board for the school.

520
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,440
Speaker 1: And in Escovis memoir, which is a great read, uh

521
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,120
Speaker 1: and really easy to read because it's the chapters are short,

522
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,200
Speaker 1: but it's also very fun because you really do get

523
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: a sense that he could not stop talking about how

524
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 1: to make food, because he'll be in the middle of

525
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:17,360
Speaker 1: telling a story and then be like, let me give

526
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: you the recipe, uh, and it will just drop in

527
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 1: like in the middle of sort of a paragraph of

528
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:26,919
Speaker 1: of a narrative. But there was a passage in that

529
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:29,760
Speaker 1: memoir that struck me that he wrote about when he

530
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,360
Speaker 1: first entered the cooking profession as a teenage apprentice and

531
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 1: how he began to look at cooking, and it really

532
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 1: nicely encapsulates his ideology about the importance of this career.

533
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,160
Speaker 1: He wrote, quote at the time, high society held little

534
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 1: esteem for the profession of cook This should never have

535
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 1: been the case, for cooking is a science and an art,

536
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 1: and one who puts all his heart into satisfying his

537
00:28:54,800 --> 00:29:02,560
Speaker 1: fellow man deserves recognition. French food, which is always a

538
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: big favorite of mine. Uh And I just love his story.

539
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:11,480
Speaker 1: I love how he has h impacted so many meals

540
00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:13,479
Speaker 1: that you know, you and I and everyone who has

541
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,760
Speaker 1: ever eaten in a restaurant has had, as well as

542
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:20,040
Speaker 1: just sort of bringing French cooking to a wider audience

543
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 1: in some ways. You know, we talked about in the

544
00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 1: modern era Julia Child being a person that really really

545
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:28,600
Speaker 1: disseminated information about French cooking to the masses, and he

546
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 1: was sort of her precursor in that they have a

547
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 1: little overlap in their lifetimes, but they did not actually meet.

548
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,920
Speaker 1: I don't think for listener, Mail, I have a thank

549
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:39,920
Speaker 1: you for a lovely gift from our listener, Darren So

550
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 1: Darren wrote, Uh, dear Holly and Tracy, just a quick

551
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 1: note to say thanks for the show you do, which

552
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:46,760
Speaker 1: helps keep me saying during long drives when I'm working.

553
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 1: An extra thank you for the show's featuring Australian history,

554
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:51,560
Speaker 1: as you have taught me a couple of things about

555
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:53,920
Speaker 1: my country that I did not know. And then here's

556
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 1: the cool thing, Tracy, we have gifts that you're gonna love,

557
00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: what he said. I have enclosed a couple of copies

558
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:02,080
Speaker 1: of my friend Luna odd freest fabulous, awesome, Awese Women

559
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: of History coloring book as a thank you. Unfortunately, he says,

560
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:07,400
Speaker 1: I think it's sold out, but she has other great

561
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 1: stuff celebrating women on her Etsy page. This is like

562
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 1: the cutest. The art style is really really fun. I

563
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:16,400
Speaker 1: can't wait. It's one of those things where I never

564
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 1: want to color in these coloring books, so I'm gonna

565
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 1: photo copy pages and color though, because that's how I do. Uh,

566
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 1: and I will make sure that Tracy gets her copy

567
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 1: when she is next in the office. Thank you, thank you,

568
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 1: Thank you again, Darren. I really appreciate it. I appreciate

569
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 1: all of the many things people send to us. They're

570
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 1: always so lovely and we feel very spoiled. If you

571
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, you can do so

572
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 1: at History podcast at how stuff works dot com. You

573
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: can also find us as Missed in History pretty much

574
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: anywhere on social media, and you can find our website

575
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 1: at missed in History dot com. You can also subscribe

576
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 1: to the show on Apple Podcasts or the I Heart

577
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 1: Radio app or anywhere you get podcasts. For more on

578
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,040
Speaker 1: this and that's of other topics, visit how staff works

579
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 1: dot com. HM, HM,