Food - Drink
How Auguste Escoffier Changed The Way Professional Chefs Cook
By REECE ARMSTRONG
Deemed "The King of Chefs and the Chef of Kings" while he was alive, Auguste Escoffier’s contributions to modern dining make him worthy of that title to this day. His techniques revolutionized the professional kitchen, and his books are like sacred texts for cooks and restaurateurs worldwide.
Escoffier was the first to change the fine dining experience so that each dish was served in courses, instead of the entire meal coming to the table at once. Escoffier also introduced à-la-carte dining to restaurants, allowing diners to order separate items from the menu, instead of being limited to a complete meal.
You can also thank Escoffier if you like eating and farm-to-table. In "Le Guide Culinaire," Escoffier's recipes emphasize the use of in-season ingredients foraged from one's own locale, and he also popularized functional garnishes that elevate a dish's flavor, instead of merely serving as a decoration.
Perhaps Escoffier's greatest contribution to the modern professional kitchen was his Brigade de Cuisine system, a way of organizing restaurant staff that implemented a chain of command and placed chefs at different stations based on their expertise and skills. This streamlined system is used in fine-dining kitchens to this day.