The First Master Chef: Michel Roux on Escoffier

-One salmon, one crab, pork for two! ALL:

-Oui!

'I'm Michel Roux. I'm a French chef working in London and dedicated to haute cuisine.'

Table one.

'And I owe everything to one man.

'Without him, the restaurant as we know it simply wouldn't exist.'

You may never have heard of him, but he has influenced, not just me,

but all of us in the way we eat in this country.

His name is Georges Auguste Escoffier.

The son of a Provencal blacksmith,

he rose through the ranks of 19th-century society

and became the world's most celebrated chef.

He revolutionised the professional kitchen

and brought glamour and drama into the dining room.

Escoffier is my hero because he turned eating into dining

and put the restaurant and our love of great food at the heart of modern Britain.

Paris - it's where I first trained as a chef

and where Escoffier first rose to prominence.

This gorgeous bookshop is dedicated to the history of French gastronomy.

It's a story that starts, not with Escoffier,

but with the chefs who cooked for France's kings and aristocrats.

-Bonjour, Monsieur.

-Bonjour. Ca va bien?

-Ca va tres bien.

Tres, tres bien. Je suis a la recherche de quelque chose vraiment special.

'Marie-Antonin Careme was the first real celebrity chef.'

Le Cuisinier Parisien.

-Careme, Le Grand Careme.

-Careme.

-C'est sa signature autographe meme.

1828. My word.

'His books record the 19th-century private banquets he cooked for clients,

'including Napoleon Bonaparte and George, the English Prince Regent.'

This is absolutely unbelievable!

I mean, here there's about 30 truffles. Thousands and thousands of pounds' worth.

Stuck on a silver attelet.

So a silver...like a kebab. But truffles, for decoration!

'So much of the food put in front of France's aristocrats was about display.

'It was always served as one great banquet.

'A feast for the eye as much as the stomach.

'Many of the dishes were not even meant to be eaten.'

This is a design of a pavilion and trees and statues made of sugar.

I mean, it's too beautiful to eat.

It's quite extraordinary the lengths that they went to in those days.

'But what I'm really after is a copy of Escoffier's great cookbook.'

Oui. J'ai un Escoffier.

'There's some proof of how influential he was.

'This is an early Danish translation.'

Dix-neuf cent vingt-huit. Non, dix-neuf cent vingt ou vingt-huit?

'Even in a foreign language,

'it's clear his recipes are far less extravagant than his predecessors.'

One of Escoffier's mottos was "faites simple" -

"simplify your food, simplify your cooking".

Young chefs now think of Escoffier as being complex and complicated.

But he was advocating at the time "faites simple".

"Be simple".

En anglais. Une seconde.

'Escoffier's Guide Culinaire is the mother work for all restaurant chefs.'

Voila!

'First published in 1903, it contains over 3,000 recipes.

'All the food he had prepared throughout his career.

'Not in royal kitchens, but restaurants.'

It's a repertoire of all the recipes

that a chef should know and understand.

In fact, every chef worth his pinch of salt should own a copy.

My copy was given to me by my father

and I shall no doubt pass that one on to my daughter.

In the middle of the 19th century,

Paris was a centre of decadent pleasure

and food was central to that.

None of the French restaurants Escoffier cooked in remain.

But he would have known Laperouse,

which still drips with period detail.

Early French restaurants were divided into warrens of intimate rooms,

where gentlemen could entertain female companions hidden from public view.

All these are the little "salons prives".

Private dining rooms...

apparently.

But...

I'm not sure that this room was designed

just for dining in.

A little tete-a-tete.

And this one...

Mm, that's for two, and two voyeurs.

There's nothing scandalous about my lunch today,

but I'm still looking forward to it. I'm meeting Michel Escoffier,

Auguste's great-grandson and proud custodian of the Escoffier archive.

-..Let me have a look.

-1896.

-Yeah, that's the Savoy.

'It shows the man at the very top of his game.'

This one is actually in honour of the Prince of Wales,

who became Edward VII,

and his wife, Alexandra.

'But how did Escoffier get started as a chef?'

Auguste was born in a small village called Villeneuve-Loubet,

very close to Nice.

So at the age of 13, he goes and starts working

at his uncle's restaurant with no privileges, like everybody else.

And he discovers the pretty awful working conditions

that were the normal life in a kitchen in those days.

These unventilated, coal-fired kitchens were truly infernal.

Few chefs lived beyond 45.

Staff fought off the heat by drinking.

But this produced another hazard.

Alcoholism was rampant.

That ended up in some violence at the end of the day, I suppose.

So this is one of the things that Escoffier decided to change when he would be in charge.

So he was working as a young chef in Nice.

But how did make that big step then to Paris?

He met a gentleman who owned a very famous restaurant at that time,

called Le Petit Moulin Rouge,

a very posh restaurant off the Champs-Elysees.

And Auguste thought, "Well, if I want to make it in this profession,

"it's my opportunity." And he took it.

So when he took over the kitchens of Le Petit Moulin Rouge,

-he changed the working conditions of the chefs?

-Absolutely.

He first of all banned alcohol, drinking and smoking in the kitchen.

But also banned swearing and, he himself,

when he was very annoyed at someone,

would actually walk out of the kitchen and come back

and explain what made him angry without having to shout.

-If only he could come back and do the rounds of the kitchens now!

-Yes.

And see what goes on when it comes to swearing.

'Escoffier changed the uniform of kitchen staff

'to combat another side effect of the raging heat.'

He introduced the hat and the neckerchief

to prevent, you know, sweat drops from dropping into the preparation.

'And he insisted his staff dress smartly when they were off duty, too.'

He wanted everyone to come out and look like somebody. That is the exact expression.

And if the young cooks couldn't afford a pair of trousers,

he would even buy them for them.

He brought a sense of pride to the chef world.

Absolutely. That's exactly it. He wanted everyone to be proud of what he was doing

and bring the best out of everyone.

I really like the sound of this young man, Escoffier.

I mean, he's not only a driven chef and a great chef at that,

but he's also trying to make a better life for us chefs.

If he'd done nothing else, that would make him my hero.

But he also produced truly excellent food.

35 years ago, I, too, came to Paris for my apprenticeship

and my first dose of Parisian perfectionism.

I was apprenticed to a Master Patissier, Monsieur Hellegouarche.

The shop is still the site of one of France's finest patisseries.

Gosh, this place has changed since 1976.

But one thing that hasn't changed

is the artistry on display. These cakes look stunning.

You've got babas and fruit tarts. little macaroons and, my favourite,

le mille-feuilles, except this one's called the deux-mille-feuilles -

2,000 leaves.

The attention to detail, this is what French pastry is all about.

Indeed, this is what Escoffier was all about.

I remember as an apprentice,

it took me 18 months of hard work HERE,

before my humble mille-feuilles was allowed to go into the shop window.

But I felt so proud, so pleased with myself

when my boss finally said, "Yes, it's good enough to be sold to the public."

Oh, my word!

I think this is most definitely the original marble top.

That door - I remember coming in first thing in the morning, five, six o'clock.

Racing past my boss, who'd be working here.

Bonjour, Monsieur Hellegouarche.

"Bonjour, mon petit jeune. Au boulot, hop!" And off I'd go.

Bonjour, messieurs, dames.

My God! It really hasn't changed much.

C'est fabuleux, ce que vous faites.

This is just beautiful.

'This is food raised to the highest level.

'Food as art.'

Oh, this takes me back.

This is the little courtyard where we used to come out and have a break.

And I've still got my little notebook for inspiration.

It's part of my life. It's my apprenticeship.

And here I've got a list of...

how many choux buns you need to make a piece montee.

If you start with a base of 20, you'll need 207 choux buns.

I've got all my lovely recipes here.

And, my favourite, creme anglaise.

Custard.

But it sounds so much better in French.

Oh!

-C'est pour moi?

-Oui.

-C'est gentil. Merci.

Almost too good to eat.

A wonderful moment. Look at that!

The macaroon just gently gives.

And I'm going to use my fingers.

Mmm!

Mmm!

# In French, the words are beautiful

# Romantic and reputable

# In English, they're not suitable

# I've learned... #

In 1870, Escoffier's stint at the Petit Moulin was rudely interrupted...

MILITARY DRUM BEATS

..When France went to war with Prussia.

He was recruited as a chef,

but even in the midst of battle, his dedication to great cooking never faltered.

Escoffier in his memoirs recounts the story of

a piece of beef that he'd acquired for the officers at the front.

And wondering how to cook this without drawing attention to it.

He built a spit out of bits of wood and hedges that he collected

and the smell of this roasting meat, obviously, attracted attention from the troops.

And he ended up, fending off the troops at sword point.

MILITARY DRUM BEATS

It was when he came back to Paris after the war,

that Escoffier really began to earn a reputation as a chef of note.

The world's upper classes were partying in restaurants like Le Petit Moulin, Laperouse

and this one, L'Escargot.

I'm meeting historian Carolyn Young

to find out more about the time and the people

Escoffier was catering to.

The Industrial Revolution has hit full swing.

Europe's at peace. So you've got all kinds of very moneyed people,

who also have the ability to travel in a new way.

So, among Escoffier's notable clients from that era

is Queen Victoria's son,

known as Bertie, the Prince of Wales.

Extremely fond of his food,

in addition to his women and his horses.

You've got actresses who are bankrupting their lovers,

just to show they can hold the most outrageous, over-the-top dinner,

that Le-Tout Paris is going to look at them.

You've got entourages from the Arab world showing up.

Very suddenly wealthy Americans coming to eat out in Paris.

So it's an international moment.

And one that you start to be able to see them travelling round

and meeting each other in different places.

Thanks to the growth of the railways,

the wealthy could travel around more quickly than ever,

and new resorts were growing in the south.

In Monte Carlo, another ambitious young man was catering to the gilded set,

Cesar Ritz.

When Escoffier accepted his invitation to run his hotel's restaurant,

it was the creation of a fantastically successful double act.

Cesar Ritz is, arguably, THE most important relationship of Escoffier's career.

And they really pushed each other.

Escoffier might have been just as great a chef,

but he might never have had the international renown that he attained.

They were organising some pretty amazing parties at the time, as well.

They would not just cater to every client's wishes,

but beyond, to imagine what's the next level.

One example is a bunch of young gentlemen won the roulette

and they wanted to spend all their winnings on one big night out.

And they want to have a party all about the colour red.

So every course in the meal is red, except for one course, covered in black truffles.

But Escoffier's favourite customer was the most celebrated actress of the day -

Sarah Bernhardt.

Dubbed "the Divine Sarah" by Oscar Wilde,

she had great men falling at her feet,

Escoffier among them.

Escoffier and Bernhardt had a lot in common.

They were both raising themselves from humble origins

through careers based on giving pleasure to others,

and both were hugely ambitious.

Ritz and Escoffier's fame began to spread.

They were invited to run hotels in Lucerne and Monte Carlo.

And, wherever they went, the set followed.

And then, in 1889, English theatre impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte

made them an offer that would change Escoffier's life forever.

He wanted Ritz and Escoffier for his latest venture...

London's first luxury hotel.

But Escoffier was unconvinced. He feared the weather...

..the food and the lack of culture.

Out of loyalty to his business partner, he agreed.

Reluctantly, he and his family made the journey to England,

just for six months to get the restaurant up and running.

In the 1950s, my father, too, came to England,

working first in grand, aristocratic houses.

And then, in 1967, he and my uncle set up the restaurant I run today.

As French chefs in London, we are always following in Escoffier's footsteps.

As the producer of Gilbert and Sullivan,

D'Oyly Carte had already made one double act world famous.

And now he was aiming to do the same with Ritz and Escoffier

at his new hotel.

The Savoy offered modern elegance and glamour,

the likes of which Britain had never seen in a public building.

The hotel's archivist is Susan Scott.

Hello. Nice to meet you.

'She understands the scale of D'Oyly Carte's ambition.'

We had all this marble redone.

No expense was spared to make it absolutely spectacular.

Wow!

Wow! My word!

D'Oyly Carte had actually built it

because his operas were incredibly popular and people had nowhere to stay.

He had taken his opera company on tour in the States

and he was staying in the great new American hotels

and he just thought he could do something like that in London.

He had no experience of the hotel market, except thinking he could do it,

which is absolutely amazing when you think about it. Luckily, he was right.

So the only experience D'Oyly Carte had as a hotelier was as a guest?

It was partly as being a guest, but also being great at putting on a really great show.

I think he realised that was part of it, the theatre of the hotel.

'This was a time of huge technological change

'and D'Oyly Carte was determined that his hotel should be at the forefront.

'While the rest of London was still lit by gaslight,

'the Savoy ran on electricity, with its very own generator.

'And he brought in another technological wonder

'that meant he could offer luxury to even more customers.'

Nobody expected rich people in those days to walk up more than two or three flights of stairs.

That's why the grand rooms in most great buildings are on the lower floors.

The higher up you go, the smaller and cheaper the rooms get.

The Savoy is very different. Because we had lifts to all floors,

all the rooms were equally large, equally luxurious and, of course, equally expensive.

-Wow! What an adventure! A lift!

-It is fabulous, isn't it?

This is one of the two original guest lifts in the hotel.

-You can see how big the lift is.

-Yes, quite roomy.

-Because ladies had big skirts and needed space.

But it was one of the very first and there was no English maker.

These mechanisms had to be imported from America.

Oscar Wilde stayed here for a while.

Lillie Langtry, a close personal friend of the Prince of Wales.

The Prince of Wales was a friend of Cesar Ritz.

Where the Prince of Wales came, all his friends came, too.

'And D'Oyly Carte had one more novelty for his British guests.'

You'd better come into the bathroom.

'The luxury of hot and cold running water.'

The original ratio was about

70 bathrooms to 268 guest rooms.

But that ratio, which is about one bathroom to every three rooms, was incredibly high for the time.

And it's said that the builder asked Richard D'Oyly Carte

whether he thought his guests were going to be amphibious,

because he couldn't believe they needed quite as many bathrooms.

But despite all the glamour and innovation,

the Savoy's success did not come immediately.

To convince sceptical English society that a hotel, not a private home, was the place to be,

D'Oyly Carte really needed Ritz and Escoffier to put on a show.

Over 120 years later, the Savoy's kitchens have been fully modernised.

Not a coal-fired oven in sight.

But as a chef, it's still a privilege to be in the exact place

that Escoffier first cooked in England.

James Pare is the current head chef.

So, James, how has Escoffier inspired your cooking?

I think he's inspired everything.

The way he thought about seasonality.

The way he thought about how to balance a menu.

What he took from other chefs before him to create something we do every day.

We have an Escoffier tasting menu.

A great homage to Escoffier, but with our own little touches. We have a bit of fun with that.

He wouldn't want us to do the same thing.

He'd want us to think ahead, be creative.

I'm going to try some of the dishes on James' menu.

And I've invited historian Kate Williams to join me...

Hello, hello.

-Nice to see, Kate.

-Thank you so much for having me.

'..To find out how receptive Victorian London was to Escoffier and his cooking.'

-That's marvellous.

-Very nice. Look at that.

-Looks amazing.

'We've eating Sole Victoria, a rich, extravagant dish of poached sole,

'lobster and truffles that Escoffier invented and named for the Queen.'

Mm, it's beautiful. It's very light, isn't it? It's fantastic.

Incredible. So, Kate, tell me a little bit about the dining scene in England at this 1800s.

Well, the dining scene in England really wasn't a scene at all.

In fact, it was pretty much private. You ate at home.

A wild night out was going to someone else's house for a dinner party.

So the gentlemen would go out to clubs

and, I suppose, partake in the odd cigar and a glass of brandy or port.

But were there no ladies at all in these clubs?

There were ladies but the Victorians wouldn't have called them "ladies" per se.

That was really the place for courtesans, for the naughty girls.

You wouldn't take your respectable wife

or, heaven forbid, your daughter to such a place as a club.

If you see a woman on her own in a restaurant or cafe in Victorian times,

she is fair game and she's there for custom.

'Escoffier and Ritz faced a real challenge.

'They needed to create an environment that simple didn't exist in England at that time.'

Ritz and Escoffier made dining respectable, especially for ladies,

by turning the Savoy into a very feminine place, a very respectable place,

and somewhere that ladies could go without the fear of being bothered,

or the suggestion they might be issuing some kind of invitation.

Everyone had to dress up. Only a certain amount of people were allowed here.

This picture shows the Savoy in its Edwardian heyday.

Ritz had even chosen pink lampshades

because he considered them more flattering for ladies' complexions.

That kind of attention to detail

is at the heart of running a successful restaurant,

and the pair were equally savvy when it came to creating a buzz.

They had a really cunning idea - to make their own human advertising.

So Ritz and Escoffier got Lady de Grey,

who was a great, glamorous leader of society.

And she was sent to eat in public in the Savoy.

Lady de Grey is a wonderful figure,

extremely grand and extremely avant-garde.

One of the first women to travel by car.

The first to have a telephone in her own house.

And now the first to hold a lunch party at the Savoy.

Once she'd done it, everyone else had to join in!

It was like Coco Chanel having a tan. All these ladies flocked in.

And, suddenly, the Savoy became incredibly popular for ladies, for couples,

for people on their own and this was a complete turnaround.

The British dining culture was born.

So dining out was no longer just acceptable, it became fashionable.

The restaurants of London became crucial, important social spaces,

where you could display your wealth and display yourself.

And the top ladies at the time were seen there. You could see and be seen.

And at the centre of all this was Escoffier's food.

He was preparing wonderful dishes.

And as a man who knew how to flatter and sell,

he named many of them after his favourite customers.

A WOMAN SINGS A RISING NOTE

Nellie Melba was a hugely popular Australian opera singer.

She always stayed at the hotel after performing at Convent Garden.

Escoffier created a special peach dessert for her.

He served it in a spectacular iced swan.

The mist of dry ice is James' modern addition to the drama.

Escoffier was an incredible publicist.

It was brilliant advertising. Every time Dame Nellie Melba went on stage,

everyone thought about his pudding, you know, for free!

It was like she was wondering round with a big placard saying,

"Eat a nice stewed peach, with lovely sugar on the top."

Oh, incredible!

I feel like a Victorian! Amazing!

It's all so exciting!

-Ooh!

-That is delicious.

Amazing. It's amazing.

I think Dame Nellie would approve.

Escoffier's menus were always written in French.

He felt English made his dishes sound unattractive.

And, in his determination to educate the English palate,

he would manage his customers' whole meal,

asking them for their preferences and budget,

and then creating an entire set menu for them.

He felt he was holding these new diners' hands

as he lead them to the greatest heights of gastronomy.

And they were happy to be led.

The restaurant scene that had been so big in 19th-century France

had made its way to London.

All of English society flocked to the Savoy.

Escoffier obviously felt at home here.

His wife and child went back to the south of France and he stayed on,

living here at the hotel.

He was a very driven man and he did seek success,

so much so, that he was prepared to sacrifice a lot of things.

But the lure, the financial lure,

and the success that the hotel industry was having at the time,

because of his hard work, was just too much.

He HAD to stay.

And there were other attractions.

Someone else who had a suite here at the Savoy

was Escoffier's adored Sarah Bernhardt.

And he would go and see all her shows in London.

But he would hurry back after the show to cook dinner for her.

And on her birthday, he would cook a special dinner,

to be served in her suite - a dinner for two.

He was French, after all.

Sarah Bernhardt wasn't the only one who appreciated Escoffier's talents.

The blacksmith's son from Provence had become the most famous chef in the world

and had London at his feet.

They were riding on the crest of the wave.

Richard D'Oyly Carte was making more money out of his hotel business

than he was his music business.

Ritz was planning his own hotels,

always with Escoffier by his side in the kitchens.

It seemed that nothing could go wrong.

Ritz and Escoffier even had plans for their very own London hotel.

But in 1898, after nine years of extraordinary success,

they very suddenly left the Savoy and went back to France.

In his memoirs, Escoffier alludes to an unpleasant falling-out with the Savoy management.

But I'm going to meet a man who believes he knows the real truth behind their sudden departure.

-Hello, Paul.

-Hello, Michel. How nice to see you.

'Paul Levy has been a food journalist for over 30 years.'

I need to get to the bottom of this story of Ritz and Escoffier,

-about why they left the Savoy.

-Well, they were sacked,

in February 1898, for the usual reasons. They were crooks.

You know, in my heart, I don't want to believe that.

Not only that, the cover-up lasted nearly 100 years.

But in 1984,

when you were a young man and I was the food and wine editor of the Observer,

there appeared on my desk a...set of papers,

a signed confession by Escoffier and Ritz

to a whole list of crimes.

'Even now, Paul won't reveal who gave him the papers.'

So you are telling me...

-that my all-time culinary hero, Escoffier...

-Yep.

-..was a crook?

-I'm afraid so.

They were confessing to taking commission on a grand scale,

to using the wine cellars and ingredients from the larder for their own purposes.

So "commissions" are when the suppliers were charging a little bit more

and that little bit more was then going straight to the chef?

-Actually, 5 per cent.

-Up to 5 per cent?

-Yes, it was 5 per cent.

Now I can understand the bosses of the Savoy being upset about that,

but commissions in those days were not frowned upon. They were fairly normal practice.

Well, not...

Helping yourself to the bread or to the flour, yes.

But taking 5 per cent kickback in money,

which was what was going on,

-is a little bit different from having an extra dozen eggs.

-Mm? Yeah, yeah.

And the sums involved were huge.

I have just looked it up and, in today's money,

the lowest figure that can be put on

Escoffier's share alone is £1.4 million.

Oh!

-Yes, so we're not talking a few pennies or a few pounds.

-No.

-We're talking million-plus.

-Yeah.

You can understand my, my point of view.

I mean, I'm not in denial, but I really don't want this to be true.

Could it not be that the Savoy wanted to get rid of Ritz and Escoffier,

because they had plans for the future?

I'm positive that it couldn't have been, for two reasons.

One was, from 1895,

it was noticed that, though receipts were going up,

the takings were going up, the actual profits were going down.

The gentlemen of the Savoy sat on THAT evidence as well.

They also didn't press charges or bring any charges,

or even make public the findings of that inquiry.

-So it was all covered up?

-It was all covered up.

The reason I am almost certain that it was covered up was out of charity to the Prince of Wales.

"Noblesse oblige". They simply didn't want to create scandal

and they knew that if they blew the whistle,

it would rebound on to the Royal Family.

The real dirt REALLY lies with Ritz.

He had pimped for the Prince of Wales and Lillie Langtry.

So there is no denying there was a scandal?

There's no denying it. I'm afraid it's true.

But he's my hero.

Well, he wasn't a total villain.

Blue-collar hero, white-collar crook.

Escoffier always denied any wrongdoing.

He could have left London forever,

but his ambition wouldn't let him.

He wrote in his memoirs, it was a matter of self-respect.

"I didn't want to leave England without finishing the task I'd started at the Savoy...

"the development of French cuisine, not only in England, but across the world."

He and Ritz were determined to fight back.

They had their own hotel built, the Carlton.

Just across from Trafalgar Square,

it was designed to beat the Savoy at its own game.

It was a 250-bedroom palace.

At its heart, they built a palm court for the Prince of Wales and his friends to party in.

And party they did. This was the new place to be seen.

The Carlton was destroyed in the Blitz,

but to get a flavour of what it was like, I'm visiting another London icon

designed by Ritz and Escoffier.

Opened in 1905, the glitz and glamour still dazzle today.

# If you're blue and you don't know where to go to

# Why don't you go where fashion sits

# Puttin' on the Ritz! #

Ritz opened grand hotels like this in Paris, Rome and New York.

Always with kitchens designed by Escoffier.

They gave the hotels their seal of approval and allowed others to run them.

Ritz and Escoffier had become one of the first luxury brands.

This is just extraordinary, the opulence.

And this is real gold - 24-carat gold!

They even employ somebody here, permanently, just to look after it.

The Ritz dining room is one of the bastions of classic French food

and chef John Williams is one of Escoffier's most ardent fans.

-John.

-Michel.

-Good to see you. Simon, I won't shake your hand. You're hard at work.

Smashing!

-What does Escoffier mean to you?

-He's the best chef in the world, first and foremost.

But it's about his cooking. It's his heritage of France.

It's about the ingredients. It's about the complexity of the sauces.

It was the style, the panache of how they actually cooked.

'Canard a la presse is a classic French dish,

'which Escoffier brought to London.

'It's prepared partly at tableside for the entertainment of the diners.'

So the supremes are taken off. The legs go back to the kitchen to crisp up.

And the carcass gets chopped up.

And then you put them in this contraption here.

Yeah. This is my pet...model, call it whatever you like.

But it's a contraption based on a wine press.

He would bring his ducks from Rouen, the very best in France at the time.

So...

A touch of cognac.

And a touch of port.

And then it's a very, very simple pressing action.

It's very much a piece of equipment Escoffier loved to use,

because of the theatre that it created.

And as we press,

it's just starting to come out there now.

There we go!

Lovely!

So there's quite a bit of juice there.

'Rich sauces with complex flavours built around intense reductions

'are a key feature of Escoffier's culinary style.

'But so, too, were dramatic elements, like flambeing.'

THE SAUCE SIZZLES

'And there's another absolute icon of French food that we owe to Escoffier.'

Let me tell you a lovely story about Escoffier.

He tried to get the English, who were very conservative at the time,

to eat all kinds of things, but frogs' legs were the thing they would never touch.

They would turn their noses up.

So, one evening, at a very grand banquet, he put on the menu Nymphes a l'Aurore.

And, of course, everybody said, "This is the finest banquet ever!

"The first course was fantastic! What was it?" And nobody knew.

So, next day, the reporters went to his office and said, "Tell us! This was so fantastic!"

He said, "It was frogs' legs, but you wouldn't have eaten them,

"so I decided to call them 'Nymphes'."

For me, John, this style of food is still very relevant to today's palate.

Certainly. There are the complex dishes.

There are the light dishes. They are the combinations that you get surprised with.

If we just look forward to Heston, who is probably one of the most complex cooks going

and very, very forward thinking, he's very much out of the same mould.

He still loves theatre. He still loves his complexities.

He loves his simplicity, but he loves food and that's what it's all about, isn't it?

It looks magical. I can't wait to dive in.

Come on! Let's go.

Give me a fork!

Can't wait. Gosh! Look at this.

Mmm! Aw!

Mmm! Simon...

-A good job with the sauce there.

-Thank you, Chef.

-Mm!

-Stunning!

-That is good.

I'm unapologetic that the food I cook is classic French,

albeit with a modern twist,

and I get great inspiration by going back to Escoffier's original recipes.

Looking at my copy of Le Guide Culinaire,

the one that my dad gave me when I first started out as a chef,

I'm reminded of so many fantastic ingredients, techniques

and flavour combinations,

all of which feeds into my development as a chef.

I still base many of my new dishes on Escoffier's original recipes.

Quieter Sundays in the kitchen are the best time for experimenting.

A very important part of this recipe was to rub the meat with some lemon.

'It's also part of my apprentices' training.

'The obligation of the chef to educate his kitchen team,

'so that they can work their way up the ladder, is something that Escoffier insisted upon.

'This is his original recipe for veal's head.'

We're going to poach it in the traditional way in a blanc.

So water, flour and some vegetables.

'Escoffier's apprentices went on to head up kitchens around the world.

'And people who have trained at Le Gavroche have gone on to do pretty well, too.

'Calf's head is one of the cheapest cuts of meat,

'but one that Escoffier got the very best out of.'

The vinaigrette with capers, olive oil, vinegar...

shallots.

They were very fond of chopped parsley in those days.

In you go!

'It's a French classic that my grandmother used to make for me.

'But can it appeal to British palates?'

It's different to how I imagined, actually. It's quite nice.

It's quite rich in flavour and the dressing's really nice.

The skin, you expect it to be chewy, but it melts in your mouth.

-Aw!

-The only thing is, it's just a bit too fatty for me.

-It's nice though. I really enjoy it.

-What about you, Rosie?

It's good. The flavours are really nice.

But I think the name is a bit off-putting - boiled veal's head.

I definitely think it's worth modernising this dish.

But I know what you mean about the texture.

We have to change that aspect, but keep the dressing,

or work on the dressing, cos it works so well.

Escoffier knew that however good the food,

a restaurant's reputation for excellence relied on consistency.

To guarantee a roomful of individual diners could get what they want,

when they wanted, he created a whole new way of organising the professional kitchen -

the brigade system.

I've come to Windows on Park Lane to see it in action.

Expectations as a diner in a place like this are always very, very high.

We look at a menu and we can see there's a lovely choice.

Different items here take different times to prepare,

but we expect the food to arrive at the table at the same time,

regardless of what we order.

They come to the table because there is a system in place

and that system is down to Escoffier.

-The beef, would you like that medium, medium rare?

-Rare, please.

-Rare. Very nice.

-For yourself, Mr Hobart?

-Can I have the salmon, please?

-Very nice.

'To show how Escoffier's brigade system works today,

'I'm going to follow a single order from a waiter's pad to finished plate.'

So Andrew's taken the order

and he's now putting it through to the kitchen the modern way. Not by hand and pencil.

That order is going to go straight through to the kitchen

and the chef will call it out to his brigade.

Hey, guys, ca marche! Two covers, one scallops, one salmon.

Cold starters, sauce.

Ca marche! One beef medium, one hake.

ALL: Oui!

The kitchen is split up into different teams.

We've got cold starters there. Fish section here.

Meat section, garnish over there and the pastry in the corner.

And, of course, head chef on the pass. He's organising everything.

Every section has somebody who's in charge and that person is called a chef de partie.

And then a commis and then under that maybe an apprentice.

And every person has a responsibility.

This is their order, table two.

There's salmon with avocado mousse. The mousse has been made to order,

so that it doesn't lose any colour

and the ceviche has to be marinated for a certain time.

So all that has been organised by the chef de partie,

the chef who's in charge of this particular section of the kitchen.

It's been checked. It's ready to go.

Before Escoffier, restaurants offered no choice.

You ate what the chef was making.

But with the a la carte menu,

Escoffier introduced a level of complexity

that required the culinary version of a production line.

That's the starters gone. In about 20 minutes, when they've finished,

they're going to ask for the main course - one hake, one beef.

And that's going to have to come on the pass on exactly the same time,

so that it's hot and dressed perfectly for the customer.

Imagine the chaos in here if they didn't have a brigade system.

Two minutes on the beef.

Two minutes on the fish, please.

It's an army of experts broken down into teams

to produce really complex food.

Fish coming up.

That's exquisite!

It's the kind of food you can get in a brigade system.

It's not pub or home cooking. This is haute cuisine.

Can we send this, please?

The pleasure of eating out for the customer is not having to think about any of this.

But as restaurateurs, our reputations are lost if we fail to live up to expectations.

We have to get it right.

Every element on every plate,

on every table, every time.

And that's the promise that we make.

The most ambitious chefs even like to influence the eating habits of people who DON'T come to our restaurants.

Escoffier developed the first commercial stock cubes.

And his reach even extended to the high seas,

as he set up kitchens and dining rooms

on some of the first cruise liners.

As he entered his 60s, he showed no signs of stopping.

He was beloved by his staff, as well as London's diners.

But, of course, in 1914, everything changed.

GUNFIRE, EXPLOSIONS

When World War One broke out, the young men who staffed his restaurants

and who had become his extended family, were sent off to fight.

Escoffier did what he could in London.

He set up an organisation to care for the war widows and orphans

of French kitchen staff.

And he guaranteed to hold a job for every man who came back.

JUBILANT CHEERING

When peace was announced on November 11th, 1918,

jubilant crowds filled London's streets.

The Carlton was again the place everyone wanted to be.

700 people descended on the restaurant to book for lunch.

Poor Escoffier rustled around in his kitchen and found a few ingredients -

legs of lamb, legs of veal, some pork, some liver, some mushrooms -

and he decided to make meatballs, so that he could make it stretch that far.

'"Throw it all in the mincer" is not a phrase that appears in the Guide Culinaire,

'but for this historic meal, Escoffier was clearly prepared to make an exception.

'After four years without his regular deliveries from France,

'and with a reduced kitchen team, he was already at a disadvantage.

'And he'd never had so many people to feed at one meal.

'He was in no position to offer his usual haute cuisine.

'This isn't typical Gavroche fare either,

'but I've decided to try it out for our family dinner...

'The meal we share as a kitchen brigade before service.'

Yes, please. Just one.

Mm!

Mm!

'For me, these meatballs demonstrate the creativity and hospitality

'that are at the heart of Escoffier's cooking.'

This may not be the most extravagant and well-known Escoffier recipe,

but I think it is the most generous.

Mm! That is good!

In 1920, Escoffier finally retired,

settling in Monte Carlo with his wife and family.

He died in 1935, aged 89.

But he leaves such a legacy -

the recipes, the style, the brigade system,

the professionalism.

That's not to say that it all went swimmingly.

In the hands of other chefs some things got a little lost in translation.

Here's the inimitable Fanny Cradock.

And this is how, on the few nights in the year

when it was cold enough in Monte Carlo,

Madame Jeanne, Escoffier's home cook,

prepared a special bowl of onion soup.

And now you simply whip each raw egg

and little drop of port together in each bowl.

And this is something which you can do yourselves

on Christmas Day at the dinner table for the amusement of your guests.

This was a 1956 Christmas show Fanny and Johnny put on in the Royal Albert Hall.

The tail feathers mounted...

and proud.

And, as ever, she gives it everything she's got.

And the head mounted, as for the first Queen Elizabeth.

And, finally, the wing feathers

spreading...

across...so.

Round the edge is the chestnut puree,

Escoffier's own, which we piped out here earlier.

APPLAUSE

I think I hear a Frenchman turning in his grave!

No wonder Escoffier's culinary legacy isn't always appreciated.

I'm having lunch with food critic Jay Rayner.

-Chips!

-You really did order chips?

-Oh, yeah!

'The French restaurants he was taken to as a child had got a little pretentious.'

We used to go as a family to a place called Stone's Chop House.

No longer there. It was owned by the Savoy Group.

It was the kind of place where everything had to be

set fire to tableside before you could eat it.

So not just the steak Diane or crepe suzette, the bread rolls and napkins, too.

Very old-fashioned, very classical, very French in its way.

Very, very good, but quite stiff.

It became a bit exhausting is the truth.

We wanted... I think Britain had a hunger for something

where they could undo their top buttons.

-And perhaps even the second one.

-Ooh!

-I know, shock horror.

-Timescale, what would that have been, the '70s?

-Oh, we're definitely talking about the '70s.

For me, the key moment when British restaurants changed...

It's a very London view, but I still think it's right.

..Is the opening in January 1977 of Joe Allen.

Joe Allen was out of New York, a classic Theatreland, American brasserie.

Red and white tablecloths. Almost had an open kitchen. The menus were up on blackboards.

What was really key to it was the service, which was mostly by out-of-work actors,

out-of-work dancers who danced between the tables. It was a very theatrical scene.

'I get what Jay is saying, but that sense of theatre and pleasure

'is just what the first lucky diners of the Savoy got 100 years earlier!'

So in a way, this is very much how Escoffier operated

at the turn of the 19th century.

Because he was saying "faites simple".

He was trying to get great food out to the public. He was breaking barriers.

He encouraged women to have lunches.

And for gentlemen to bring their wives

and see the restaurant as, not just food, but actually as entertainment.

There's no doubt that Escoffier was a revolutionary in his own way.

But each generation of chefs builds on what goes before.

Escoffier's influence is still felt, even if many chefs would deny it.

Erm, often when people in my business are talking about chefs,

we want to know whether they've got their classical chops.

Do they know how to do all that stuff?

Before they start putting the mackerel in the sorbet machine

and glueing bits of pig together to turn it into a Ferris wheel,

we also want to know, can they make a terrine? Do they know how to clarify stock?

All of those sorts of things. That's pure Escoffier.

'So even a sceptic like Jay will admit Escoffier's importance...if pushed!'

He started the revolution. He wanted people to come to his restaurants,

people to enjoy themselves, make it an occasion.

You Brits were all up yourselves and pompous at the time! You didn't understand that.

Now the Brits have got that and it's all down to Escoffier!

He was a genius!

'In my own kitchen, I aim to be true to the professionalism,

'the excellence and the creativity that Escoffier championed.'

Six.

'And I'm still being inspired by his recipes.'

This is my version of that wonderful Escoffier recipe of tete de veau.

'I think it's true to Escoffier's flavours and techniques,

'but I'm adding some twists of my own

'that I hope will make it even more appealing to modern palates.'

I've got all the ingredients here.

The head, the boiled head, then rolled and pressed, the tongue,

and some crispy sweetbreads.

'This is the way we honour each other as chefs.

'We take inspiration from each other.

'It becomes a conversation across the generations.

'I've learnt a little from Escoffier about the psychology of naming dishes, too.'

We're going to call it, delice de veau.

A delight of veal.

In a similar way that Escoffier,

instead of putting frogs' legs on the menu, he called them "nymphes".

Escoffier's influence in my restaurant is strong.

But it's in every restaurant where a team in the kitchen

work hard to produce special food,

where a dining room is prepared with thought -

tablecloths laid, decoration designed to please,

and where friends and families come together for an occasion,

eating not just to satisfy hunger, but to celebrate life.

-It's wonderful.

-It is, isn't it?

'Before I put my delice on the menu, I've invited some friends to try them out.'

-Right, guys.

-Whey-hey!

-Welcome.

-Here's the chef!

LAUGHTER

-We'll clear up after we've eaten!

-Yes, exactly!

Bon appetit. Tete de veau.

Mm, summer truffles.

I've never had it before, but bits of it remind me of my childhood.

The addition of the sweetbread I found really quite fantastic.

I've never had veal head before and it's absolutely delicious. All of it's lovely.

'It seems to have gone down quite well.'

-Wow!

-And I've picked it clean.

THEY CHATTER

'For me, this has been a wonderful journey into Escoffier's world.

'The culinary tradition that I'm still part of

'is the product of a very particular moment of history.'

Haute cuisine and the food that I cooked today,

really grew in the exuberance and the confidence of La Belle Epoque.

World War One finished that age and so much of the pleasure that went with it.

But Escoffier's ideas were already out and established throughout the world.

He changed chefs, but he also changed diners.

Fundamentals that we think are normal, possible, enjoyable about eating out,

HE set in place.

Britain today is a nation of true food lovers.

For that, I believe we all owe a huge debt of gratitude

to Auguste Escoffier.

-ALL: To the chef!

-Indeed.

-Thank you.

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