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Gouffé, Jules; Gouffé, Alphonose (trans.).
The Royal Book of Pastry and Confectionery (Le Livre de Patisserie).
Publisher: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle, London;
Date of Publication: 1874
Stock Code: 15104
First English edition of 1874, after the first French of 1873. Quarto, pp., xiv, 474, [2] of publisher’s advertisements. Plus 10 chromolithographic plates after drawings by Étienne Antoine Eugène Ronjat, with 137 further woodcuts within text, indexed to end. Collated and complete. Original publisher’s purple cloth over bevelled boards, titled within elaborate gilt- and black-stamped frame to upper board, continuing to spine; the same frame blind-stamped to lower board; all edges gilt; citron end-papers. Cloth rubbed, spine faded to tan, corners bumped and rubbed, joints and hinges strong. One gathering and one opening detached, occasional spots of toning and soiling but else rather clean internally, the plates bright. A complete, unrestored copy. A triumph of French gastronomy by ‘the apostle of decorative cooking’. Gouffé’s cookbooks were significant in the history of modern cooking, they provided systematic measurements in metric weights and volumes, were designed with clear, typographic layouts, and written in lucid, comprehensible prose. This volume is in the spirit of Gouffé’s accessible yet bombastic ethos. It is divided into two parts: the first showing budding pastry chefs the techniques and methods of patisserie, resplendent with numerous diagrams, and the second, containing the bulk of the chromolithographic plates, providing recipes for Gouffé’s signature decorative desserts. The architectural pastries represent the epitome of French banquet cooking, and include an Italian villa sculpted from nougat, a working edible fountain, colourful croquembouche, and a Turkish pavilion. The book’s translator, Alphonse, trained under his brother, and became head chef to Queen Victoria. A rare book, it was issued only once more in English, in 1884. £350.00