Kitchen essentials

• The word "restaurant" is derived from the French word "restorative," which means "to restore"
• The term "restorative" was used since the 16th century to describe rich and highly-flavored soups or stews capable of restoring lost strength
• Restoratives, like all other cooked foods offered and purchased outside the home during the 16th century, were made by guilds
• Guilds were trade associations that flourished in Europe between the 11th and 17th centuries
• Guilds were established to protect trade skills and ensure they were passed down and developed through apprenticeships
• Each guild had a monopoly on preparing certain food items
• In 1765, a Parisian tavern keeper named Boulanger began selling a special restorative dish of sheep feet in white sauce
• Inns and taverns usually served food prepared by guilds off premises before Boulanger's innovation
• Boulanger's contribution to the food service industry was serving various food items prepared on-premises to customers interested in dining
• Antoine Beauvillier advanced the development of the modern restaurant by offering wealthy patrons a menu listing available dishes during fixed hours
• Beauvilliers's wait staff served patrons at small, individual tables in an elegant setting
• The French Revolution significantly affected the budding restaurant industry by abolishing the aristocracy and guilds, leading to former guild members opening restaurants for the growing middle class
• It is based on the rational identification, development, and adoption of strict culinary principles
• Grande cuisine was the first to distinguish itself from regional cuisines by emphasizing the how and why of cooking, rather than tradition
• Marie-Antoine Carême (1783–1833) was a master of French grande cuisine, known as the “cook of kings and the king of cooks”
• Carême's goal was to achieve “lightness,” “grace,” “order,” and “perspicuity” in the preparation and presentation of food
• Grande cuisine is the rich, intricate, and elaborate cuisine of the 18th- and 19th-century French aristocracy and upper classes
• Carême wrote and illustrated important texts on culinary arts, including:

  • The French Butler (1822)
  • The Royal Parisian Pastry Chefs (1825)
  • The Art of French Cuisine in the 19th Century (1833)
• Carême's writings refined and summarized five hundred years of culinary evolution
• Charles Ranhofer (1836–1899) was the first internationally renowned chef of an American restaurant, Delmonico’s, in New York City
• In 1893, Ranhofer published his “Franco-American” encyclopedia of cooking, The Epicurean, containing more than 3500 recipes
• The dining room at London’s Savoy Hotel, opened in 1898, was one of the finest restaurants outside France under the direction of César Ritz and George-Auguste Escoffier
• Escoffier is generally credited with refining the grande cuisine of Carême to create cuisine classique or classic cuisine, bringing French cuisine into the 20th century
• Escoffier began his culinary career at age 13 in his uncle’s restaurant and continued until his death at age 89, known as the “emperor of the world’s kitchens”
• Escoffier never worked in an aristocratic household but exhibited his culinary skills in the dining rooms of the finest European hotels, including the Place Vendôme in Paris and the Savoy and Carlton Hotels in London
• Grande cuisine is a late 19th- and early 20th-century refinement and simplification of French grande cuisine, emphasizing refined preparation and presentation of superb ingredients
• Escoffier enhanced grande cuisine as defined by Carême by simplifying flavors, dishes, and garnishes, streamlining elaborate procedures and classifications
• Escoffier's writings include The Menu Book (1912), My Kitchen (1934), and The Culinary Guide (1903), which is still in use today and contains over 5000 classic cuisine recipes and garnishes
• In the mid-20th century, there was a trend towards lighter, naturally flavored, and simply prepared food items
• Fernand Point was a master practitioner of the Nouvelle Cuisine movement
• Point refined and modernized the classic cuisine of Escoffier
• Point believed that each dish should have a single dominant ingredient, flavor, or theme
• Garnishes in Point's cuisine were simple and matched "like a tie to a suit"
• Point devoted equal efforts to frying an egg and creating complex desserts like the Marjolaine
• The goal of Point and his generation of chefs was to use the finest raw ingredients to produce elegant and simple food
• Chefs trained by Point, such as Paul Bocuse, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Alain Chapel, François Bise, and Louis Outhier, carried on his goal of simplicity and refinement
• These chefs, along with Michel Guérard and Roger Vergé, were pioneers of nouvelle cuisine in the early 1970s
• Gaston Lenôtre modernized classic pastries of grande cuisine with the fresh flavors of nouvelle cuisine
• Nouvelle cuisine, which means "new cooking" in French, moves away from classic cuisine principles
• Nouvelle cuisine focuses on:

  • Lighter cuisine based on natural flavors
  • Shortened cooking times
  • Innovative combinations