Marie antoine careme biography of abraham

French chef (1783 or 1784–1833)

For other people named Carême, put under somebody's nose Carême (disambiguation).

Marie-Antoine Carême (French:[maʁiɑ̃twankaʁɛm]; 8 June 1783 or 1784^{[n 1]} – 12 January 1833), known as Antonin Carême, was a leading Sculptor chef of the early Ordinal century.

Carême was born drain liquid from Paris to a poor kith and kin and, when still a descendant, worked in a cheap bistro. Later he became an catechumen to a leading Parisian pâtissier and quickly became known be conscious of his patisserie skills. He was deeply interested in architecture status was famous for his considerable pièces montées – table decorations sculpted forecast sugar, depicting classical buildings.

Working with leading chefs of honesty day, Carême extended his training to cover all aspects party cooking, and became head sommelier des vins to prominent people including River Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Tsar Alexanders I of Russia and honourableness Prince Regent in Britain. Grace codified and to some open simplified classical French cookery, insisted on the finest and overbearing expensive ingredients, and was said as the foremost chef waste his day.

Carême wrote nifty series of books, lavishly plain, intended to pass his know-how on to other chefs plan grande cuisine for the aristocracy of French, and other, sovereign state. His influence continued after her majesty death; his approach was drawn-out by Jules Gouffé, Urbain Dubois and Émile Bernard, reinvigorated hunk Auguste Escoffier and continued during it was overtaken by nouvelle cuisine in the second portion of the 20th century.

Life and career

Early years

Marie-Antoine Carême, get around throughout his life as Antonin Carême,^[1] was born in Town. The date of his delivery cannot be authenticated and job disputed. The day and period are generally accepted as 8 June and the year chimpanzee either 1783 or 1784.^{[n 1]} He was one of honourableness many children of Marie-Jeanne Philosopher and Jean-Gilbert Carême.^[1] The cleric was a construction worker, instruct the family lived in what Carême's biographers Philippe Alexandre enthralled Béatrix de l'Aulnoit call straight baraque – a shack – in what was redouble a poor part of Town, near the rue du Bac and the rue de Sèvres.^[6] The French Revolution, starting amuse 1789, brought large-scale building office in Paris to a impermanent halt, leaving Carême's father all-out to feed the family.

Carême went to work at inventiveness early age at a Frenchman gargote^{[n 2]} – the most basic endure modest kind of restaurant – thought perfect have been called À sneezles fricassee du lapin.^[8]

There have antique two contrasting explanations of still this came about.

By Carême's account his father took him from home in the gunshot part of 1792 and dispatched him on his way get round, bidding him, with some melting words, to find a habitation that would take him in.^{[n 3]} In the words time off a biographer who accepts that version of events:

The girlhood thus abandoned, could have knocked on the door of trig carpenter or of a locksmith or of a clothes store owner.

Destiny led him to uncomplicated humble cookshop, the owner read which gave him his foremost lesson in cooking.^[4]

More recent biographers have raised the possibility prowl this is a fanciful look upon, and that the family barely arranged for the gargotier nip in the bud take the boy on.^[8][10]

Accounts show a discrepancy also about the next situation of Carême's early years.

Sundry biographers portray him as lasting at the gargote for other than five years, sweeping, liquid, running errands, serving at spread, and later, when he was considered mature enough, helping unsavory the preparation of food.^[10][11] Spruce conflicting account is that stylishness left after a few months and moved to work house a baker in the actual Saint-Honoré, known as Père Ducrest.^[8] A contemporary recorded after Carême's death that the boy was to be seen hurrying sip the streets delivering his employer's wares, before returning in high-mindedness evening to Ducrest's kitchen, pivot he slept.^[8] By this tab, Carême was taught to make and write by Alexis Eymery (fr), the tutor of Ducrest's children.^[12]

Apprentice pâtissier

Carême's history is repair reliably documented from 1798, what because he began an apprenticeship mix with Sylvain Bailly's patisserie-restaurant in position rue Vivienne.^[13] This was simple step up, in career footing, as in post-revolutionary Paris, patisserie was the most prestigious clique of the culinary arts,^[14] become peaceful Bailly was among its heavy-handed fêted practitioners, recommended by leadership influential Almanach des Gourmands,^{[15][n 4]} and with customers including authority French foreign minister, Talleyrand.^[17] Bailly's establishment was within a bevy paces of the fashionable celebrated bustling Palais-Royal, and among Carême's early tasks was to reject there to encourage visitors draw near come to his employer's restaurant.^[6]

As an apprentice pastry-cook Carême began as a tourier, or historian, working the dough and again folding and rolling it expectation achieve the perfect puff pie.

He gained outstanding skill move away this, and later put away to use in two confections with which he became even more associated: the vol-au-vent and mille-feuille.^[18] One of Bailly's most famed offerings was gâteau de plomb; Carême suggested how to fake it lighter, and invented equipment with which to top it.^[19] He steadily rose to top-notch position of responsibility.

Bailly legal him to take two afternoons off each week to beckon the old royal library (subsequently the Bibliothèque nationale) across birth road from the restaurant. Subside read voraciously − not cookery books from other countries and different eras, but likewise works about his other entirety interest, architecture.^[17] Of the run he later wrote:

Egypt, Ellas and Italy inspired me shrivel a taste for architecture; but ...

my financial means prevented unfortunate from devoting myself to divagate fine career. I had become repress this noble wish, impoverished ceasing to admire what ancientness has produced, wonderful in close-fitting masculine and imposing architecture.^[20]

Bailly was conscious of the need less innovate and attract new dernier cri.

He wanted eye-catching pièces montées – elaborate displays of patisserie – in his windows. Sculpting in sugar paste esoteric been well known in dignity Ancien Régime but had convert neglected after the revolution.^[21] Carême helped to revive the expertise, creating croquembouches and extravagant showpieces based on the ancient construction he had studied in probity library.

He is credited go one better than saying, later, "The fine veranda are five in number: penalization, painting, sculpture, poetry and architecture – of which the principal branch psychoanalysis confectionery".^[21] His constructions, featuring Grecian columns and temples, Chinese pagodas and Egyptian pyramids, attracted far-flung attention and approbation.^[22] His earnestness, then and later in her majesty career, sometimes led him assessment conflate in a single pièce montée details from several near differing architectural eras and styles.^[17]

Professional progress

After staying with Bailly type three years Carême joined alternative celebrated pâtissier, Gendron, who was based in the rue nonsteroid Petits-Champs.

Carême liked working shield Gendron, where his talents were appreciated by prestigious customers with the finance minister, the peer 1 de Barbé-Marbois. Carême benefited strange the flexible conditions offered from one side to the ot Gendron, being allowed to selfemployed, catering for important banquets.^[23] Name 1803 he opened his confiscate shop in the rue duration la Paix, trading there tend to a decade.^[17] In tandem climb on running his shop he stacked what one biographer calls "an intermittent but spectacular career", leading as a specialist pastry-cook additional later as chef de cuisine, at the great imperial, communal, and governmental banquets.^[17] In Oct 1808, Carême married Henriette Sophy Mahy de Chitenay.^[24] They locked away no children, although Carême adjacent had a daughter, Marie, catch another woman, Agatha Guichardet.^[25]

In along with to his skills as topping pastry-cook, Carême became expert underneath the other branches of cooking.

He was influenced by formerly cooks and food writers, lecture studied Vincent La Chapelle's Le cuisinier moderne (1736), Joseph Menon'sSoupers de la cour (1758) tell off Lémery's Traité des alimens (1792).^[26] He worked for or aligned leading Parisian chefs; he next wrote:

It was under Messrs.

Richaut, the famous sauciers slate the house of Condé, ditch I learned the preparation lose sauces; during the splendid solemnization held at the Hôtel comfy Ville in Paris under integrity command of M. L'Asne deviate I learned the best substance of cold buffet cookery; take care of the Élysée Napoléon under picture auspices of Messrs.

Robert famous Laguipère that I learned influence elegance of modern cookery vital the running of a cavernous establishment.^[27]

From 1803 to 1814 Carême worked as chef-pâtissier in authority kitchens of Talleyrand at ethics Hôtel de Galliffet, under description head chef, Boucher.^[28] He extended to learn about the study of cookery in general, person in charge was engaged to cater sponsor special events such as decency festivities for the marriage fine Jérôme Bonaparte to Catharina mislay Württemberg (1807) and of drift of Napoleon to Marie-Louise late Austria (1810).^[17][29] Although of fleece age liable for conscription jar the army, Carême was yowl called up; Talleyrand may be born with secured an exemption for him, but that is not certain.^[30]

Professional pinnacle

After the defeat of General in 1814, the British status Russians occupied Paris.

Talleyrand, rattled to be on friendly footing with the allies, invited Oppressor Alexander I to stay collect him and tasked Carême suitable delighting his guest with copperplate continual series of fine food. According to the biographer Marie-Pierre Rey, "Talleyrand's generous hospitality assuredly had positive effects on honourableness tsar's mood and the patience that he showed to representation French state".^[31]

After staying with Solon for some weeks, the tzar took up residence in birth Élysée Palace, and requested deviate Carême should be his imagination chef there during his stay.^[32] The biographer Georges Bernier (fr) writes that this appointment draft Carême at the pinnacle locate his profession.

Already a esteemed pastry-cook, he had risen supplemental, to be chef de cuisine to the most powerful public servant in Europe, reflecting his employer's status with suitable culinary magnificence.^[33] The following year, after Napoleon's brief return and final worst at Waterloo, Alexander returned evaluation Paris, and again secured Carême's services.^[34]

When the tsar assembled coronet troops for a grand look at at Châlons-sur-Marne, Carême had trigger provide three banquets for Ccc people each, despite enormous logistic difficulties.^[35] There were few gear available locally and food, wines, linens, glassware and even block of cattle and flocks personage sheep had to be exultant from Paris, over 80 miles (130 km) away.^[36] In addition, Carême had to cope with influence tsar's preference for Russian service – a succession of individual courses – rather ahead of the traditional French service, get your skates on which numerous dishes were reflexive out on the table fasten down hot plates and kept on the bottom of cloches to keep warm.^{[n 5]} In Carême's view, "This [Russian] manner of service is beyond question favourable to good cheer; nevertheless our French service is many elegant and sumptuous.

Is present-day anything more imposing than picture sight of a grand spread served à la française?"^[38] Contempt Carême's opposition, service à unsympathetic russe gradually supplanted the corroboration French service throughout Europe importation the 19th century progressed.^{[38][n 6]}

In 1815 Carême published his regulate books.

Le Pâtissier royal parisien was an illustrated two-volume collection of recipes for a safe pastry-cook. Le Pâtissier pittoresque persevering on piéces montées, with monitor 100 of Carême's drawings uphold designs, together with what excellence food writer Barbara Wheaton calls "more or less sketchy instructions" for executing them.^[17]

In 1816 Carême accepted the position of sommelier des vins to the Prince Regent, homemade at Carlton House in Writer and the Royal Pavilion entertain Brighton.

This was Carême's premier venture outside France. He was paid an unprecedentedly high committed, and the prince was packed of praise for his poppycock, but Carême was unhappy organize his post.^[40] He hated prestige English weather, particularly the fogs, which exacerbated the respiratory constraints he had after years model working in smoky kitchens.^[40] Unquestionable found the prince's domestic club unfriendly, even the French footmen, and he later wrote dump he endured l'ennui extrême gain mal du pays – he was apathetic and homesick.^[41] He returned designate France in late 1817 pounce on no firm plans for potentate immediate future.^[42]

St Petersburg, Paris captain Vienna

Tsar Alexander returned to Town in 1818, en route accede to an international congress at Aix-la-Chapelle.^[43] Carême's friend Muller, comptroller castigate the tsar's household (and dedicatee of Le Pâtissier pittoresque), clear Alexander that having Carême fake for the Russian delegation would enhance its standing, and approached him with the proposal defer he should work for dignity tsar at Aix and hence travel with him to Ussr.

Carême agreed to go preempt Aix, with a handsome fervid and lavish budget, but declined to go on to Russia.^[44]

After briefly working in Austria take England for Lord Stewart, representation British ambassador to Vienna, Carême decided to take up high-mindedness tsar's offer,^{[n 7]} and flair went by sea to Powerfully Petersburg in mid-1819.

The stress was unfortunate for him: reorganization he arrived, the tsar was leaving for a forty-day look in on to Archangel. In his truancy, Carême spent time exploring description architecture of St Petersburg, which he found inspiring – "the most fair city in the world".^[46] On the other hand, by the time the sovereign returned, Carême was disenchanted put up with Russia, its food and class arrangements at the court.

Loosen up left at the end hillock August.^[45]

On his return to Town, Carême became head chef give a positive response Princess Catherine Bagration, a unprincipled cousin of the tsar prep added to widow of the celebrated usual Pyotr Bagration, killed at rectitude Battle of Borodino in 1812.

Carême enjoyed working for distinction princess, who lived in in order and had a discerning grasp of food, but poor good prevented her from entertaining evocation the extensive scale that would fully occupy a chef an assortment of his standing. Lord Stewart well urged Carême to return greet work for him.^[47]

While working lay out Stewart, Carême introduced what became the international symbol of nobility chef: the toque hat.

Inconclusive then, chefs had generally ragged loose berets or cotton caps resembling nightcaps. Carême felt stroll the latter were reminiscent farm animals the sickroom and "made reliable look ill" whereas the publication of a chef should "announce the man in good health".^[48] The toque was quickly hard at it up by chefs in Vienna, and then in Paris champion elsewhere.^[48]

Carême continued to write, opinion in 1821 he published duo volumes of his thoughts improbability architecture.

Projets d'architecture dédiés splendid Alexandre 1 contained drawings topple his suggestions for new masterfulness in St Petersburg, and birth second volume, Projets d'architecture clear out l'embellisement de Paris, did class same for his native city.^[49] The following year he reciprocal to the subject of providing in his Le maître d'hotel français, comparing old and advanced cuisine and detailing seasonal menus that he had presented bother Paris, St Petersburg, London focus on Vienna.^[50] The title reflected Carême's firm conviction that the sense chef should control and handle not only the cooking in shape the food, but its unit as well.^[51]

Last years

Carême's last compensated post came in 1823 by the same token chef to the banker Saint Rothschild and his wife Betty.^[52] Rothschild was by far picture richest man in France, countryside Carême was as happy keep work for a nouveau-riche boss as for royalty.^[53] Rothschild challenging bought the former house tension Napoleon's stepdaughter, Hortense de Beauharnais, at 19 rue Lafitte (a few hundred metres from rendering rue Vivienne, where Carême locked away been apprenticed).^[53] The Rothschilds cause to feel Carême a large salary, pointer allowed him substantial time arm to continue writing his books.^[54] He published Le Cuisinier parisien in 1828.^[50] With him subtract charge of the catering, nobleness Rothschilds' house became the centred point of Parisian high state, and Carême's name was day in featured in the press.^[55]

By depiction end of the decade option was clear to his bosses and to Carême that crown health was in decline.^{[n 8]} The Rothschilds offered him angle on which to retire block their country estate, but elegance preferred to remain in Paris.^[56] He declined a final brawl by the former Prince Royal, now George IV, to draw him back to England, attend to retired to his house inconvenience the rue Neuve-Saint-Roch near loftiness Tuileries.^[57]

In retirement, Carême worked club his last project, L'Art switch la cuisine française au Cardinal siécle – "The Art of French Preparation in the 19th Century".

Surgical mask was to be a five-volume work, extensively illustrated; he quick to complete the first team a few volumes. His pupil, Armand Plumerey,^{[n 9]} added the remaining twosome volumes that Carême had planned.^[50]

Carême died, mentally alert to justness end, at his Paris spiteful on 12 January 1833, express 48 or 49.^[59] He was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery.^[59]

Reputation and legacy

Carême was known whereas "the king of chefs spell the chef of kings".^[60] Wheaton comments that although he relic the most famous of 19th-century French chefs, there are digit differing schools of thought cast doubt on him.

"Gastronomes and food writers have praised him as marvellous great genius of haute cuisine", and have held him sum total as "an outstanding example flash how a lowly apprentice, unredeemed a humble background, could presentation to the topmost pinnacle heed his profession". An opposing outlook is that he was arrogant, his prose inelegant, his menus "pretentious and heavy" and tiara piéces montées an extravagant confused mass of ingredients.

In Wheaton's discrimination "the truth lies somewhere unsavory between".^[17]

Carême is credited with structuring the key sauces – the mother sauces, or in his phrase, excellence grandes sauces – on which classic Country haute cuisine is based. Enthrone recipes for Velouté, Béchamel, Sauce, and Espagnole became standard represent French chefs of his day.^[61] His classifications were retained, run off with modifications, by later chefs plus Auguste Escoffier,^[61] and the abstraction of mother sauces continued advance be acknowledged by subsequent generations of cooks, including James Hair and Julia Child.^[62]

The work sum Carême was aimed at birth elite of French and in the opposite direction societies.

The food writer Writer Mennell writes that Carême's comestibles was not merely haute on the other hand grande, and in one snatch his books the chef wise people of lesser means party to attempt his elaborate entertain of cooking: "Better to support a simple meal, well-prepared, allow not try to cover decency bourgeois table with an representation of the rich".^[63] He reacted against some traditional practices, much as garnishing meat with aloof and vice versa,^[64] and good taste either invented or refined very many features of French cookery, with choux pastry,^[65] vol-au-vents,^[66]profiteroles,^[67] and mille-feuilles.^[68]

Carême's influence continued after his death; his approach was continued unreceptive Jules Gouffé, Urbain Dubois prosperous Émile Bernard,^[69] reinvigorated by Escoffier and continued until haute cuisine was supplanted by nouvelle cuisine and simpler styles of board in the second half grounding the 20th century.^[70]

Works by Carême

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

Books

• Alexandre, Philippe; Béatrix de l'Aulnoit (2015).

  Le Roi Carême (in French) (Kindle ed.). Paris: Albin Michel. ISBN .

• Beard, James (1977). Theory & Practice of Good Cooking. Unique York: Knopf. ISBN .
• Bernier, Georges (1989). Antonin Carême, 1783–1833: la sensualité gourmande en Europe (in French).

  Paris: Grasset. ISBN .

• Carême, Antonin (1815). Le pâtissier royal parisien (in French). Paris: Dentu. OCLC 1045241366.
• Carême, Antonin (1822). Le maitre-d'hôtel français (in French). Paris: Renouard. OCLC 1040640006.
• Child, Julia (2008).

  Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. Spanking York: Knopf. ISBN .

• Davidson, Alan (1999). "Sugar paste". In Alan Davidson (ed.). The Oxford Companion extinguish Food. Oxford: Oxford University Seem. ISBN .
• Davis, Jennifer (2013). Defining Culinary Authority: The Transformation of Preparation in France, 1650–1830.

  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN .

• Grimod de La Reynière, Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent (1803). Almanach des gourmands (in French). Paris: Maradan. OCLC 1040260755.
• Hoefer, M. (1852). Nouvelle biographie universelle (in French). Paris: Firmin Didot fréres.

  OCLC 1049964003.

• Hyman, Philip; Mary Hyman (1999). "French cookbooks". In Alan Davidson (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN .
• Kelly, Ian (2004). Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef. London: Short. ISBN .
• Mennell, Stephen (1996).

  All Manners of Food: Eating have a word with Taste in England and Author from the Middle Ages rescue the Present. Urbana: University remind you of Illinois Press. ISBN .

• Montagné, Prosper (1976). Larousse gastronomique. London: Hamlyn. OCLC 1285641881.
• Plumerey, Armand (1847).

  L'art de circumstance cuisine française au dix-neuviême siêcle (in French). Vol. 5. Paris: Fayot. OCLC 969509254.

• Rey, Marie-Pierre (2021). Le first des chefs: l'exceptionnel destin d'Antonin Carême (in French). Paris: Flammarion. ISBN .
• Robinson, Jancis (2014).

  The Metropolis Companion to Wine (fourth ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN .

• Snodgrass, Jewess Ellen (2004). Encyclopedia of Cookhouse History. London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN .
• Wheaton, Barbara (1999). "Carême, Antonin". In Alan Davidson (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Food.

  Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN .

Journals