Le Grand Cuisinier de toutes cuisines
- Year
- 1540
- Era
- 16th century
- Origin
- France · Europe
- Language
- French
- Category
- French foundational
Le Grand Cuisinier de toutes cuisines, issued in Paris around 1540 under the name of Pierre Pidoulx, ranks among the earliest printed French cookery books. Its recipes extend the manuscript tradition of the Viandier of Taillevent into the age of print, preserving late medieval techniques, sauces thickened with bread, heavy spicing, and elaborate meat and fish cookery for a sixteenth century readership, and bridging medieval and early modern French gastronomy.
Cooking from this book
Brouet de cannelle
Signature dishA cinnamon-scented brouet of poultry simmered in a thickened broth perfumed with warm spices and sharpened with verjuice or wine, this dish stands as an emblem of Pidoulx's compendium. It carries forward the sweet-spiced, almond-bound sauces beloved of the medieval Viandier tradition, showing how early printed French cookery still leaned on the courtly flavours of the late Middle Ages before the lighter palate of the seventeenth century took hold.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
