Auguste Escoffier

Born 28 October 1846, Georges Auguste Escoffier built his method on Marie-Antoine Carême's haute cuisine, then stripped it down: simpler, cleaner, reproducible. In the 1890s he partnered with hotelier César Ritz, commanding the kitchens at London's Savoy, later the Ritz in Paris and the Carlton — serving the elite while demanding silence, sobriety, and order from his staff. He drew on his own military background to organize cooks into the hierarchical brigade de cuisine, a system that endures. His 1903 Le Guide Culinaire became the reference work, used as both cookbook and textbook across the…