CH’NG Poh Tiong
Villeneuve-Loubet, just ten minutes from Nice Airport, is where Auguste Escoffier was born
Auguste Escoffier (1846 – 1935) is the single individual who has influenced French cuisine more than any other person.
Before his time, chefs were not highly regarded in France. They were seen as a servant/service class.
What, today, is referred to as haute cuisine – literally high cuisine – is the legacy of Auguste Escoffier.
During Escoffier’s time, chefs were known to drink during work and habitually sworn at others who work under them including assistants, juniors and apprentices.
The kitchen hierarchy was rigid and based mainly on age and patronage rather than professionalism.
Today’s many talented young, woman, and non-French chefs in French cuisine would not be able to garner their well-deserved recognition were they to work during Escoffier’s era.
The visionary that he was, Escoffier reorganised the traditional kitchen into a place where cleanliness, orderliness, specialisation, and professionalism became the norm and order of the day.
Auguste Escoffier forbade drinking and swearing amongst his staff.
Never one to further his own ego Escoffier was, instead, a firebrand of transmission and sharing. So that the know-how and skills of chefs become transmitted to, and shared with the next and future generations.
Auguste Escoffier laid the foundation for the French culinary kitchen in a restaurant and hotel as we know it today. The Frenchman wanted the kitchen to become a place where it is a pleasure to work, and a workplace of pride.
Born in the village of Villeneuve-Loubet – just 10 minutes by car from Nice Airport – the house in which Auguste Escoffier was born is today a four-story culinary museum. Our Great Truffle Tour will be visiting this unique destination on Tuesday 3 May 2022.
The Escoffier Museum of Culinary Art is a place of pilgrimage for people around the world who admire French cuisine and where they pay homage to the man known as “The King of Chefs and the Chef of Kings”.
