Cuisine d'aujourd'hui: École des déjeuners, service des diners, plus de 300 manières de prèparer les œufs; 260 Dessins, dont 40 Planches gravées par Urbain Dubois.
Paris: Librairie Dentu, 1900.
Thick octavo, xv, 794, [iii], xxvi pages. Sixième édition, Soigneusement corrigée, avec de nombreuses additions. Illustrated frontispiece, engraved illustrations and line drawings. Advertisement below author's name: Auteur de La Cuisine de tous les pays, de La Cuisine artistique, de La Cuisine classique, de La Cuisine d'aujourd'hui, du Grand livre des pâtissiers, de La Pâtisserie d'aujourd'hui. Publisher's name printed on paste-over. The date on the dedicatory poem, 1894, --by Achille Ozanne, page x--is significant in identifying this edition, as most instantiations of this title and publisher bear the date 1889, while the author's advertisement makes clear that the present publication appeared after (or contemporaneously with) the Pâtisserie d'aujourd'hui of 1894. A work of summation by a founder of modern French cuisine. Urbain Dubois (Félix Urbain-Dubois, 1818-1901) was a celebrated chef, whose two-volume La Cuisine classique of 1856, written with Émile Bernard, still holds its place as the preeminent document of its subject. Originally from Provence, he worked early on for the Russian diplomat Prince Alexey Fyodorovich Orlov, and in subsequent decades for members of the Hohenzollern dynasty in Berlin (1860-1880). The eight major publications he oversaw during his lifetime continued to be edited and reissued for many years, the present title alone reaching a seventeenth edition in 1948. Cuisine d'aujourd'hui became the great project of Urbain-Dubois's retirement, its drawings and engravings having been accomplished under his supervision during the years of royal service (which means, incidentally, that these should be regarded as visual documentation, not as works of the imagination). The legendary Auguste Escoffier recalled: "When in 1881 to 1888 I directed the kitchens of the Grand Hôtel and restaurant at Monte Carlo, Monsieur Urbain-Dubois, retired from active life, came to spend the winters in Nice, and nearly every week visited Messieurs [Henri] Noël and [Melchior] Pattard, proprieters of the Grand Hôtel. Knowing M. Dubois quite intimately over a number of years, it was rare that he came to Monte Carlo without some new recipes to try, recipes for his new book, Cuisine d'aujourd'hui." --from a letter to Paul Thalamus, as quoted by Kenneth James, Escoffier, The King of Chefs (London: Hambledon and London, 2002), page 116. With the signature of the author stamped on the verso of the title page. Foxing to endpapers and a bit to title page. Some age toning throughout. With decorated papers over half-vellum, spine compartmented and titled in black. Generally near very good. [OCLC does not record a sixth edition; a seventh edition from the publisher Curel et Fayard Frères is held by the New York Academy of Medicine; a third edition from Dentu with the date 1893 is reported by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; Bitting, page 131; Vicaire, page 900]. Contents: Méthodes élémentaires -- Sauces et garnitures -- Accessoires -- Menus de déjeuners -- Service des déjeuners. Œufs et omelettes ; Poissons de mer et d'eau douce ; Boucherie ; Volaille et gibier ; Entremets de déjeuners -- Menus des diners -- Service des diners. Consommés et potages ; Poissons de mer et d'eau douce ; Boucherie ; Volaille et gibier ; Légumes, salades, farinage ; Entremets chauds et froids ; Glaces, plombières, mousses, punchs glacès ; Sirops, compotes, marmelades, gelées -- Additions á l'édition nouvelle.
Price: $350.00