Le Cuisinier Gascon: Nouvelle Edition, A laquelle on a joint la Lettre du Patissier Anglois

Amsterdam (Paris), 1747. Second Edition. Hardcover (Full Leather). Very Good Condition. Contemporary acid calf, respined. Light wear at the corners, scattered light foxing and toning internally, endpapers browned - a clean, bright copy overall. With an armorial bookplate on the front pastedown and the bookplate of food bibliographer Eleanor Lowenstein on the front free endpaper. The second edition, the first with the Lettre du Patissier Anglois. viii, 244. Oberle 112, Simon 421, Cagle 1082, Vicaire 234

The most singular of all French cookbooks, the organization is haphazard, but the dishes and names so charming and so likably indicative of the debauched phase of French royal cookery (and society) that all is forgiven. Frogs in green sauce, green monkey sauce, eggs without malice, veal cooked to resemble donkey droppings, chicken in the shape of bats, ducks roasted and pressed for a bit of juice to dress a chicken and the carcasses discarded. Simultaneously mocking and exemplifying the unfettered fabulousness of 18th century royal cuisine, Le Cuisinier Gascon marks the end of the revolution in food that began with La Varenne, and the start of a revolution of another sort. Size: 8vo (octavo). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Cooking, Wine & Dining; Inventory No: CAT000093.