Marie-Antoine Carême

Born poor in Paris in 1783 or 1784, Carême worked a cheap restaurant as a child before apprenticing to a top pâtissier. His pièces montées - classical buildings sculpted in sugar - made his name, but he studied architecture obsessively and applied its logic to the kitchen. Working under leading chefs, he mastered every station and rose to cook for Talleyrand, Tsar Alexander I, and Britain's Prince Regent. He codified classical French cooking, demanded the finest ingredients, and wrote lavishly illustrated books to pass the system on. His students - Gouffé, Dubois, Bernard - carried it forward; Escoffier revived it decades later. The approach held until nouvelle cuisine dismantled it in the 1960s. Carême died in January 1833.