Documents for "Food and Cooking: Biographies":

• Apicius, Marcus Gabius 1st cent., Roman gourmet. He squandered most of his large fortune on feasts and then, anticipating a need to economize, committed suicide. The cookbook called Apicius probably dates from a century...

• Appert, Nicolas also known as François Appert , 1750-1841, French originator of a method of canning. In 1795 the French government offered a prize of 12,000 francs for a method of preserving food, especially for use by the army and navy. Appert, already an experienced chef, began to experiment in...

• Armour, Philip Danforth 1832-1901, American meatpacker, b. Stockbridge, N.Y. Armour's Chicago meatpacking plants introduced new principles of large-scale organization, as well as refrigeration, to the industry. He is...

• Beard, James 1903-85, American cooking teacher, b. Portland Oregon. His interest in food was encouraged by his mother, who had been a hotel proprietor. He was a syndicated columnist, a frequent guest on...

• Brillat-Savarin, Anthelme 1755-1826, French lawyer, economist, and gastronomist, famous for his witty treatise on the art of dining, La Physiologie du goût (1825). It has been frequently republished and was translated...

• Carême, Marie Antoine 1784-1833, celebrated French cook and gastronomist. He was chef for Talleyrand, Czar Alexander I, George IV, and Baron Rothschild. His writings on the culinary art include L'Art de la cuisine française...

• Child, Julia 1912-2004, American cooking teacher, author, and television personality, b. Pasadena, Calif. as Julia Carolyn McWilliams. She learned French cooking while her husband was in the diplomatic service...

• David, Elizabeth 1914-92, English food writer, b. Elizabeth Gwynne. Daughter of a wealthy Conservative MP, she cut her culinary eyeteeth in Paris while studying at the Sorbonne, then developed her literary style...

• Escoffier, Georges Auguste 1846-1935, French authority on cooking. Regarded by some as the greatest chef in history, he went to work at the age of 13 in his uncle's kitchen in Nice. Six years later he became chef at the...

• Farmer, Fannie Merritt 1857-1915, American cookbook author and teacher and writer on cookery, b. Boston. A paralytic stroke prevented her from attending college, and she turned to cooking, at home and at the Boston...

• Fisher, M. F. K. (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher), 1908-92, American culinary writer. Raised in California, Fisher lived in France for three years, where she was inspired by Brillat-Savarin 's philosophy of life and translated his The Physiology of Taste (1949). Her writings are more than just recipes; they are culinary essays written in a distinctively graceful literary style that also offer philosophical reflections, reminiscences, and anecdotes...

• Glasse, Hannah fl. 1747, writer of a popular English cookbook, Art of Cookery (1747). She is also credited with writing The Compleat Confectioner and The Servant's Directory, both published in 1770.

• Soyer, Alexis Benoît 1809-58, French chef and writer on gastronomy and dietary reform. After the Revolution of 1830 he went to London and was notable as chef (1837-50) of the Reform Club. In 1847 he was commissioned...

• Vatel, François fl. 17th cent., French chef, famous in the time of Louis XIV. Mme Marie de Sévigné, in her letters, speaks of him as the chef of the prince of Condé and says that on a Friday, when the king was...