1846

Georges-Auguste Escoffier

French chef de cuisine and restaurateur who revolutionised and modernised the French menu and developed the ‘brigade de cuisine,’ system of kitchen organisation, a hierarchy that brought order to unruly kitchens {header photo}.

Escoffier was chef at the Carlton Hotel in London, the Grande National Hotel in Lucerne, Switzerland, the Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo, the Savoy in London and the Ritz hotels in Paris and New York City. His books include Guide culinaire and Ma Cuisine

"One of the most influential Western chefs in history, Escoffier introduced many foundational concepts that still define cuisine today. . .

"The brigade de cuisine featured more than 20 different types of chefs and cooks, each responsible for a different specialization—like a poissonnier, who only makes fish dishes, or a patissier, who only makes desserts and pastries. The different positions were arranged in a hierarchy, with certain chefs reporting to others . . . This system of coordinated division of labor was revolutionary, and is still widely practiced throughout the restaurant industry today.

"Drawing on the work of Antonin Carême, an eminent French chef active in the earlier part of the century. . . he built on Carême’s concept of grandes sauces to establish what are now known as the five mother sauces, another foundational concept within Western cooking.

"He also worked to popularize service à la russe—a style of service where individually portioned dishes are brought to diners in a series of courses. This replaced the more traditional service à la française, where multiple courses were brought to the table at once and diners served themselves."