François Massialot (
LimogesLimoges is a city and commune in France, the préfecture of the Haute-Vienne département, and the administrative capital of the Limousin région....
1660 —
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
1733) was a French chef who served as
chef de cuisine (
officier de bouche) to various illustrious personages, including
Philippe I, Duke of OrléansPhilippe de France, Duke of Orléans , was the second surviving son of Louis XIII of France and Anne of Austria, and thus the younger brother of the future Louis XIV of France. As son of a king of France, he was a Fils de France and bore the surname de France. Philippe married twice...
, the brother of Louis XIV, and his son
Philippe II, Duke of OrléansPhilippe Charles d'Orléans, petit-fils de France, Duke of Orléans , was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...
, who was first duc de Chartres then the Regent, as well as the duc d'Aumont, the
Cardinal d’EstréesCésar d'Estrées was a French diplomat and Cardinal.He was the son of Marshal François Annibal d'Estrées, and brother of Marshal Jean II d'Estrées....
, and the marquis de Louvois. His
Nouveau cuisinier royal et bourgeois first appeared, anonymously, as a single volume in 1691, and was expanded to two (1712) then three volumes, in the revised edition of 1733-34.
François Massialot (
LimogesLimoges is a city and commune in France, the préfecture of the Haute-Vienne département, and the administrative capital of the Limousin région....
1660 —
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
1733) was a French chef who served as
chef de cuisine (
officier de bouche) to various illustrious personages, including
Philippe I, Duke of OrléansPhilippe de France, Duke of Orléans , was the second surviving son of Louis XIII of France and Anne of Austria, and thus the younger brother of the future Louis XIV of France. As son of a king of France, he was a Fils de France and bore the surname de France. Philippe married twice...
, the brother of Louis XIV, and his son
Philippe II, Duke of OrléansPhilippe Charles d'Orléans, petit-fils de France, Duke of Orléans , was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...
, who was first duc de Chartres then the Regent, as well as the duc d'Aumont, the
Cardinal d’EstréesCésar d'Estrées was a French diplomat and Cardinal.He was the son of Marshal François Annibal d'Estrées, and brother of Marshal Jean II d'Estrées....
, and the marquis de Louvois. His
Nouveau cuisinier royal et bourgeois first appeared, anonymously, as a single volume in 1691, and was expanded to two (1712) then three volumes, in the revised edition of 1733-34. His lesser cookbook,
Nouvelle instruction pour les confitures, les liqueurs et les fruits, (Paris, Charles de Sercy), appeared, also anonymously, in 1692.
Massialot describes himself in his
prefaceA preface is an introduction to a book written by the author of the book. An introductory essay written by a different person is a foreword and precedes an author's preface...
as "a cook who dares to qualify himself royal, and it is not without cause, for the meals which he describes...have all been served at court or in the houses of princes, and of people of the first rank." Places where Massialot served banquets included the
Château de SceauxThe Château de Sceaux in its formal park laid out by André Le Nôtre lies at the heart of Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, not far from Paris. It houses the Musée de l’Île-de-France, a museum of local history. The former château was built for Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister of finance, who...
, the
Château de MeudonThe former Château de Meudon, on a hill in Meudon, about 4 kilometres south-west of Paris, occupied the terraced steeply sloping site. It was acquired by Louis XIV, who greatly expanded its as a residence for Louis, le Grand Dauphin...
, and Versailles. An innovation in Massialot's book was the alphabetisation of recipes, "a step toward the first culinary dictionary" Barbara Wheaton observes; Wheaton has compared the changes made in the various editions of Massialot: a glass of white wine in a
fish stockFish stocks are subpopulations of a particular species of fish, for which intrinsic parameters are the only significant factors in determining population dynamics, while extrinsic factors are considered to be insignificant.-The stock concept:All species have geographic limits to their...
makes a surprisingly late appearance, in 1703.
MeringueMeringue is a type of dessert made from whipped egg whites and powdered sugar. Some meringue recipes call for adding a binding agent such as cream of tartar or the cornstarch found in confectioner's sugar. Meringues are often flavoured with vanilla and a small amount of almond or coconut extract...
s make their first appearance under their familiar name in Massialot, who is also credited with
Crême bruléeCrème brûlée , burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel, created by caramelizing sugar under a broiler, with a propane or butane torch or other intense heat source, or by pouring sugar...
, in which the sugar topping was melted and burnt with a red-hot fire shovel..
Massialot's works, translated into English as
The Court and Country Cook (1702) and often reprinted, were used by professional chefs until the middle of the eighteenth century.