MASSIALOT, François. Le Cuisiner royal et bourgeois, Qui apprend à ordonner toute sorte de Repas, & la meilleure manière des Ragoûts les plus à la mode & les plus exquis. Ouvrage très utile dans les Familles, & singulièrement necessaire à tous Maîtres d’Hotels, & Ecuiers de Cuisine. Paris, chez Charles de Sercy, 1693.
12mo [159 x 86 mm] (10) ll., 505 pp., (46) pp. Bookplate removed from endpaper. Bound in contemporary full brown granite-like calf, spine ribbed with gilt fleurons, mottled edges. Contemporary binding.
Second edition of the most important culinary book by Massialot, amply enlarged and modified, the first in which recipes are alphabetically classified. With this second edition, that presents for the first time alphabetically classified recipes, Massialot lays the foundations for the first culinary dictionary. Vicaire, 574; Simon only quotes the later 1740 and 1748 editions.
Divided into two parts, the work begins with the Ordonnance des repas and an Instruction en forme de dictionnaire où l’on apprendra comment apprêter chaque chose. It ends with the long table of dishes and contains numerous recipes adapted to the various seasons.
Hand-book of gastronomy which offers assistance to butlers in the purchase and the preparation of food, and the organization of banquets and diners, the work is also an eulogy of the French civilization; indeed, for the author: « It is only in Europe where cleanliness, good taste and knowledge in seasoning meats and food that we can boast, mainly in France, to be superior on all other nations, as we are in politeness and in one thousand other well known things.»
This work announcing the 18th century had great and immediate success and was republished fourteen times before 1750.
« Born in Limoges around 1660, François Massialot, practiced his art for the most illustrious tables: those of the duke of Chartres, the duke of Orleans, the duke of Aumont, Mister de Livry first butler to the King, of the marquis of Arcy, of Louvois and of Seignelay. He died in Paris in 1733. » (Oberlé)
Successor of La Varenne, Massialot describes himself in the foreword of his work as « a cook who dares to consider himself as royal, and it is not without reason; because the meals he describes for the various times of the year have all recently been served at the Court, or at princes, and important persons.».
A precious copy of Massialot’s most important culinary book, preserved in its contemporary calf binding.
This precious edition is not at the B.n.F.
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