Call Number:

Print Coll. 98

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

.2 linear feet

Language:

French

Preferred Citation:

L'Art culinaire ephemera, 1906-1907, 1912-1916, 1919, Print Coll. 98, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1906-1907, 1912-1916, 1919 (inclusive)

Form:

Serials (publications)

Abstract:

L'Art culinaire was a biweekly culinary magazine for professional chefs founded in Paris in 1882 by Maurice Dancourt under the pseudonym Châtillon-Plessis. This collection is comprised of two full issues of L'Art culinaire in addition to wrapper sheets and some advertising sheets from an additional 14 issues of the publication dating from 1906 to 1919.

L'Art culinaire was a biweekly culinary magazine for professional chefs founded in Paris in 1882 by Maurice Dancourt under the pseudonym Châtillon-Plessis.

The magazine was founded to satisfy one of the three goals of the l'Union Universelle pour le Progrès de l'Art Culinaire (later, la Société des Cuisiniers français pour le Progrès de l'Art Culinaire). The organization's goals were to publish a journal spreading up-to-date culinary ideas and report on the culinary world; establish a professional culinary school; and host and promote culinary competitions.

By 1890, it was the world's leading culinary review, with a 10,000-person readership. During this time, and in the lead up to the First World War, the magazine had renowned chefs as contributors, including Philéas Gilbert and August Escoffier. From 1894 until his departure from the publication, Escoffier contributed recipes and sample menus to each issue.

During World War I, the magazine was published on an "Édition de Guerre" trimesterly basis. L'Art culinaire never regained its popularity after the War and was quickly overshadowed by La Revue culinaire.

L'Art culinaire was discontinued in 1953.

Sources:

Mennell, Stephen. All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present. University of Chicago, 1996, p. 169-177.

This collection is comprised of two full issues of L'Art culinaire in addition to wrapper sheets and some advertising sheets from an additional 14 issues of the publication dating from 1906 to 1919.

The two full issues are from 1914 and include numerous copies each. The page numbers for these issues may appear incomplete, but researchers should note that the magazine's page numbers continue across each numbered issue of the annual edition. After their publication year, during which the issues were sold on a biweekly basis, these numbered issues were sold together in a single annual volume. Each of the annual volumes since the magazine's founding were available for purchase until at least 1919.

The magazine's wrappers include the cover art by "Haume", which remained largely the same since at least 1906; advertisements; and information about subscribing and purchasing the magazine's earlier annual volumes. The magazine's advertisements are mostly for culinary tools and products such as Tichet knives, "L'Expéditive" butter churn, and C.J. Van Houten cocoa powder.