A. Escoffier

Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935) was a French chef who modernized and codified classical French cuisine and set the pattern of the restaurant kitchen. Born near Nice, he began work in his uncle's restaurant at thirteen, cooked for the army in 1870 and rose through the kitchens of Paris and Monte Carlo before his partnership with César Ritz took him to the Savoy and then the Carlton in London, where he cooked for royalty for thirty years. He simplified menus, organized the kitchen into brigades and created dishes such as Peach Melba. His Guide Culinaire of 1903, translated as A Guide to Modern Cookery, remains the reference work of the profession.