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Escoffier is a legend amongst chefs and gourmets, who lived at the turn of the century. He turned cooking into a profession, and created the framework of discipline which restaurant kitchens use to this day.

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

Escoffier even Inspired Gordon Ramsay - who said: ?Chefs do use cook books, it is a myth that they don?t?. I will always refer back to an authority like Escoffier.

Escoffier says in the introduction of the Guide Culinaire - that his focus was upon delivering Fast Food to a new generation.

Times were changing. The introduction of steam had allowed a travelling generation, that wanted then to do everything at speed! ? Including eat, without spending hours as was the custom of the day.

Escoffier speaks of the revolution in transport and habit and says “But these new-fangled habits had to be met by novel methods of Cookery-better adapted to the particular environment in which they were to be practised. The admirable productions’ popularised by the old Masters of the Culinary Art of the preceding Century did not become the light and more frivolous atmosphere of restaurants; were, in fact, ill-suited to “the brisk waiters, and their customers who only had eyes for one another” So ushering in an era of fast food.

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

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

For it was…. with the view of meeting the many and persistent demands for such a record that the present volume was written”

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