Carême: The First Celebrity Chef

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In a cook's tour of Regency-Era Europe, Carême combines recipes fit for royalty with the "magnificent" (Anthony Bourdain) life story of Antonin Carême, the first celebrity chef.

Tracing the fairytale-like rise of Antonin Carême from Parisian orphan to a household name synonymous with culinary luxury, Carême offers a below-stairs perspective on one of the most momentous, and sensuous, periods in European history: First Empire Paris, Georgian England, and the Russia of War and Peace.

Carême's ability to intuit the tastes of European royalty was an unendingly useful and astounding tool: he knew the favorite dishes of King George IV, the Rothschilds, and the Romanovs; he knew Napoleon's fast-food requirements and why Empress Josephine suffered halitosis.

Blending the incredible story of Carême's rise to stardom with the recipes he curated, author Ian Kelly seats us at the dining tables of monarchs and aristocrats and leads us into the sumptuous world of casseroles and kings.