Influence of chefs

	Influence of Chefs on Home Cooking

	The elaborate restaurant cooking of the late 19th century influenced home cooking. For the middle class, home cooking became a complex art demanding considerable skill and, often, cooking classes.


	From its opening in 1831 until its demise in 1923, Delmonico’s was responsible for nearly every innovative change in American dining habits. Alessandro Filippini had been the Delmonico chef in the 1850s. In 1889, he published a cookbook, The Table, with recipes simplified from the actual Delmonico’s preparation. After Filippini left Delmonico’s in 1863, they hired a brilliant chef named Charles Ranhofer.

In 1894, Ranhofer published The Epicurean, a monumental cookbook for professional chefs. It gives us a detailed guide to how food was prepared at Delmonico’s.

The next pages will show you a wonderfully lavish 1894 Thanksgiving Day restaurant menu from the Hotel Vendome in Boston, coordinated with recipes from Filippini's The Table and from Ranhofer's The Epicurean!