The chef Prosper Montagné's Larousse gastronomique was first published in France in 1938. Alongside Georges-Auguste Escoffier's Le guide culinaire and Louis Saulnier's Le répertoire de la cuisine, the Larousse gastronomique became one of the key reference works on French national and regional cuisine for the professional chef. The Larousse gastronomique is a reference text that codifies a history of the French culinary arts from the distant past to the present day in encyclopedic form. Entries cover such items as culinary terminology, foods, kitchen equipment, techniques, national cuisines, regional French cuisines, and historically significant chefs and restaurants.
Montagné's work signaled a break with the preceding era of French cookery as exemplified by the architectural creations of Marie Antoine Carême. Montagné emphasized dishes that were simple by Carême's standards, and the shortened menus were delivered in the Russian style service—meals were served in courses on individual plates. This philosophy inspired the name of his culinary encyclopedia. Montagné covered the range from the relatively new haute cuisine to French provincial and home cooking with some attention to classic dishes of other nations.
Three editions of the Larousse gastronomique have been published in English. The first edition, published in 1961, was an Anglo-American venture edited by Charlotte Turgeon and Nina Froud. A fairly direct translation of the Montagné text, this edition included updated food science entries and English and American measurements. One translator is the noted British food writer Patience Gray and it concludes with an additional reading list compiled by Elizabeth David.
Jennifer Harvey Lang edited the English second edition, published in 1988, from the 1984 French edition compiled and directed by Robert J. Courtine. Courtine's introduction describes the first edition as a monumental work, albeit one in need of some refurbishment. These new editions take into account technical innovations, advancements in food science, and a new culture of dining characterized by simpler meals and a dietary palette expanded through travel and global commerce. Yet the core achievements of Montagné, including his recipes and technical advice on classical and regional French dishes, are preserved.
For the third English edition, published in 2001, Jennifer Harvey Lang worked from a new French edition edited by Joël Robuchon, the president of the Gastronomy committee of the Librairie Larousse. This edition claims to have retained the classic dishes and techniques of the original edition with a newfound sensitivity to global influences in technique, presentation, ingredients, and recipes. It is 1,350 pages, over 150 pages longer than the preceding English edition and it includes two hundred new recipes and four hundred new entries.
The Larousse gastronomique no longer sits alone—if it ever did—on the shelves of professional chefs. Although considered a classic reference text on classical French dishes, ingredients, and techniques, the contemporary chef has access to numerous books that cover the same ground. Furthermore, the third edition addresses some elements of a growing interest in fusion cuisine and the cuisines of other nations, but it cannot provide the detail of more specialized cookbooks. Nevertheless, it covers an immense breadth of culinary material, justifying its continued importance.
Bibliography
Montagné, Prosper. Larousse gastronomique: The Encyclopedia of Food, Wine, and Cookery. Edited by Charlotte Turgeon and Nina Froud. New York: Crown, 1961. First English edition.
Montagné, Prosper. Larousse gastronomique: The New American Edition of the World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia. Edited by Jennifer Harvey Lang. New York: Crown, 1988. Second English edition.
Montagné, Prosper. Larousse gastronomique: The World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia. Edited by Jennifer Harvey Lang. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2001. Third English edition.
—Wesley R. Dean
