the UK based Restaurant and Hotel Review


Auguste Escoffier
returns to the SAVOY after 102 years!
April 1 - 16

After an absence of 102 years, Auguste Escoffier is returning in spirit to The Savoy for two special weeks in April 2000. Escoffier was chef at the hotel from 1890 to 1898, and his achievements at The Savoy became a legend in the annals of the late Victorian era.

The Savoy, in collaboration with the Escoffier Foundation based in Villeneuve-Loubet, will host a unique Auguste Escoffier Exhibition, sponsored by The Savoy Educational Trust, from the lst to 16th April.

The exhibition, which is admission-free, will feature items of Escoffier's personal memorabilia and correspondence in the hotel's Reading Room adjacent to the lobby. To complement the exhibition The Savoy Grill and River Restaurant chefs have created special Escoffier-inspired menus. As a result of the current interest in cooking and dining out, there is much curiosity about authentic haute cuisine - I suppose it's a bit like wanting to hear Bach and Handel played on original instruments. At any rate this is a wonderful opportunity to sample some of the great classic dishes.

The River Restaurant will feature a six course gourmet menu for £78 including delicacies such as Petit Marmite Henri IV and Selle de Chevreuil, Sauce Groseille au Raifort. At the same time, The Savoy Grill will provide an a la carte option which will include Escoffier favourites such as Fillets de Sole Veronique and Peche Melba.

'Escoffier has always influenced me and it has been a privilege following in the footsteps of this illustrious chef at The Savoy," says maitre chef des cuisines, Anton Edelmann. "Naturally time moves on and we modernise for best results, however many of Escoffier's principles remain and I thought that the millennium year was a good time to remind people about him."

A host of special events have been scheduled throughout the exhibition. Highlights will include two cookery demonstrations (1st and 8th April), presented by a variety of chefs focusing on the Escoffier theme, and a debate on 3rd April entitled 'Escoffier - Then and Now'. The debate will be chaired by Richard Shepherd CBE, President of the Academy of Culinary Arts and will feature a panel of Academicians.

For bookings and enquiries please telephone 0207 420 2356

A whiff not only of truffles but scandal even!

This exhibition and associated events represent another and very welcome step in the rehabilitation of Escoffier's reputation, which has never been in doubt as that of a very great chef, in spite of changes in culinary fashions. In 1889 Richard D'Oyle Carte, the impresario and hotelier recruited Cesar Ritz from Lucerne as manager of the new Savoy Hotel. Ritz brought Escoffier with him to be the head chef.

In 1898 there was great falling out and Ritz and Escoffier had to leave after confessing to taking commissions from suppliers. Also, whilst still in the D'Oyle Carte employ, the pair had been planning other hotels, including Claridge's and the Carlton. These affairs were hushed up by D'Oyle Carte and the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. Ritz and Escoffier departed to Claridge's and later founded the Ritz Hotels in Paris and the one in London in 1906.

Escoffier was an innovative manager as well as being a creative chef. It was his idea to create a production system with chefs de partie all contributing their specialist skills to the execution of a complete dish. He also advocated the reduction principle of sauce making and avoided sauces that would overpower the flavour of the main ingredient of a dish. His rules for the behaviour and welfare of chefs helped to raise the status of kitchen workers, indeed he was the first true celebrity chef. He died relatively poor in Monte Carlo in 1935.

In his lifetime Escoffier created exquisite dishes and was friends with stars and opera singers such as Sarah Bernhardt and Dame Nellie Melba. He once famously wheeled a swan carved out of ice to Melba's table in tribute to her performance in Lohengrin. In a cavity scooped out of its back to form a nest of spun sugar and strawberry leaves, a superb peach rested on a vanilla-flavoured ice cream coated lightly with fresh puree of raspberry. It was the debut of the famous Peche Melba.

The Savoy, Strand, London WC2R OEU

Telephone 0207 8504545

The Savoy Educational Trust is an independent United Kingdom charitable trust. It was established and endowed by four directors of The Savoy Hotel Ltd in 1960. The purposes for which the charity was established are the encouragement and development of education and training, particularly for the hospitality industry. For inspiring recipes that get back to the roots of these classic "retro" dishes, see that highly entertaining and practical book "The Prawn Cocktail Years" by Lindsey Bareham and Simon Hopkinson.

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