OP: Francatelli's Modern Cook
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David McKay, Publisher, Philadelphia, ND. Hardcover. Good Plus.
Among the many chefs and food personalities who have been lost in the sands of time, Charles Elme Francatelli (1805–1876) is one deserving of reintroduction. He was one of the most prominent culinary celebrities of his time and trained under the great Antonin Carême in France before returning to his native England to cook for some of the British aristocracy’s more distinguished bon vivants. He even came to serve as Chief Cook and Maitre d’hotel for Queen Victoria.
His first book, The Modern Cook, was published in 1846 and went through an astonishing 29 editions in fifty years. Francatelli was revered for his blending of Italian, English, German, and French cooking traditions, and the nearly 1500 numbered recipes reflect those influences, ranging from macaroni soup à la St. Pierre, to Devonshire squab pie, to mutton à la Bourguignotte. Also included are such delightfully recherché recipes as fillets of partridges à la Lucullus, necks of red deer à la Marie Stuart, and Savoy cake in the form of a glazed ham.
While the title page insists the recipes are “adapted for the use of all Families, large or small, as well as for Hotels, Restaurants, Cooks, Cake Bakers, Clubs, and Boarding Houses,” and Francatelli’s goal is to eliminate, “all unnecessary and too expensive accessories to the more costly kinds of dishes.,” the 60 pages of menus included do not totally support these claims. The extravagant dishes and suggested menus for dinners from 6 to 300 people require, perhaps, a level of experience and wealth inaccessible to many.
Our copy is Philadelphia publisher David McKay’s, reprinted from the 26th London edition (1896). While undated, the printing could be no later than about 1908 when McKay moved locations from the 610 South Washington Square address printed on the title page. Bound in brown cloth with black lettering and decorations on the front, gilt on the spine, the copy has taken somewhat of a beating but remains fully functional. The front hinge is splitting, but the binding remains sound, the interior pleasantly clean.
