About Me
I was born in the village of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice. At the age of thirteen, despite showing early promise as an artist, I started an apprenticeship at my uncle's restaurant, Le Restaurant Français, in Nice. In 1865 I moved to Le Petit Moulin Rouge restaurant in Paris. I stayed there until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, when I became an army chef. My army experience led me to study the technique of canning food. Some time before 1878 I opened my own restaurant, Le Faisan d'Or (The Golden Pheasant) in Cannes. In 1880 I married Delphine Daffis. In 1884 we moved to Monte Carlo, where I took control of the kitchen at the Grand Hotel. During the summers I ran the kitchen of the Hotel National in Lucerne, where I met César Ritz (at that time the French Riviera was a winter resort). We formed a partnership and in 1890 moved to the Savoy Hotel in London. From this base we established a number of famous hotels, including the Grand Hotel in Rome, and numerous Ritz Hotels around the world.At the London Savoy, I created many famous dishes. For example, in 1893 I invented the Pêche Melba in honour of the Australian singer Nellie Melba. Another of my creations (copied from Antoine Carême, according to some anecdotes) was Tournedos Rossini, in honour of the Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini.In 1898 myself and Ritz opened the Hôtel Ritz in Paris. The Carlton in London followed in 1899, where I first introduced the practice of the à la carte menu. Ritz had a nervous breakdown in 1901, leaving me to run the Carlton until 1919, shortly after Ritz's death.In 1902 I published my first major book, Le Guide Culinaire, containing 5,000 recipes. The importance of this book in the world of French cooking cannot be overestimated, and even today it is used as both a cookbook and textbook for classic cooking. In 1904 and 1912 I was hired to plan the kitchens for ships belonging to the cruise ship company Hamburg-Amerika Lines. On the second voyage, the Kaiser William II congratulated me, telling me "I am the Emperor of Germany, but you are the Emperor of chefs."In about 1920, I became the first chef to receive the Legion of Honor and in 1928 was made an Officer of the Legion. I died at the age of 89, a few days after my wife.
