Frontice piece of L
I have just ordered a new “used” book from Alibris:Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef by Ian Kelly, and I cannot wait for it to appear in my mailbox. Antonin Carême was the first celebrity chef to make his mark as a major international figure in cuisine. A man from humble origins, who unfortunately did not live long (he died before reaching the age of 50), he attained the kind of fame reserved for only a select and talented few. Some of his spun sugar concoctions were so strong that court jesters could dance on them. According to Montagne, nothing was more important to this chef than his art – not money, not fame – and thus he set a standard for chefs and the culinary world for generations.
A post in The Old Foodie entitled An Extraordinary Banquet: describes Carême’s amazingly complex, multi-course banquet created for the Prince Regent at Brighton Pavilion in 1817.
Designs by Careme from All Manners of Food
Read more about this extraordinary chef in the following links. There will be more to come after I receive my new book!
- Marie-Antoine (Antonin) Carême: Wikipedia
- Biography of Famous Chefs: Antonin Carême
- The Age of Carême: All Manners of Food, Google Book
Jane Austen's World 
Wow, you lucky girl!
Thank you, Janeen. I have been wanting to order this particular book for some time. So why not treat myself now?
As an amateur cook, I love reading about the lives and cooking of the great chefs of the 19th century–Careme, Soyer, Lewis, Escoffier, Ranhofer…
The food looks incredibly rich and fattening, but to be a 19th century aristocrat for a day!
Someone did a one man show a few years ago in New York based on Ian Kelly’s biography of Careme. He sounds fascinating.
I read this book when it first came out.
I loved it! To date, it is one of my favorite books.
My only hope is that some day someone will make a movie of it.
elyse forte.