Culinary Masters - Careme

Antonin (Anton) Carême is said to be one of the greatest chefs of all time and probably the first ever 'celebrity chef''

He was born on June 08th, in either 1783 or 1784; just before the French revolution, this shows in his work, as it reflects the freedom of thought and action that flooded France during the years that followed. Carême had the ability to simplify menus and methods, to analyze cooking old and new, and to define every aspect of the art, that is known today as haute cuisine. It was Creme that invented this simplified but refined form of cookery,

Carême’s achievements are even more amazing considering his early childhood and teenage years. Carême was totally self-educated and the son of a hard drinking labourer. At the age of 10 Marie-Antoine (or Antonin as he called himself) was turned out onto the harsh streets of Paris with the apparant words: "Go my child, and fare well in the world. Leave us to languish; poverty and misery are our lot and we will die as we have lived. But for those like you, with quick wits, there are great fortunes to be made". With these words Carême left his family behind.

He was taken in by the owner of a low class restaurant at the Maine gate, where he engaged to serve a six-year apprenticeship. Carême’s abilities were noticed by by one of the greatest pattiseurs of the day; Bailly, because of this Carême began working for him at the age of 17. Carême had nothing but praise for Bailly, who allowed him to study in the Cabinet des Gravures, where he taught himself to draw and read.

In Carêmes time, the pâtissieur was as prestigious as that of the cuisinier himself (head chef). Pastry cooks were responsible for the great decorative centrepieces or 'pièces montées' and the crowning glory of grand dinners. Carême excelled at these flights of fancy. In his first two books, Le Pâtissier Royal and Le Pâtissier Pittoresque, he produces hundred of designs for rustic pavilions, ruins, cascades, temples, forts, windmills and other ornate creations.

Carême insisted that his fine art was confectionary. With such miniature fantasies, their components surrealistically coloured and shaped to look anything but themselves, made a mockery of nature. Nonetheless they appealed to Carêmes patrons.

With his two-year training with Bailly completed, Carême attracted the attention of the most famous statesmen of the time, the Duc de Talleyrand. Talleyrand kept one of the best tables in Paris, for an hour each morning he conferred on the menu of the day. Carême had been engaged as Pâtissier, but was determined to learn from Boucher; Talleyrands chef, the art of the Cuisinier.

It is said that Talleyrand, set Careme a task: to create a whole year's of menu's without repetition of dishes and using only seasonal ingredients. a task the young master succeeded in

After working with Boucher for twelve years, Carême had outclassed his mentor. This was done partly by working on the shadow of many of the top chef’s of the day, as one of the extras called in to help on special occasions.

In the early 1800’s France was gripped in the desperate struggle for the control of Europe. This hit the kitchens hard, where provisions and staff to cook them were greatly reduced. The kitchen staff was forced to economize, this made them use their time and ingredients available, to a higher standard. This ended in the abandonment of the coulis and was in the favour of the Espagnole sauce (resembling the one used today).

By 1815 both haute and bourgeoise cuisine, would have been recognizable to the modern cook, thanks largely to the influence of Carême and his great rival, Beauvilliers. Beauvielles died in 1820, before competition between the two cooks could become bitter.

To better establish himself, Carême left Talleyrand's household on 1815 and crossed the channel to work for the Prince Regent, who later became King George IV. Carême was depressed by the climate and the attitude of his fellow cooks, who resented the attention paid to their foreign Pâtissier.

Two years of England were enough for Carême and in 1818 he returned to Paris. Where even more offers awaited him. Carême joined the staff of Czar Alexander, but Russia proved to be no more to Carêmes taste than England. Carême returned to France and in 1820 went to work for the British ambassador.

Returning to Paris in 1823, Carême started on the last and most important phase of his life. When through his cookbooks he established himself as one of the best of his profession. The first of his many books was Le Maitre d’hôtel Français. In this Carême describes the hundreds of menus, which he created and cooked in the capitals of Europe. Carême was the cold buffets most brilliant exponent.

In another of Carême’s books Le Cuisinier Parisien, published in 1828, he explains the principals for making classic chaudfroids and aspic dishes (Chaudfroids are small pieces of meat, fish, poultry or game, glazed in a brown or white sauce, then glazed with aspic). This is an art, which has not significantly developed since then, but an art that is now fading away. But even the great can make mistakes and it was with aspic the Carême once had a major disaster. The isinglass (a type of gelatin) failed to arrive and, foolishly, Carême tried to mold his charlottes without it; they wobbled so dangerously when turned out that they were unusable. He never forgot the disgrace.

His last book was L’Art de la Cuisine Français au dix-neavième siècle, this was an exhaustive survey of classic French cooking, perfected by Carême and followed with little change until the end of the century. In this book he develops several hundred versions of today’s potages and institutes the custom of garnishing meat with meat and fish with fish. Dispensing with the sweetbreads and cockscombs, which had survived from the fifteenth century. The basic sauces – Espagnole, béchamel and velouté – would be familiar to today’s chefs, as would Carême’s 100 and more variations.

Carême was in poor health while he was writing L’Art de la Cuisine (the first three volumes appeared in 1833, the year of his death, and two volumes were added by his friend and colleague Plumérey). Carême had exhausted himself by his dedication to good food and cooking. He rose before dawn, so he could choose only the freshest fruits and vegetables from the markets. He was on constant duty working until the late hours.

Sometimes Carême would hardly sleep at all, with sauces being started, for an important dinner, at 3 am. Carême also worked in exhausting situations. With a lot of coal and wood burning around them. In this furnace everyone moves with sped; not a sound is heard, only the chef has a right to speak, and at the sound of his voice, everyone obeys. Finally the last straw in the hot kitchen, for about half an hour, all the windows are closed so that the dishes would not cool down, as they are being served.

Carême was extremely proud of his unique art. He was sensitive to decoration and struck on elegance, he always had a sense of prosperity. He wanted to create a school of cookery that would gather the most famous chefs in order to set the standard for beauty in classical and modern cookery, and attest to the distant future that the 19th century, that French chefs were the most famous in the world.

He was also concerned with details of kitchen equipment. He redesigned certain kitchen utensils, designed molds, and changed the shape of saucepans to pour sugar. He was even concerned about the shape of the chef’s hat and the shape of the classic chef's hat or torque is said to have been designed by Carême.

Antonin Carême died at the age of 50. Laurant Tailhade was quoted saying he was ‘ burnt out by the flame of genius, and the charcoal of the roasting spit” but he died once he had realized his dream, ‘to publish a complete book on the state of my profession in out times’. All of Carême’s books invite the reader to the tables of emperors, kings and princes for whom Carême worked. Alexander I, said to Talleyrand ‘What we did not know was that he taught us to eat’.

The best known culinary writings of Careme are:

18** - Le Maitre d’hôtel Français

18** - Le Pâtissier Royal

18** - Le Pâtissier Pittoresque

1828 - Le Cuisinier Parisienne

1833 - L’Art de la Cuisine Français au dix-neavième siècle