Marie-Antoine Carême

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Marie-Antoine Carême
Marie-Antoine Carême

Marie Antoine (Antonin) Carême (June 8, 1784–January 12, 1833), was a French chef and author. He is well known for greatly simplifying and codifying the style of cooking known as haute cuisine, the high art of French cooking which is central to France's national cuisine. He is often thought of as the first celebrity chef.

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[edit] Biography

Born in Paris and abandoned there by destitute parents in 1792 at the height of the French Revolution, he worked as a kitchen boy at a cheap Parisian chophouse in exchange for room and board. In 1798, he was formally apprenticed to Sylvain Bailly, a famous pâtissier with a shop near the Palais-Royal. Bailly recognized his talent and ambition.

Carême gained fame in Paris for his pièces montées, elaborate constructions used as centerpieces, which Bailly displayed in the pâtisserie window. He made these confections, which were sometimes several feet high, entirely out of foodstuffs such as sugar, marzipan, and pastry. He modeled them on temples, pyramids, and ancient ruins, taking ideas from architectural history books that he studied at the nearby Bibliothéque Nationale.[1] Utilizing his previous architectural knowledge coupled with culinary genius, some of his sugar works were so elaborate that court jesters would dance upon them while entertaining the king.

He did freelance work creating pieces principally for the French diplomat and gourmand Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, but also other members of Parisian high society, including Napoleon. While working on his confections at many private kitchens, he quickly extended his culinary skills to main courses.

Napoleon was famously indifferent to food, but he understood the importance of social relations in the world of diplomacy. In 1804, he gave money to Talleyrand to purchase Château de Valençay, a large estate outside of Paris. The château was intended to act as a kind of diplomatic gathering place. When Talleyrand moved there, he took Carême with him.

Carême was set a test by Talleyrand: to create a whole year’s worth of menus, without repetition, and using only seasonal produce. Carême passed the test and completed his training in Talleyrand's kitchens. After the fall of Napoléon, Carême went to London for a time and served as chef de cuisine to the Prince Regent, later George IV. Returning to the continent he served Tsar Alexander I in St. Petersburg, before returning to Paris, where he was chef to banker James Mayer Rothschild.

He died in Germany at the age of 48, due to many years inhaling the toxic fumes of the charcoal on which he cooked. He is remembered as the founder of the haute cuisine concept and is interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Montmartre.

[edit] Influence

In his first major position, Carême worked as chef de cuisine to Talleyrand. More than simply an employer or sponsor, Talleyrand actively encouraged Carême to produce a new refined style of eating, using fresh herbs and vegetables and simplified sauces with fewer ingredients. Talleyrand's table became famous during the negotiations that followed the fall of Napoléon, at the Congress of Vienna. When the Congress dispersed, both the map of Europe and the culinary tastes of its upper classes were thoroughly revised.

Carême's impact on culinary matters ranged from trivial to theoretical. He is credited with creating the standard chef's hat, the toque; he designed new sauces and dishes, he published a classification of all sauces into groups, based on four mother sauces. He is also frequently credited with replacing the practice of service à la française (serving all dishes at once) with service à la russe (serving each dish in the order printed on the menu), after he returned from service in the Russian court, but sources differ on this point.[2]

Carême wrote several encyclopedic works on cookery, above all L'Art de la Cuisine Française (5 vols, 1833–34), which included, aside from hundreds of recipes, plans for menus and opulent table settings, a history of French cookery, and instructions for organizing kitchens.

[edit] Major works

  • Carême, Marie Antonin (1833-1844). L'art de la cuisine française au dix-neuvième siècle. Chez MM. J. Renouard et Cie. LCC TX719.C27. 

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Kelly, Chapter 2.
  2. ^ Citation Gastronomica, Summer 2001, Vol. 1, No. 3

[edit] External links