Catherine de' Medici (13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian noblewoman who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France.
In 1533, at the age of fourteen, Caterina married Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France. Under the gallicised version of her name, Catherine de Médicis, she was Queen consort of France as the wife of King Henry II of France from 1547 to 1559. Throughout his reign, Henry excluded Catherine from participating in state affairs and instead showered favours on his chief mistress, Diane de Poiters, who wielded much influence over him. Henry's death thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail fifteen-year-old King Francis II. When he died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her ten-year-old son King Charles IX and was granted sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henru III. He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life.
Catherine's three sons reigned in an age of almost constant civil and religious war in France. The problems facing the monarchy were complex and daunting. At first, Catherine compromised and made concessions to the rebelling Protestants, or Huguenots, as they became known. She failed, however, to grasp the theological issues that drove their movement. Later, she resorted in frustration and anger to hard-line policies against them. In return, she came to be blamed for the excessive persecutions carried out under her sons' rule, in particular for the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, in which thousands of Huguenots were killed in Paris and throughout France.
Some historians have excused Catherine from blame for the worst decisions of the crown, though evidence for her ruthlessness can be found in her letters. In practice, her authority was always limited by the effects of the civil wars. Her policies, therefore, may be seen as desperate measures to keep the Valios Monarchy on the throne at all costs, and her patronage of the arts as an attempt to glorify a monarchy whose prestige was in steep decline. Without Catherine, it is unlikely that her sons would have remained in power. The years in which they reigned have been called "the age of Catherine de' Medici".
Marie Antoine Carême (8 June 1784–12 January 1833), known as the "King of Chefs, and the Chef of Kings" was an early practitioner and exponent of the elaborate style of cooking known as haute cuisine, the "high art" of French cooking: a grandiose style of cookery favored by both international royalty and by the newly rich of Paris. Carême is often considered as one of the first, internationally renowned Celebrity Chefs.
Georges Auguste Escoffier (28 October 1846, – 12 February 1935) was a French Chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French Cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmands, and was one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French Cuisines. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Antoine Carême, one of the codifiers of French haute cuisine, but Escoffier's achievement was to simplify and modernize Carême's elaborate and ornate style. Referred to by the French press as roi des cuisiniers et cuisinier des rois ("king of chefs and chef of kings" though this had also been previously said of Carême), Escoffier was France's pre-eminent chef in the early part of the 20th century.
Alongside the recipes he recorded and invented, another of Escoffier's contributions to cooking was to elevate it to the status of a respected profession by introducing organized discipline to his kitchens. He organized his kitchens by the birgade de cuisine system, with each section run by a chef de partie.
Escoffier published Le Guide Culinaire, which is still used as a major reference work, both in the form of a cookbook and a textbook on cooking. Escoffier's recipes, techniques and approaches to kitchen management remain highly influential today, and have been adopted by chefs and restaurants not only in France, but also throughout the world.
Auguste Escoffier
Fernand Point (1897 -1955) was a French restaurateur and is considered to be the father of modern French Cuisine.
From his restaurant "La Pyramide" in Vienne, a town half an hour to the south of Lyon, he gained three Michelinstars and trained a generation of French master chefs: Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Louis Outhier, Georges Perrier and Jean and Pierre, the Brothers Troisgros. He had received his training with Foyot in Paris.
The restaurant was founded shortly after World War I. From its kitchen came the modern lightly thickened sauces, baby vegetables and other aspects of nouvelle cuisine. During the regime of Vichy France, Point served refugees fleeing the German invasion. When German officers began patronising his establishment, he stopped serving dinner. When they demanded tables for lunch, he closed his restaurant altogether.
While Fernand worked in the kitchens, his wife welcomed their guests. She continued owning the restaurant after her husband's death. Before his death, Point, trained a generation of chefs who would take his ideas to new heights: Paul Bocuse, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Alain Chapel, Francois Bise, Louis Outhier, and Michel Guérard and Roger Vergé became the pioneers of the expansion of Nouvelle Cuisine into the 1970s.
Fernand Point
