WEBVTT - Auguste Escoffier 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.080 Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:13.480 Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:16.880 I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Okay, so 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.439 we are officially into fall and winter at least in 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:23.400 our hemisphere. Yep. Uh, and it for a lot of cultures. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:24.720 This is this season where there are a lot of 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:29.640 holidays and celebrations that often involve super delicious things. So 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:32.400 this seemed like a good time to finally do the 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.279 episode that I had more or less promised that I 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:37.840 was going to do back when we talked about Chef 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.240 Marie Antoine Karem. So we are delving into the man 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.479 who followed right after Karam and became known as the 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:48.800 King of Chef, Chef of Kings, Augusta Scoffier. And if 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:51.640 there are any chefs in our listening audience, they already 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.600 know about a Scoffier. Uh. He is that important to 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.720 basically everything involving professional cooking at this point. But people 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.680 who haven't studied cuisine may not realize that this one 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:07.319 man really revolutionized food preparation and restaurant dining in ways 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:09.920 that are still part of just about any meal that 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.880 you would be served today. George Auguste Escoffier was born 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:18.240 on October eighteen forty six and Villeneuve, Lube, France, and 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.760 that's in the country's southeastern shore. His parents were Jean 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:27.080 Baptiste Escoffier, was a blacksmith, and Madeleine Savat. Although Jean 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.279 Baptiste had no formal education, he and the other children 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.160 of the village had been taught to read and write 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:34.920 from a priest, and then in turn, Jean Baptiste shared 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:37.600 that knowledge with the children of the community and his 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:39.880 own children once he became an adult. Yeah, I sort 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.640 of love that tradition of teaching that they had in 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.039 their family, even if it wasn't formal education. The young 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:50.000 august Escouvier did not initially want to cook. His dreams 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:51.160 as a kid where that he was going to be 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:55.280 an artist and specifically a sculptor, but there was sum 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.760 early indication that he was curious about things that happened 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.720 in the kitchen. The happened when he watched his grandmother 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.560 make herself coffee. This is at a time when coffee 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:06.280 was not guzzled at the rate for example, that I 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.400 guzzle it today. It was more of like a a 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:10.720 special drink you would have from time to time. But 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.320 after he watched her, he waited until everyone had left 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.040 the house so he could try making it himself, which 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.040 he did, and he was just ten at the time. 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.120 At the age of thirteen, Scoffee began working for his 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.360 uncle as an apprentice at a restaurant in Nice, which 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:27.480 was just northeast of where they were living. So basically 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:29.880 his career choice had been made for him. He would 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.359 go into cooking, and so he headed into the restaurant 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.320 Francais to begin learning in eighteen fifty nine, and he 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.000 stayed at his apprenticeship there until eighteen sixty three, and 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:44.280 early on he realized that while cooks weren't especially highly regarded, 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:46.800 he also saw the potential of the job and he 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.680 decided also very early on, that he was going to 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.360 work as hard as he could to quote improve the 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.280 standing of the kitchen chef. I will also point out 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.280 that this is a time when the word chef did 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:00.799 not have the connotations it had today. It meant chief 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:03.799 like the person that runs the kitchen, although he wrote 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.840 that particular line much later on, when it also had 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:08.880 the connotation of being in the kitchen I just want 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.160 to make clarity for that. Uh. He started writing menus 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.720 very very early on in his apprenticeship. He took a 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:18.600 great interest in menu writing specifically, and he carefully selected 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.640 words to name and describe dishes that he thought would 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.000 sound quote, gentle and pleasing, and when it came to 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.880 menus for special occasions, he described them as a sort 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:33.360 of poem recalling the happy hours spent. After his apprenticeship, 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.160 August was very busy with the whole series of jobs. First, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:39.920 he was hired as first assistant at a restaurant called 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.680 Circle Massanna in November of eighteen sixty three. When that 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.080 kitchen closed for the summer in April of eighteen sixty four, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:50.680 he moved on to Le Frere Provenceau and Nice as 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.920 kitchen chef. He trained there for six months before being 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.640 hired at Sa Philip, and then in the spring of 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.240 eighteen sixty five, he moved to Paris to work as 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.200 a kitchen aid at a restaurant called Le Petit Mulin Rouge, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.760 which catered to the high society, including the royal families 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.920 of Europe. Yeah, he basically was always kind of jumping up, 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.880 even though the rankings of those positions as we know 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:16.040 them today may sound lower in some cases. When he 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:17.800 went from one to another, he was going to a 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.600 bigger restaurant, so it was still a move up. And 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:22.800 a little more than a year into his Paris job, 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.280 Escoffier was called up for mandatory military service. So from 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.960 September eighteen sixty six until the following spring he served 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:35.360 in the active Army reserves at vinfran chamer and as 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.320 soon as his military service was complete, he returned to 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:42.880 Lepertine Mulan Rouge. A few years later, military service called again. 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.719 The Franco Prussian War had begun, and in July of 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.200 eighteen seventy August was selected to be chef de cuisine 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:54.480 at the Ryan Army headquarters. He was feeding the chief officers, 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.000 and his accounts of providing meals during this time show 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.840 how really committed he was to his ideals as a 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.880 f Even while he was camping in mud with the 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:05.440 rest of the men, he wrote out menus for every 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.520 day the night before. Sometimes he would start food prep 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.159 at night. He became really adept at improvising to create 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.960 these multi course meals, even in very rough circumstances. The 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:19.479 men who he served a roast, beef, potato salad, soft 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.839 boiled eggs, and sauteed rabbit, along with fresh sausage that 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.559 he and his assistant made themselves. In camp. He would 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.680 catch wild animals, sometimes procure things like eggs from nearby farms, 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:35.000 always with a mind towards creating very filling, balanced meals. Yeah, 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:38.320 he really was quite nutritionally minded at a time when 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:42.479 people weren't really thinking about nutrition necessarily and how they 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.880 put together meal menus and literally when you're in the military, 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:50.160 that's probably not always your first priority. But he really 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.960 took great care and great pride and how he handled things, 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.160 and Escoffier saw this work as making room in the 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:58.640 minds of officers so that they could worry about more 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:00.440 important things than what they would He was like, I 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.840 will take care of your nutritional needs, you worry about 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.240 the other stuff. But he also saw the horrors of 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.960 war during this time. He for example, watched the injured 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.040 being carried into a makeshift hospital that was set up 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.360 on the same farm where he and his regiment camped 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.160 during the Battle of Gravelotte, and he hurried to bring 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.040 what he could to the men who needed treatment. Well. 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.279 Continue talking about his experiences during the war. But first 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:35.200 we're going to pause for a little sponsor break. As 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.599 the war stretched into months, rationing began to impact the 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.320 men used that Escoffier prepared. Horse Meat was used to 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.200 supplement because beef was unavailable, but even so the chef 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:48.640 was keenly aware of the drop in his ability to 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.000 provide for the nutritional needs of the men that he 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:55.320 cooked for. On October eighteen seventy, which was his twenty 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.839 four birthday, august A Scoffier became a prisoner of war 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:01.520 when the French surround undered after the Siege of Metz. 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.480 He remained a pow until the end of the war, 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:07.120 although his skills let him move out of the camp 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.200 proper and into a kitchen role. Yeah, there's a great 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.680 story in his memoir about how even though he was 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:15.880 kind of in like a better situation than the men 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.760 he had left behind in Camp uh, at Christmas that year, 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:21.960 he made a point to take as many things as 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:23.720 he could from the kitchen that he was allowed to 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:25.760 take and bring them back to them so they could 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.119 have sort of their own little celebration and he could 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.080 try to help them have a better Christmas than they 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.360 would otherwise have had, and after the war ended, A 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.080 Scoffier moved into the role of chef de cuisine at 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.960 the Hotel Luxembourg in Nice. But in spring of eighteen 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.920 seventy three he was back at Le Petit Boulan Rouge 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.559 as Chef de cuisine, and he parlayed his success there 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.120 into a side business for himself when he bought a 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:54.720 small grocery in can called Andre that means golden pheasant, 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.200 and he bought that in eighteen seventy six and over 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.720 the next two years while he continued to work at 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.440 Timulin Rouge, he renovated the store and added a winter 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.640 dining room to it. He moved into running his new 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.680 business full time in eighty eight after the end of 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.440 the summer season at Leptine Mulin Rouge. That August was 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.320 really busy for him. He got married to his fiancee, 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.200 Delphine Daffist, and he did that in between the two jobs. 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.520 But after only two months and his new venue and 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.960 his new marriage, his father in law suddenly died. That 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.280 meant that he took on a lot of responsibility and 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.040 to help the family get through the strain of this period. 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.120 A Goost gave up his little fledgling shop and can 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.680 to take more stable work in Paris. He became the 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.959 general manager of Le Maison Cheves, but he worked there 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.440 only eight months before a new opportunity presented itself, and 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.560 that was Chef de cuisine at the new Cafe Restaurant 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.840 du Casino, which was, as the name suggests, part of 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:56.000 a larger luxury casino property, and the scoffier had been 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.560 hired simply to get the restaurant up and running, and 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.079 he did this job admirably. This is something he did 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:03.240 throughout his career after this, where he would kind of 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.160 come in and set up a new restaurant and then 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:07.960 he would go back to his regular thing and the 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.280 restaurant would continue on its own. But he did this 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.760 so well with the casino and restaurant that when they 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.559 had a press event to promote this new luxury entertainment complex, 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.400 all of the reporters there were way more interested in 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:24.199 a scoffier's food than any other aspect of the business 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.600 that they were trying to talk about. After the casino, 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.640 while working as the restaurant manager of the Grand Hotel 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:34.319 in My Carlo, August Escoffier met Swiss business in Caesar. 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:38.720 Ritz was four and Ritz was already a successful hotelier, 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:42.240 but he didn't quite have the name recognition that he 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.920 would have later. Ritz wanted an expert in the food 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.240 service end of the hotel industry, and a scoffier really 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.240 fit that bill. So when Ritz began managing the Hotel 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:56.360 Nacional in lucer And Switzerland, he eventually hired a scoffier 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.080 on there, but their partnership in business truly cement did 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.480 when Ritz became the manager of London's Savoy Hotel, and 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.240 he brought a goost right along with him, so in 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:10.120 eighteen ninety Escoffier took charge of the kitchens at the 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.520 Savoy Hotel. Ritz was hired at the Savoy to fix 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.920 its problems. It had only been opened since eighteen eighty nine, 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:20.160 and while it was glamorous and beautiful, it was managed 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:24.559 really terribly and was facing bankruptcy. The hotel offered an 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.240 ola carte menu in the restaurant, but the chef that 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.199 had been in charge had really only managed fixed price 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.880 menus where all the courses were part of one order, 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:37.200 handling the different supply and prep needs. Of a kitchen 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.960 that had more items in play on the menu was 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.319 a really different skill set and it just had not 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:47.040 gone well. Escoffier, though, was excellent at this and he 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.040 walked into a mess, but he straightened it all out. Yeah, 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.800 he claimed that the day that they got there and 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:54.880 he was like, I can't imagine why anyone would do this, 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.440 but I'm like, maybe angry on the way out that 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.199 all of the kitchen equipment had been broken and all 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.520 of the food stores had been damaged in some way. 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.600 Like basically, someone was really angry on their way out 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.160 the door. Um. And so he had to call around 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.199 to chef friends and be like, do you have stuff 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.280 I can borrow today? And so he got through that 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.079 first day. Uh, he said he didn't even have salt 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:16.800 to begin with, But he got through that first day 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.640 with the help of of the chef community. And then 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:21.480 the next day he kind of got all of his 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.959 contacts with suppliers and got everything right and could move 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.080 forward from there. And a Scoffier instituted a number of 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:31.000 processes to get the hotel's restaurant running smoothly. So often 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:33.840 when high profile London clients would want to book a 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.120 dinner party, for example, they relied on the Metro d'hotel 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.000 to make decisions on the food because the French menus 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.319 were sometimes a little daunting for them, and A Scoffier 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.800 began keeping copious records of what they served at each 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.640 meal like this so that if the same person booked 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.480 another high end dinner party with them at a later date, 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:54.640 they could be sure that they would never serve them 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:56.520 the same meal twice and they would always be getting 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:01.319 different dishes. Everything about the restaurant was amond and optimized 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:05.079 to attract the best possible clients. Hell, even the lighting 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:08.080 was really carefully designed to be soft and glowing so 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.000 that their customers would look their absolute best while they 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:14.880 were eating their Royalty, heads of state, the wealthy, and 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.120 the famous all flocked there as Ritz and A Scoffier 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:20.880 put their mark on the place. It was during his 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.599 early years at the Savoy. In eighteen ninety three that 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:28.040 august Escoffier invented the dessert peach Melba in honor of 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.320 prior podcast subject Dame Nellie Melba, although it didn't appear 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:34.920 on a menu for a number of years. Yeah, we'll 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:36.720 talk about when it pops up, but he made it 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.480 basically especially for her one night, and then he always 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.439 remembered it uh and used it later. And it was 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.240 also early on in his Savoy days that a scoffier 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.560 made charity a priority for his kitchen. So when he 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.679 first started working there, he was visited each morning by 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.280 two nuns from a group called Little Sisters of the Poor, 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.600 asking for things like coffee grounds or tea that could 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.839 potentially be brewed a second time, or a crusts of bread, 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.080 and these they would take back to what was essentially 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:07.480 a poor retirement house, and the chef was inspired by 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:11.520 them to incorporate giving into the kitchen's normal routine. So 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.600 first he always made sure that he had some good, 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.120 clean supplies to give to them. He would always make 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.080 sure the food was as as high end as he 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.160 could possibly manage, and always very clean, but he also 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:26.120 instructed his staff to save any cuts of meat that 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.720 they could during preparations for banquets and set it aside 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.040 just for the Little Sisters. For example, when they served 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:35.800 a dish like quail to a large group, they'd normally 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.480 only be serving the breast, and that meant the legs 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.720 could be given to the nuns, along with instructions on 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:42.720 how to prepare it for the people they were feeding. 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.600 Since the Savoys banquets were often really huge affairs, this 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.160 was a substantial amount of food to donate, but it 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:53.240 was also a substantial amount of food to otherwise be wasting. Yes, 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:55.240 he was not a fan of that kind of waste. 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.520 People were hungry, as Scoffy a continued to do this 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.840 through his whole career. Yeah, he basically instructed his people 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.640 like any cut of meat that was edible but was 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.120 not considered like high end enough for some of their 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.240 fancy meals he was. He would be like, okay, you 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:10.360 know where to put it, and they just had a 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.439 place in the kitchen where they would always put those things. 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.280 At the end of every night, everything that was edible 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.319 went to the poor and then they started each new 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:23.440 day fresh. A. Scoffier also engaged in this wonderful little 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.440 bit of devious ingredient renaming while he was at the Savoy, 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.640 So he had prepared frog legs many times as a 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.120 chef in France, but he also knew that the English 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.080 thought this whole idea was gross and that they often 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.280 mocked the French for eating frog, and he was adamant 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:41.920 that frog meat was a very fresh and light tasting 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.560 option and it was easy to digest. So during a 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.440 large banquet again remember that often these people would just 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.960 order a banquet and let them select the menu. One 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.840 of the dishes that he served was called nymph a 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.640 la rour or Nymphs at Dawn, and the nymphs were 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:01.760 in fact frog and his English guests ate them up 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:07.000 in a chaufroise sauce, with Paprika declaring the dish absolutely delicious. 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.600 This sounds appalling to you. I encourage you. If you 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:17.520 see things on your menu that you don't recognize, ask yes. 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:20.920 It makes me laugh so hard. And there were cases 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.360 where he particularly I think it was the Prince of 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.400 Wales at the time, who was well traveled in New 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.680 French food, recognized what it was and what was going on, 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:30.800 and it was like their little shared secret of like 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.640 we're kind of pulling one over on these people. While 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.520 the Savoy years of A. Scoffey's career were overall really 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.600 happy and they made him very well known, he didn't 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.280 finish the nineteenth century there, and we will talk about 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:54.600 his next career shift. After another quick sponsor break in. 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.560 Things started to unravel at the Savoy for Rits and A. Scoffier. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.760 So throughout their time with the hotel, both men had 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.720 worked side jobs opening new hotels and restaurants, and per 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.640 Escoffier's memoir, a misunderstanding over the nature of these side 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.360 businesses led to him and his partner Rits being fired. 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.520 In recent years, journalist Paul Levy has made the case 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.400 based on documents which he's come into the possession of, 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.480 that in fact, the two men were taking kickbacks from 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:27.440 suppliers and stealing from the hotel supplies to an exorbitant degree. 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:31.080 Part of this was because Ritz was also working on 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.320 some other projects and he would have potential business partners 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.120 from those projects come to the Savoy and they would 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:42.120 feed them sumptuous, very very expensive meals without charging of 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:44.120 course for them. And so that was kind of considered 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.720 part of this theft. Because Ritz was also signing agreements 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.840 that made him in charge of like large development projects, 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.560 some that would bear his name eventually. Uh So this 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.560 is part of the problem. Uh Descendants of Escoffier have 0:16:57.720 --> 0:16:59.960 challenged these claims, but we wanted to make sure we 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.760 mentioned it at least, and regardless of the reason for 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.040 their sacking, A Scoffier and Rits moved into a new venue, 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.560 the Ritz Hotel in Paris, named for Caesar Ritz, which 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.200 opened on June five. This is all the same kind 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.200 of stuff that if you work for a big company 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.479 today when you have to take your business ethics and 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:23.919 compliance training, absolutely similar to all that kind of stuff. Yeah. 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.879 Once the Paris Ritz was up and running, A Scoffier 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.040 and Rits both returned to London in eight to work 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:34.000 at the brand new Carlton Hotel. While A Scoffier's career 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.679 before this involved constant shifting around, either seasonally or just 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.520 to take better jobs, he stayed at the Carlton for 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:44.040 over twenty years, and on the menu for the opening 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.320 of the new hotels restaurant was Peach Melba appearing Autumn 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:49.879 You for the first time and for the record, a 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.960 lot of the clientele from the Savoy chose to follow 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.959 Ritz and A Scoffier over to the Carlton. In nineteen 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.240 o three, Escoffier wrote what is probably his most famous book, 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.760 lagid Cullinaire, which he co wrote with Phileas Julbert, and 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:07.880 this book which is still in print, by the way, 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.320 became the Bible of French cooking, but really cooking in 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.320 general in terms of restaurant cooking, and it features recipes 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:18.800 for all possible courses. It's laid out in the narrative 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.359 form that shows dishes and the order that they should 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.919 be prepared and served. And August saw the need for 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.440 such a book because he saw that the restaurant industry 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.560 was growing and that it was increasingly important for chefs 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.560 to be able to manage kitchens that served huge numbers 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.040 of guests, and there was not at this point formal 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.239 training for it. He saw this writing as quote a 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:42.560 work tool more than a book. He was adamant that 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.280 even though it had more than five thousand recipes, it 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.000 was incomplete. He knew that the industry would always be 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.560 evolving and progressing, and that any new edition of the 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.400 book would need to be updated to reflect all those changes. 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.560 He also thought the basics would remain constant, and he 0:18:57.680 --> 0:18:59.840 thought he could write what would be in essence of 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.359 foundation document that chefs could use for years and years 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:07.399 to come. And he was correct, because most chefs that 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.960 run restaurants today have a copy of this book. Somewhere. 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.240 When the fiftieth anniversary of A. Scoffier's professional career loomed 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.640 in nineteen o nine, his colleagues took up a collection 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:19.639 with the intent that they would use the money to 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.680 buy him a piece of art with it. But when Augusta. 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.359 Scoffier was told how much money had come in and 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:27.040 that they were planning to do this, it was about 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.440 six thousand francs, he asked that it instead be donated 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.280 to a retirement home that took care of elderly chefs 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.159 who had little or no money, and on the night 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.520 of the celebration of his career, he was gifted with 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.520 a silver cup from the hotel rather than a lavish 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:47.720 piece of art. In Escoffier published a pamphlet on suppressing poverty. 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.960 He felt that if every person followed the adage to 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.760 love your neighbor as yourself like really truly followed it, 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:59.000 that poverty would be erased. He advocated for a universal 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.600 old age pension system, particularly citing the people who had 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.320 worked their whole lives and jobs that just hadn't allowed 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.240 them to put money aside for retirement. Yeah because he 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:10.959 had worked in the service industry, his entire life. He 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.120 had been very keenly aware that the people that were 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.040 kind of at the lowest levels in any organization, and 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.800 we're getting paid the least, we're often working the hardest. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.159 And he thought their work was just as honorable as 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:23.240 anyone else's, and that they should not have to rely 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.560 on charity in their elder years to get by, and 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:28.439 that there should be some sort of system put in 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.439 place to make sure that all people had an equal 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.080 shot at a lovely retirement. Starting in nineteen eleven, A 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.359 Scoffee started publishing a magazine which came out monthly called 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:42.159 Le cow ne depucu That's a Gourmet's Notebook. And he 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.159 published that magazine for three years, and his hopes were 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.560 that it would spread knowledge of French cooking to other 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.120 countries and in turn would help French tourism. But when 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.320 World War One began, the magazine which put aside. Also 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:58.040 in nineteen eleven, a fire started in one of the 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.960 elevators at the Carlton Hotel that had an estimated two 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:04.439 million franc's worth of damage. There weren't any fatalities, but 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:08.679 all of the rooms were damaged. A Scoffier rallied the staff, 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:12.440 and the restaurant was immediately open and serving meals. Yeah, 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.560 the the rooms that they could run out to guests 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:17.359 could not be filled for a while while they fixed 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.080 things up, but the restaurant at least could continue to 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:24.160 bring in a little bit of money. In Escoffier participated 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.560 in what I think is a fabulously interesting dinner with 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:29.879