Escoffier, A. [Georges Auguste]. A GUIDE TO MODERN COOKERY. William Heinemann. 1907. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. xiii, 880 pages.  Tissue-protected photogravure portraIt frontispiece. All edges green.  Flourishing ink ownership inscription of Major Wigram, 32 Lenox Gardens SW on blank preliminary page. Menus and index at the end.  Publisher's advert on the verso of the half-title page. Marbled endpapers. 17 x 25 cm. New full red morocco binding. Spine in six compartments with gilt ruled raised bands, gilt tooling, lettering and date. Upper and lower boards with gilt scrolling foliate borders. Georges Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularised and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoine Carême (1784-1833), one of the codifiers of French haute cuisine, but Escoffier's achievement was to simplify and modernise Carême's elaborate and ornate style. Escoffier's recipes, techniques and approaches to kitchen management remain highly influential today, and have been adopted by chefs and restaurants not only in France, but also throughout the world. PROVENANCE: Henry Hampden Wigram (1858-1919, Eton and Trin. Coll. Camb.) was a Major in the Scots Guards & lived at 32 Lennox Gardens, London SW1.  Closely related to the Wigram baronetcy, he married Dorothy Isabel Liddell, of Keldy Castle, Yorkshire, and had three daughters.