Peach Melba was my mother's (b. 1934) absolute favorite dessert. She always said that peaches and raspberries taste so good in combination because they turn perfectly ripe around the same time. And that was her main guide when coming up with her own recipes: foods that are harvested together are best eaten together.
Hey buddy i love your channel!! You do awesome work on all fronts!! I do however have one minor complaint... please stop about ur cats lol..... please! Please! Stop!
Fun fact.. well a fact, here in Denmark peach-melba flavored yoghurt is the most sold flavor, but most people don't know the story behind the name, so it's not uncommon to meet adults that think Melba is some sort of exotic fruit.
@@maple9913 My father told me that when I was a little kid, I got clowned on by all my schoolmates for it. He tried to pull it with my daughter too, I streightened that out in a hurry. :p That said, I'd love to try peach melba flavoured yogurt! Travelling to Denmark is a bit too much trouble tho.
My Grandmother's first husband was a chef (I never met him as they divorced when my Mother was seven yrs. old). He worked for one of the major hotel chains & was responsible for going to a newly acquired hotel & revamping the kitchens/dining room/staff. He taught Grandma how to cook & she in turn taught my Mother & me. One of the first desserts she taught me was Peach Melba. I can still remember how proud I was when she helped me to make & served it at a family dinner. I was seven or eight at the time. Max, thank you for bringing back a memory. Miss you Grandma.
You can tell how seriously Escoffier took his craft by how he lays out his recipes. The guy definitely wasn’t going to let anyone mess up one of his signature dishes.
And thank God for that. MEASUREMENTS! WEIGHTS! VOLUMES! TIMES! TEMPERATURES! Putting actions in the order they should be taken! Not treating recipes like trade secrets, or assuming anyone would know to add something you didn't explicitly mention. What novel concepts!
Yup, we used Le Guide Culinare in culinary school & were expected to duplicate his recipes and , which involved research, etc. Made us think about what we were making, instead of just following a formula.
I received Escoffier's cookbook as a present long, long ago, and so it has been in my collection for years. I've always loved the terseness of the recipes, and the assumption that you know what you're doing. I always joke that each recipe is like, "Parsnips au Gratin - Take parsnips and cook them au gratin."
I'm attending a trade high school and some of the recipes read exactly like this. Had to ask one of my teachers to remind me what muffin method was the other day.
"The sous chef is the most overworked person in the kitchen", YES That made me laugh loud. Sous chefs need to be able to perform any and all tasks in the kitchen, including replacing the executive chef at a moment's notice. They need to prep, cook, organise, lead, talk to suppliers, basically run the entire restaurant. It's the best position to be in before opening your own place.
I think it's the position the head chef bring you in as sort of a student position to train so that he/she could send you off to make your own restaurant/kitchen as a newly minted head chef.
Young Adolf wanted to be an artist. He was sent to his uncle's sauerkraut-themed restaurant in Munich. World War 2 broke out the next week. I'm kidding. I bloody love German food.
A diminutive human is more like a hobbit than a dwarf. Tolkien himself referred to hobbits as a "diminutive branch of the human race". This is within the bounds of the Tolkien's Middle-Earth, which I believe, established the version of dwarves that we are most familiar with.
kind of amazing to think how different the world might be if he was just a bit taller and had become a blacksmith. Just a random genetic fluke caused so much.
His Espagnole is my favorite to work from. My time in culinary school was cut short for reasons, but the mother sauces and all their derivatives stuck with me. As well as my phobia about being a garde-manger ever, ever again.
Every time someone talks about eating Frogs' legs I remember what Kermit said in the first Moppet Movie "All I can see are Millions of Frogs on Tiny Crutches".
Japanese tried to follow the method of serving frog's legs, and when Japan hosts Tokyo Olympic, they were scheduled to serve whale meat secretly to people from the west. See Japan? You've always been this way.
and ironically in this dish precision isn't really important heh. blanched peach halves on top of vanilla ice cream, drizzle raspberry puree on top. just eye ball your preference in flavors. personally i'd drown in it the puree XD
I like how the recipe takes the time to carefully specify how to blanch the peaches, to use a slotted spoon, to put them on a plate, then jumps to "make ice cream" like everyone would know how to do that.
May be at the time ice cream had become so popular but still was such a "once in a while" purchase, that common folk were learning how to do it at home... or perhaps this was a recipe for other cooks to read.
Am I wrong to imagine a more romantic take on this where they were very much in love but her father didn't approve and so he had to win to prove himself to her father? I like that. I'm choosing to believe that.
@@jeremyeineichner7271 that would be both romantic and quite logical to me. Most dads(and moms) take a fair bit of convincing before they will accept their daughter’s choice for a husband, even when they can plainly see that she is madly in love with the guy. It is a holdover from the time when a woman was literally considered the property of a man: her father(if she had him), her brother(if she was orphaned), or her husband. In theory at least, needing the father’s permission to marry his daughter is supposed to be a safeguard against her getting tied to an abusive husband. In practice…. I think we already know how that worked out.
I had a client that always joked that he won his wife in a poker game! In reality, he won a date with her. They already obviously knew each other, and he and her father worked together.
when you were reading off all of the kitchen assignments, i was surprised i actually knew about a lot of it. i kept thinking.... where have i heard this before? and then i remembered. ratatouille sure taught me a lot about fine french cuisine and i didn't even know it.
Oh my goid. I passed the Ho Chi Minh street on a bus so many times (when I was a kid in USSR), never would have guessed that he could outbake my grandma.
"He went from dish washer to president of Vietnam!" Omits the part where he murdered millions and brought a cripplingly repressive regime into power in that country... But, O.K. Marxism is about glossing over ugly facts when it comes to marketing itself to the masses...
Just finished 2 books on the Ritz and the Savoy - lots of dirt on Escoffier & Ritz, so it was great to see the recipe for peach Melba. Tidbit: ripe peaches were hard and expensive to attain in various seasons in the year so Escoffier would hang these and other cherished fruits on gold leafed "trees" and then bring them out to the table with golden scissors so the guests could "harvest them at the table. They were dismissed after D'Oyly Carte found that suddenly his restaurant started to lose money. He did a secret audit and found that Ritz, Escoffier and the manager had not only taken kickbacks - passing on the added expense to the Savoy, but they had absconded with ingredients, rare wines and liquors to the tune of $1.2 million in today's money. This was on top of being paid between the 3 of them and their staff unheard of salaries that amounted to $1.3 million in today's money.
Someone asked Kaiser Wilhellm why he hired a few French cooks ,for the amount of money he could get 2 or 3 times so many German cooks, he said " German cooks stir things together, French chef's cook".
@@OldRhino It's a trait of nationalist that they only seem to notice the shade thrown at their chosen hunk of geopolitical happenstance. I call it 'strength through over-sensitivity'. I am hoping you are able to laugh at this well-meant jab; otherwise, damn son.
Here is by the way what was served on the first diner d'epicure (in French it sounds better): Hors d'oeuvre "Mignon" Small Bearnaise pot Salmon trout with prawns Dodine of duck with Chambertin Fresh noodles with brown butter Lamb from Pauillac à la Bordelaise Fresh peas from Clamart Poularde de France with Orleans jelly Romaine hearts with toffee apples Argenteuil asparagus Divine Sauce Chiffon cream Strawberries Sarah Bernhardt Sweets Oriental Style Coffee The best liqueurs Wines: Chablis Moutoune 1902 Chambertin Clos de Beze 1887 Champagne Veuve Clicquot Dry England 1900
... what IS all that? I searched for dodine and got a pesticide! I searched for dodine of duck and got like five more cooking terms I didn't understand.
@@slwrabbits Cut your duck into six pieces, debone, and put in a marinade of brandy, onions, and whatever you fancy. Leave it there for three hours, then strain and dry, and brown the meat in oil in a heavy saucepan or skillet. Add parsley, thyme, bay leaf, garlic, salt, pepper, and the marinade liquid, and let simmer for 60 minutes.
My favorite story about Nellie Melba is when she was served jelly on a ship that wasn't quite set, and she said, "There are two things I like stiff, and one of them is jelly!" I couldn't agree with her more!
Through Escoffier's work we can see that what we see as French Haute Cuisine is actually quite modern. 150 years, give or take, is not really that long ago, even more so knowing that his work is still used today to teach new cooks.
With few people in the kitchens,a commie can mix 7 or 8 of those roles in one day. That i experienced quite alot, bu i never good at directing the server ballet however.
I always forget this is a cooking channel about half way through the video because your story telling skills are freaking top notch. No matter the subject I'm always entranced by the way you tell it. Thank you.
When I was 16, my first job was in a kitchen. I started in salad and did NOT realize being moved to sauces was a step up... *sigh* . I work in retail now
@@ShellyS2060 When you were 16, had you even heard of "mother sauces"? Though, they're kinda overrated. 3 of the 5 are gravy, one is generic "Italian" tomato sauce. And I think mayo really should round out the group, far more versatile and adaptable compared to hollandaise.
The beginning of the history bit made me laugh, because my son is a tall, brawny young blacksmith and artist. He is also a grillardin, but just at home. But to be honest, I have met plenty of short, powerful blacksmiths, too. Height is not a prerequisite.
Today, not many kids tell their parents "I want to be a Blacksmith" outside of roleplaying games. The relatively few we have today must be treasured no matter how tall they are, but I think it was quite different when there were no cars on the roads. They were like a small ironworks! Plus, modern blacksmiths have several work-arounds to the old grueling processes they had back then. Looking at the picture Max put up of a Blacksmith Shoppe; no more apprentices manning the bellows full-time.
7:59 - Regarding the 5 mother sauces. According to a bunch of research and videos that Alex French Guy Cooking made on youtube, the Hollandaise sauce wasn't one of Escoffier's mother sauces. The lovely task of being an oil/water emulsion bound mother sauce was made up of sauce Mayonnaise. Hollandaise sauce being considered a mother sauce came from a translation error of _Le Guide Culinaire_ by Escoffier into English.
The one who arrives riding a swan is actually Lohengrin, not Elsa. Who might have been Melba's Lohengrin at the time, I wonder? Jan De Reszke? Anyways I guess the whole idea was that the Cavalier du Cygne being presented to her was an ice cream treat rather than a tenor!
Regarding the Ho Chi Minh connection: He was working in a restaurant when he approached the American diplomats during the Versailles Treaty negotiations looking to free Vietnam from French control. Said American diplomats basically ignored him. Let's just say that didn't work out very well for the Americans.
He tried writing to Truman just after the war where he praised America and appealed to all the slogans that America claims to stand for regarding freedom, and again he was ignored. America were abject fools when it came to Vietnam
We didn't want to be there, only our government did to aquire certain resources from the ground in Vietnam. And when they did, we left. Same as Afghanistan. Basically thousands of young men died for old men that didn't care about them. And on both sides.
Five *thousand* recipes? (gasp) The man truly did an outstanding job. I wish more people, today, were as keen as he was on finding ways to improve the lives of those working in restaurants. I'm under the impression those are very tough jobs, according to what I've heard from friends working in the field.
As someone who was head Chef and manager, yeah it's exhausting. I worked three shifts 6 days a week and you get real tired of food after awhile. Low pay and long hours (on your feet to boot) plus customers who get .... let's just say they get weird and call it a day.
@@davidmiller9485 The part that I find more puzzling is the one relative to "difficult customers". Especially when their behavior is disrespectful and arrogant, as if treating the staff in a diminutive way were not only acceptable, but functioned to stress how th staff stands in a sort of "inferior status". I've witnessed a few cases, just as a nearby customer, and my palms itched. I could never handle that, if I were in the staff's shoes.
@@fedra76it It can get trying. I've had to throw customers out because of how they treated my wait staff, so i've seen some real award winners in the "act like an adult" category.
@@davidmiller9485 With all the 'Karens' operating out there, and then the COVID restrictions on top of that, it must be hell for front of house nowadays.
Awesome and eerie timing: I’m a home brewer and currently working on a Peach Melba mead. Peaches, raspberry and vanilla. A great combination. Perhaps I should call it Escoffier’s Tipple. Or Péché Mignon au Cygne: a wordplay in the original name of the dessert. Pêcher is the word for sin and Pêcher can both mean ‘to fish’ or ‘peach tree’ in French. Both are pronounced exactly the same. A ‘péché mignon’ literally translates to ‘cute sin’ and the closest English translation I can think of is an indulgence. That delicious thing you know isn’t exactly good for you but that you can’t resist…
When you were speaking about Richard D'Oyly Carte. I remembered a saying my high school drama teacher used to say "One can preform Shakespeare one survives Gillbert and Sullivan.".
Gilbert and Sullivan are quite witty all on their own. The Pirates of Penzance was my first favorite Opera (within the genre as a whole) and it just keeps getting funnier as the years go by. And the singing chops you need to pull it off are fantastic!
Personally I survive Shakespeare and love G&S. My daughter sang in the Mikado, the male romantic lead. And I helped costume the pirates of penzance, 16 identical night gowns for 16 lovely daughters....
@@lenabreijer1311 Oh, that brings back such memories - I worked on the costume crew my first year in college, and loved it. We were known for our children's theater repertoire (Christmas Carol, Tom Sawyer, Rumpelstiltskin), but as I remember we also did Antigone and The Little Foxes. It's a wonder I did any school work, but amazingly, I managed it all, and changed my major from English to Art.
the spirit of escoffier is still present in the way of working, in restaurants in France in 2022. Even the large dishes, in metal (or silver), which are used for service, bear his name. Escoffiers.
I feel almost attacked by the chance that the book I grew up with, Fannie Farmer, being the next book to be shown on a historical based channel. My mothers mother was the only one in my family who knew how to cook, and that gold covered cook book was treated like a family bible. It has 4 generations of use now, and I default to it before I check anything else out of learned habit.
I also learned to cook from my mother and grandmother, who learned from Fanny Farmer. I have a copy of an early edition of the book, now held together with cellophane tape, which was my grandmothers, and had been handed to my mother and then to me. It's what I go to when I need to know how to cook a duck (my mother-in-law showed up on my doorstep one day, after having carried a half-cooked duck on the bus from her apartment on the other side of the Bronx, and told me to "cook it" for her. It all got eaten (not by me, I don't like duck), so I must have gotten it right.
It helps to more easily peal the poached peaches if one cuts a small cross (the width of a small paring knife) on the bottom of the peach before blanching.
What a coincidence that you uploaded this yesterday, because I've just finished reading a book about Dora Lee, one of the few women to train under Escoffier! She made her way up the servant hierarchy from being a scullery maid to the head chef for the Canadian Governor-General and his family. There was lots in the book too about Escoffier and how he revolutionized so many aspects of cuisine. Anyway, the peach Melba looks delicious! Always love your videos!
I don't know if anybody has already done this, but I did the conversions. In the 1890s in England, £3,400 would convert to $383,205.27 in today's (well, 2017) US dollars. "The staff" drank almost $64,000 in alcohol each month.
The Old Farmer's Almanac calendar entry for August 17 of this year: "Cat Nights begin." They attribute this traditional almanac entry to some Irish thing about witches and cats. All I know is, somewhere around this time of year it starts getting cool enough at night that when your cat curls up next to you at 3 am, you don't kick her off the bed.
Peach Melba! This dish was mentioned in an episode of “Supersizers Go”, that show is so much fun :D So happy to see something familiar, and from one of my favorite periods in history, too.
Peach Melba got me thinking of the show "The Expanse" and the Ho Chi Min tidbit got me thinking of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in the Treaty of Versailles episode... Looks like a tasty refreshing desert.
Reading Escoffier's original recipe made me think that you should do more recipes out of older French cookbooks. Especially some of the infamous ones that just kind of... expect you to know how to already cook the recipes without providing the weights, measurements, cook times, or methods.
So true. I received, as 1965 wedding gifts, The Joy of Cooking, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Escoffier. Once I had the basic methods down pat, I was able to use Escoffier with more confidence, since a lot of it assumes knowledge of technique and acts as an 'aide-memoire' for the more experienced cook.
Peach Melba, also known for being the dish that was Mary Mallon's specialty as a cook! Mallon was later known by the name "Typhoid Mary" and one of the ways she ended up spreading typhoid to people was via cooking.
Exactly! I was sort of expecting this to be her recipe and the history piece to be about her and Typhoid. Maybe Max will talk about it in a Drinking History episode!
I recreated Escoffiers recipe today and it was delicious. In fact the best ice cream dessert, I ever had. The fresh peaches are really outstanding in taste and texture. So glad I found this channel.
Actually, the peaches from Montreuil were reknown through Europe. They are even mentioned in a Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. The peach trees used to grow in the city near walls oriented south, creating a micro climate. Today these walls are gone, destroyed by two world wars, and urbanism. Thank you mom(1929-2016) & grandma (1891-1988) for the memories of a time I didn't experienced.
A little fun story from my family. My mother's aunt sent her some family keepsakes when she downsized to her apartment. One was a large chest with a cedar lining. When I saw it I said "oh a hope chest." My mom responded "no, it's a Melba chest." When my great-great-great-grandparents were doing the transatlantic crossing to America they filled the chest with non-perishable food stuff, mainly Melba toast.
I learned to cook from the Fanny Farmer Boston Cooking School cookbook and my southern mother and grandmother. They kept me from a lot of the “jello” culture cooking in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Techniques were important, then you can apply them to lots of different foods.
I've never used Fanny Farmer; I'll have to find a virtual copy. I grew up with The American Woman's Cook Book, which had a lot of suggestions for wartime substitutions.
Nellie Melba came from the state of Victoria, Australia, where her memory is respected. Everyone knew that Peach Melba and Melba Toast bears her name but, after years living in Melbourne/Victoria ('77-'84) I can't remember seeing Peach Melba on any local menu although Australian orchards produce superior fruit. Do more Aussie chefs champion this dessert today?
Peach Melba is still not an uncommon menu item in Paris (unsurprisingly, I suppose). I've always considered it my favorite dessert as it combines my two favorite fruits and they meld in such a delicious fashion. One of the times I had it in Paris, they used banana-walnut ice cream instead of vanilla and you'd think that would be horrible but it was amazing! Loved it. Leave it to the French. Another great video, Max! Thanks!
I absolutely love it!!!! Thank you, I also love Escoffier's rule: if it's not meant to be eaten, it doesn't belong on the plate!!! Hate those people that fill up the plate with decoration that tastes awful with the excuse of "it looks pretty", I mean, so do bitter almonds but they kill people, you know?
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 Yeah, I love the taste of most flowers used in cooking (especially violets), but most people actually don't. And when you're a housewife, lol, you don't really have the luxury of cooking just for yourself and your own tastes. So I skip the flowers. The only exception I make is for thyme flowers. If I'm cooking with thyme, it goes well the flavor, plus they're so tiny and pretty. I'll put a couple on top.
@@Revelwoodie Yes, thyme flowers ARE good for those reasons. And I've always loved violet pastilles. We used to go to a café, though, where they would sprigs of carnation, baby's breath, and some kind of backing leaf on the plate. Sort of like a boutonniere? They didn't tell you not to eat it. It was...weird. And kinda twee :-D
My favorite dessert! My dad was working on a joint US/UK Navy project when I was in my teens, and we spent a summer living in southern England; I had never had Peach Melba before then-- but man, I fell in love with it. So good! The only difference between what they served and this was that the old hotel we lived at made these very light, crisp little cakes that they'd include beneath everything; they weren't anything like the sickly-sweet horrors that are sold in the US for Strawberry Shortcake but were instead more like very light and fluffy pound cake with a crisp crust. Delicious!
I'm just starting the video and I noticed the Pokemon in the background and I'm already going "ohhhhh boy, does that mean eating frogs is gonna be brought up?" Time to watch more and find out
That painting at 4:25 is 100% the origin of the "My girlfriend saw you from across the bar and we really dig your vibe" meme, you can't convince me otherwise
I can imagine that it tastes divine. My brain is telling me "if you had home-made icecream, home-grown peaches, and home-picked raspberries, this is a dessert for heavenly food-gasms"!
Or Peaches selected for the Ritz , Raspberries selected for the Ritz, ice cream made by the Ritz cold desert chef , yes it would be heaven. This is a recipe that is totally dependent on its its ingredients.
Just go to the store buy your ice cream, a can of peach halves, raspberry syrup and shipped cream in a can. You don’t have to be fancy, just get it done.
His recycling of his dishes for multiple celebs kinda reminds me of "Candle In The Wind' with Elton John recycling his Marilyn Monroe song into a Princess Diana song.
Ice cream and peaches are a perfect combination. My favorite that I've made was grilled peaches, vanilla ice cream, and a caramel sauce. I blanched, peel, and halved the peaches, brushed them with just a little bit of sherry, and put them on the well-oiled top rack of the grill juuuust until they had some light grill marks. Set those on top of some ice cream, and then pour a generous amount of caramel sauce (which I made earlier on the side burner of the grill, also with a little of the sherry in it) and it was just so good and perfect for a late summer evening.
Montreuil Peach ! Montreuil is my hometown, and it make me smile every time I read/heard of Montreuil peach. We don't have peach tree anymore (well maybe 2 of them are still alive in Montreuil) but it funny to heard about my town :D.
I went a little crazy one day and made what I called a Peach Melba Preserve. I started out making a peach jam, and just at the end before jarring, I added whole raspberries and almonds. I let that heat back up and then jarred it. God that eas so good on scones.
Thrilled to see that you've made a video on Escoffier! I hope to attend the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in the near future so I've been reading up on him quite a bit lately. There is no denying his influence on culinary history!
@@Snowstorm9lives How was it? I am a bit ashamed to say that until a few years ago I had not heard of it, and the main culinary programs were seemingly the CIA and Le Cordon Bleu. Is the job market friendly to graduates (if you don't mind me asking, of course)? My local community college offers a decent culinary program but I became enamored with Escoffier immediately upon discovering it. Does the family have pretty close ties with the school?
🤣 “Cat days” The recipe is really simple. I would like to someday make this with grill or bake the peach to caramelise the sugar mmm😋 You mean fur net 🐱
Absolutely love your videos. Great voice and since of humor. You have combined three of my favorite things cooking, food and learning. So entertaining.
Another Escoffier anecdote: When he was asked what he wanted to receive in return for becoming the chef to the German Kaiser, his answer was "Alsace-Lorraine". (Alsace-Lorraine is the border region that Germany took from France after the German victory in the war of 1870.)
The Rhine region is the best as far as food goes! The only difference in the cuisine between them it that where Lorraine uses butter, Alsace uses duck fat.
@@adedow1333 No, i live in the Rhine region. Our cuisine couldn't hold its own against foreign cuisine, as i myself think it's kinda bland. Would go to southern or western France and Southern and Eastern Germany for food.
Omg. I am actually making his Brown Stock or Estouffade right now. It’s simmering. Involved a skill saw, hammer, and a couple thumb injuries. Now just 14 hours and it should be ready. 🤣
It turned out great. I thought it was horrid and bland when tasting it, but I did as he said and didn’t add salt until I was using it in a dish and seasoned accordingly. Oh god. Just a pinch of salt unlocks all that amazingness.
Peach and raspberries are my favorite temperate fruits so I absolutely looooooove peach melba! My peach tree is almost ripe and I can’t wait to gorge myself on fresh off the tree fruit and make oodles of jam and pie filling.
I've read a replica edition of the Fannie Farmer cookbook, and I remember that in the back there were ads for her cooking school's classes, including one course directed specifically at household kitchen staff. The book in general was pretty interesting, and I'll be looking forward to next Tuesday's episode where you'll be cooking from it.
One of the first cookbooks I owned! The joy of cooking and Fannie Farmer are the kind of cookbooks you give to your kids when they’re starting their own household.
This particular era of cooking history is so interesting to me, you get to really see the tail end of where fine dining and particularly good food went from being something non-specific and largely relegated to royalty turn into a real artform in the rough. To someone pioneering a concept, of creating delicious food for the purpose of sharing the experience with many people rather than something made for a king.
HAHA Escoffier, good cook, actually like his method of making hollandaise. Oddly Ive this week been exploring Icelandic foods and looking up how to preserve meat in lactic acid. That desert looks SO far removed from lambs tongue in whey.
I think most of the Icelandic foods preserved in whey are quite good. I like the liver sausage and blood pudding preserved in whey. Some of us in Iceland also drink the whey. It is refreshing on a warm day and tastes like white wine.
Thanks for this comment stream ... I know it's "Escoffier" and Ice cream an' all but this sounds like a worthy bit of research. And tasty as ... Why are you researching? Are you making cheese and have left over whey?
@@deirdregibbons5609 Interesting ... I sometimes make fresh cheese for quick pie or spinach and cheese side dishes. Whey makes good scones; but there's always too much of it. And if I'm not making scones or bread, sadly I have to throw it out. I never thought of it as a drink. Thanks
@@ValeriePallaoro welcome. The simple answer is that I like food and food history and like to 'travel' the world through food. A few years back my daughter for a short time was of the mindset to move to Iceland, and at that time on youtube was one of the funniest and to this day best videos for new comers to Iceland (now removed). The mantra at the dinner table was "preserved in lactic acid". So when I was watching Hrafna eat her traditional foods with her father (and near dying while trying) her father explained one of the meats as having marinated in whey for 5 months. At my local shop a few blocks up the road they do sell lambs tongues, heads and rams testicles. So, this week Ive been looking at what it would take to give this a go. I have made cheese as well (made, I don't make it regularly), and yes uses for whey is always a worthy pursuit.
I went to Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, CO and met Michel Escoffier, the great grandson of Chef Auguste Escoffier. He is the president of the Escoffier Museum and Foundation in Villanueve - Loubet, France which is affiliated with the school in Boulder and the one in Texas. Just inherited all of his great grand daddy’s work lol. He’s a neat guy
His first name, surely. But he looks like Paul Bocuse and Bernard Loiseau, two great chefs of the 20th century. His story is closer to Loiseau. In the movie, Gusteau disappears and the rumour is that he committed suicide after losing a star. Loiseau indeed commited suicide in 2003 after being rated 17/20 by restaurant guide "Gault et Millau," 2 points down from 19/20, and because critiques wrote that he was not as creative as he was.
Scoff comes from scaff, as does scarf. They're all dialect versions of the same Anglo-Saxon verb. There's a Dutch equivalent (which I can't quite remember, and probably couldn't spell anyway) that will have reached modern Dutch from Frisian, which was very closely related to the languages of the Angles and the Saxons. I had to look up Escoffier to see if there was a known root for that surname, and while it too turns out to be Germanic it is however related to the word for cap or helmet.
When I went to culinary school (big mistake for future me), Escoffier was practically law in terms of food preparation. There is a reason why he was considered the Godfather of Culinary Arts by most/all chefs I know.
@@Revelwoodie the degree didn't end up mattering after my culinary school shut down due to many class-action lawsuits, the market is saturated with culinary arts degrees. You really only have a chance of making it in a dog-eat-dog world if you lived more in the cities, which I do not. I used to love cooking, but then I got in the real world. It's a grim thankless industry.
Like others I'm also looking forward to learning more about Fannie Farmer. When my family goes Christmas cookie crazy one recipe that has been with us for decades (in addition my German great grandmother's butter cookies) is Fannie Farmer's double chocolate chip cookies. You use some instant coffee in the dough as well as melted unsweetened chocolate. I have a very early childhood memory of the shock in discovering that you should not lick unsweetened melted chocolate from the bowl or plate. Childhood milestones aside, the recipe makes a great cookie.
A huge thank you to all of my Patrons for their continued support. Looking forward to the next Patreon Happy Hour!
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Thanks for taking my suggestion about peach Melba! I'm so excited to watch!!! You're fantastic, Max!
Peach Melba was my mother's (b. 1934) absolute favorite dessert. She always said that peaches and raspberries taste so good in combination because they turn perfectly ripe around the same time. And that was her main guide when coming up with her own recipes: foods that are harvested together are best eaten together.
Hey buddy i love your channel!! You do awesome work on all fronts!! I do however have one minor complaint... please stop about ur cats lol..... please! Please! Stop!
@@jeremylevel2524 nevaaaar
I'd say Escoffier realized his dream of becoming an artist through cooking.
Well said!
I was thinking the same!
Absolutely 🙂
Certainly better than another failed European would-be artist.
@@DIEGhostfish *oh we don't talk about him*
;-)
"Don't worry, I make them wear hair nets." Now I can't stop imagining the cats wearing full body hair nets 😾
Right?! I found that way too funny.
I can't stop imagining their reaction to that
@@tutes0133 "Hiss hiss scratchy scratch." Most likely.
My brain just started racing with ideas for illustrations for a... T-shirt...? Maybe...?
Mesh bodysuit.
Fun fact.. well a fact, here in Denmark peach-melba flavored yoghurt is the most sold flavor, but most people don't know the story behind the name, so it's not uncommon to meet adults that think Melba is some sort of exotic fruit.
This fact is very definitely fun.
That’s in the same vein as people thinking chocolate milk comes from brown cows
@@maple9913 My father told me that when I was a little kid, I got clowned on by all my schoolmates for it. He tried to pull it with my daughter too, I streightened that out in a hurry. :p That said, I'd love to try peach melba flavoured yogurt! Travelling to Denmark is a bit too much trouble tho.
For some reason melba is a synonym for candy in finland. Also a quite juicy apple species.
My Aunt Melba was an exotic fruit. Yet, in the most delightful way.
My Grandmother's first husband was a chef (I never met him as they divorced when my Mother was seven yrs. old). He worked for one of the major hotel chains & was responsible for going to a newly acquired hotel & revamping the kitchens/dining room/staff. He taught Grandma how to cook & she in turn taught my Mother & me. One of the first desserts she taught me was Peach Melba. I can still remember how proud I was when she helped me to make & served it at a family dinner. I was seven or eight at the time. Max, thank you for bringing back a memory. Miss you Grandma.
What a sweet memory.
That is so sweet and heartwarming, it made me tear up ❤️
So your grandfather?🤔
@@ciara7172 They never said the grandparents were married when their mother was born. So, maybe, maybe not.
You can tell how seriously Escoffier took his craft by how he lays out his recipes. The guy definitely wasn’t going to let anyone mess up one of his signature dishes.
He escoffed at the idea of letting others mess up his work.
And thank God for that. MEASUREMENTS! WEIGHTS! VOLUMES! TIMES! TEMPERATURES! Putting actions in the order they should be taken! Not treating recipes like trade secrets, or assuming anyone would know to add something you didn't explicitly mention. What novel concepts!
@@darklordofsword It's really weird what we take for common sense now wasn't considered that back then.
Yup, we used Le Guide Culinare in culinary school & were expected to duplicate his recipes and , which involved research, etc. Made us think about what we were making, instead of just following a formula.
It was required reading at Le Cordon Bleu when I attended
I received Escoffier's cookbook as a present long, long ago, and so it has been in my collection for years. I've always loved the terseness of the recipes, and the assumption that you know what you're doing. I always joke that each recipe is like, "Parsnips au Gratin - Take parsnips and cook them au gratin."
That's just very funny ... thanks
Ha! That was my reaction upon receiving it, too. As I commented above, Rombauer and Child gave me the base I needed to understand it.
"step one: make the entire dish using the ingredients. No I will not share what ingredients."
well, it is an "aide memoire", that is a memory-aid for someone experienced and not a detailed guide for the novice
I'm attending a trade high school and some of the recipes read exactly like this. Had to ask one of my teachers to remind me what muffin method was the other day.
As a peach melba myself, I appreciate this.
/r/beetlejuicing
@@MrBenjigee Hey, new to me but I really am a bowl of vanilla ice cream with peaches and raspberry sauce. I happen to be allergic to almonds however.
@@peachmelba1000 Maybe you can use some other nut, like the nutted pea, neither a nut or a pea.
"The sous chef is the most overworked person in the kitchen", YES
That made me laugh loud. Sous chefs need to be able to perform any and all tasks in the kitchen, including replacing the executive chef at a moment's notice. They need to prep, cook, organise, lead, talk to suppliers, basically run the entire restaurant. It's the best position to be in before opening your own place.
I think it's the position the head chef bring you in as sort of a student position to train so that he/she could send you off to make your own restaurant/kitchen as a newly minted head chef.
“And George wanted to be an artist…”
“…he was sent to his uncle’s restaurant at Nice.”
Crisis point averted!
Finally, the Sacred Timeline is preserved. That Escoffier variant has been arrested by the TVA.
Young Adolf wanted to be an artist. He was sent to his uncle's sauerkraut-themed restaurant in Munich. World War 2 broke out the next week.
I'm kidding. I bloody love German food.
"Due to his size he wasn't gonna be much of a blacksmith" Tell that to Tolkien.
Hell, tell it to the dwarves who forged Mjolnir.
HA!!!
@@albertnedelman6648 Yeah. But he is not a dwarf, just a human.
Dwarves are short, but they're also wide as hell and quite muscular. You'll never see a scrawny Dwarf in Middle Earth.
A diminutive human is more like a hobbit than a dwarf. Tolkien himself referred to hobbits as a "diminutive branch of the human race". This is within the bounds of the Tolkien's Middle-Earth, which I believe, established the version of dwarves that we are most familiar with.
We learned about this guy in culinary school, his influence is still felt throughout every restaurant in the world
Yes, he was required reading at Le Cordon Bleu, still have the book!
I did my first research paper on Escoffier in culinary school.
same here mane lmfao
all the culinary schools still teach him
kind of amazing to think how different the world might be if he was just a bit taller and had become a blacksmith. Just a random genetic fluke caused so much.
His Espagnole is my favorite to work from. My time in culinary school was cut short for reasons, but the mother sauces and all their derivatives stuck with me. As well as my phobia about being a garde-manger ever, ever again.
Every time someone talks about eating Frogs' legs I remember what Kermit said in the first Moppet Movie "All I can see are Millions of Frogs on Tiny Crutches".
Oh, buddy...if only.
Japanese tried to follow the method of serving frog's legs, and when Japan hosts Tokyo Olympic, they were scheduled to serve whale meat secretly to people from the west.
See Japan? You've always been this way.
Same!😂
i bet max was thrilled to finally have a recipe that was INCREDIBLY precise about what is needed
🤣🤣🤣
and ironically in this dish precision isn't really important heh. blanched peach halves on top of vanilla ice cream, drizzle raspberry puree on top. just eye ball your preference in flavors. personally i'd drown in it the puree XD
I like how the recipe takes the time to carefully specify how to blanch the peaches, to use a slotted spoon, to put them on a plate, then jumps to "make ice cream" like everyone would know how to do that.
May be at the time ice cream had become so popular but still was such a "once in a while" purchase, that common folk were learning how to do it at home... or perhaps this was a recipe for other cooks to read.
Delphine: “Hey, Dad! How’d it go at the billiards hall? I hope you didn’t loose too much.”
Mr. Daffis: “...”
🤣
Am I wrong to imagine a more romantic take on this where they were very much in love but her father didn't approve and so he had to win to prove himself to her father? I like that. I'm choosing to believe that.
@@jeremyeineichner7271 same!
@@jeremyeineichner7271 that would be both romantic and quite logical to me. Most dads(and moms) take a fair bit of convincing before they will accept their daughter’s choice for a husband, even when they can plainly see that she is madly in love with the guy. It is a holdover from the time when a woman was literally considered the property of a man: her father(if she had him), her brother(if she was orphaned), or her husband. In theory at least, needing the father’s permission to marry his daughter is supposed to be a safeguard against her getting tied to an abusive husband. In practice…. I think we already know how that worked out.
I had a client that always joked that he won his wife in a poker game! In reality, he won a date with her. They already obviously knew each other, and he and her father worked together.
when you were reading off all of the kitchen assignments, i was surprised i actually knew about a lot of it. i kept thinking.... where have i heard this before? and then i remembered. ratatouille sure taught me a lot about fine french cuisine and i didn't even know it.
Well Georges Auguste Eschoffer was the inspiration behind Auguste Gusteau
I know! :-D
One of the best food movies!
He probably recommended the metal bowl to cool in the freezer to keep the ice cream from melting.
Yup, I wonder what temp he intended the sauce to be at?
Oh my goid. I passed the Ho Chi Minh street on a bus so many times (when I was a kid in USSR), never would have guessed that he could outbake my grandma.
As someone who has had dishwashing jobs, the jump from dishwasher to communist guerrilla is easier than one might think.
Same, and every other dishwasher I've met
Or drug lord.
"He went from dish washer to president of Vietnam!" Omits the part where he murdered millions and brought a cripplingly repressive regime into power in that country... But, O.K. Marxism is about glossing over ugly facts when it comes to marketing itself to the masses...
He was Legitimately elected. We just......mmmm...Disagreed with the people of Vietnam's choice because we found it......inconvenient to world affairs.
@@direbearcoat7551 You're thinking Pol Pot in Cambodia.
Just finished 2 books on the Ritz and the Savoy - lots of dirt on Escoffier & Ritz, so it was great to see the recipe for peach Melba. Tidbit: ripe peaches were hard and expensive to attain in various seasons in the year so Escoffier would hang these and other cherished fruits on gold leafed "trees" and then bring them out to the table with golden scissors so the guests could "harvest them at the table.
They were dismissed after D'Oyly Carte found that suddenly his restaurant started to lose money. He did a secret audit and found that Ritz, Escoffier and the manager had not only taken kickbacks - passing on the added expense to the Savoy, but they had absconded with ingredients, rare wines and liquors to the tune of $1.2 million in today's money. This was on top of being paid between the 3 of them and their staff unheard of salaries that amounted to $1.3 million in today's money.
Epic shenanigans.
“This was before WWI so the compliment held some weight.” I’m always surprised when Max drops shade, but it’s always really good.
Yes, I've noticed that he is very anti-German, but that's not surprising, seeing that he is an American.
@@OldRhino Anti-German? Are you serious?
Someone asked Kaiser Wilhellm why he hired a few French cooks ,for the amount of money he could get 2 or 3 times so many German cooks, he said " German cooks stir things together, French chef's cook".
@@OldRhino It's a trait of nationalist that they only seem to notice the shade thrown at their chosen hunk of geopolitical happenstance.
I call it 'strength through over-sensitivity'.
I am hoping you are able to laugh at this well-meant jab; otherwise, damn son.
@@OldRhino German humour, eh?
Here is by the way what was served on the first diner d'epicure (in French it sounds better):
Hors d'oeuvre "Mignon"
Small Bearnaise pot
Salmon trout with prawns
Dodine of duck with Chambertin
Fresh noodles with brown butter
Lamb from Pauillac à la Bordelaise
Fresh peas from Clamart
Poularde de France with Orleans jelly
Romaine hearts with toffee apples
Argenteuil asparagus
Divine Sauce
Chiffon cream
Strawberries Sarah Bernhardt
Sweets
Oriental Style Coffee
The best liqueurs
Wines: Chablis Moutoune 1902
Chambertin Clos de Beze 1887
Champagne Veuve Clicquot
Dry England 1900
🤤
... what IS all that? I searched for dodine and got a pesticide! I searched for dodine of duck and got like five more cooking terms I didn't understand.
@@slwrabbits Cut your duck into six pieces, debone, and put in a marinade of brandy, onions, and whatever you fancy. Leave it there for three hours, then strain and dry, and brown the meat in oil in a heavy saucepan or skillet. Add parsley, thyme, bay leaf, garlic, salt, pepper, and the marinade liquid, and let simmer for 60 minutes.
Appreciate the shout out to all the overworked sou chefs. You are a legend
Serious. Head chef is the office where you mostly look over the sou's work and make recipes with your name on it.
This TH-cam channel is one of the best things to come out of the pandemic.
My favorite story about Nellie Melba is when she was served jelly on a ship that wasn't quite set, and she said, "There are two things I like stiff, and one of them is jelly!" I couldn't agree with her more!
A stiff drink!
@@upload1188 hah XD
The other is egg whites while making meringues, right? 🤭😂
Maybe an upper lip? She _was_ British, wasn’t she?
@@TheRealNormanBates Australian
max laughing at himself saying "crunch the nuts" is so golden
Through Escoffier's work we can see that what we see as French Haute Cuisine is actually quite modern. 150 years, give or take, is not really that long ago, even more so knowing that his work is still used today to teach new cooks.
Right??? Grill cook, cold cook, prep cook, head cook, dessert cook, dishwasher.....hardly a modern restaurant around doesn't use a similar formula.
With few people in the kitchens,a commie can mix 7 or 8 of those roles in one day. That i experienced quite alot, bu i never good at directing the server ballet however.
@@MrPh30 For that you need Louis de Funès...
there was a bit of cooking before that with historic chefs like Taillevent in the 14 century or Vatel in the 17th and so much more.
@@cgourin But at that time Florence set the trends.
I always forget this is a cooking channel about half way through the video because your story telling skills are freaking top notch. No matter the subject I'm always entranced by the way you tell it. Thank you.
That peach melba you’re eating is not from 1903. It looks fresh like you just made it. I’m onto you Max Miller. 😁
Called out 🤣
Steve1989MREInfo is who you need to be watching if you want to see somebody eat 118 year old food.
@@foxyfoxington2651 Let's put this out on a tray. NICE!
@@foxyfoxington2651 Here's dessert! Nice and fresh, only forty years old:
th-cam.com/video/_H93UG4KoEo/w-d-xo.html
Surprised it hasn't melted since then.
Thank you very much, Max. Now I've got that Prince song stuck in my brain: "Ra-a-aspberry puré-e..."
She poured some raaaaspberry purée
On that peach in the silver timbrel
As someone who is a qualified chef, i remember my teacher saying every time we make a sauce, cut a veggie, serve food we represent a bit of escoffier
When I was 16, my first job was in a kitchen. I started in salad and did NOT realize being moved to sauces was a step up... *sigh* . I work in retail now
@@ShellyS2060 When you were 16, had you even heard of "mother sauces"?
Though, they're kinda overrated. 3 of the 5 are gravy, one is generic "Italian" tomato sauce. And I think mayo really should round out the group, far more versatile and adaptable compared to hollandaise.
@@butsukete1806 Not really interchangeable, since one is hot and the other is cold. And mayo is the mother of most cold sauces.
The beginning of the history bit made me laugh, because my son is a tall, brawny young blacksmith and artist. He is also a grillardin, but just at home.
But to be honest, I have met plenty of short, powerful blacksmiths, too. Height is not a prerequisite.
Today, not many kids tell their parents "I want to be a Blacksmith" outside of roleplaying games. The relatively few we have today must be treasured no matter how tall they are, but I think it was quite different when there were no cars on the roads. They were like a small ironworks! Plus, modern blacksmiths have several work-arounds to the old grueling processes they had back then. Looking at the picture Max put up of a Blacksmith Shoppe; no more apprentices manning the bellows full-time.
@@Sarafimm2 True: but I have sometimes worked the bellows for him. I have taken classes from him myself.
It probably mattered more in1903
7:59 - Regarding the 5 mother sauces. According to a bunch of research and videos that Alex French Guy Cooking made on youtube, the Hollandaise sauce wasn't one of Escoffier's mother sauces. The lovely task of being an oil/water emulsion bound mother sauce was made up of sauce Mayonnaise.
Hollandaise sauce being considered a mother sauce came from a translation error of _Le Guide Culinaire_ by Escoffier into English.
I often wear Alex's Mother Sauces tee-shirt with Hollandaise crossed out.
Scrolled way too far to find this comment
Came down here looking for this lmao
One of my favorite parts of the Escoffier book is the instructions for fire management, it really makes you appreciate modern stovetops and ovens
"Pêche au cygne" is also a pun, because it can mean "swan fishing". Anyway, amazing episode as usual, keep up the good work !
Love from france
The one who arrives riding a swan is actually Lohengrin, not Elsa. Who might have been Melba's Lohengrin at the time, I wonder? Jan De Reszke? Anyways I guess the whole idea was that the Cavalier du Cygne being presented to her was an ice cream treat rather than a tenor!
Can't it also mean "sinning with a swan"? Asking for a friend...
@@Baccatube79 Is your friend called "Leda" by any chance?
@@LauraTenora They may or may not have used that name in one of their many lives...
@@Baccatube79 No, that would be "pêcher avec un cygne".
Regarding the Ho Chi Minh connection: He was working in a restaurant when he approached the American diplomats during the Versailles Treaty negotiations looking to free Vietnam from French control. Said American diplomats basically ignored him. Let's just say that didn't work out very well for the Americans.
He tried writing to Truman just after the war where he praised America and appealed to all the slogans that America claims to stand for regarding freedom, and again he was ignored. America were abject fools when it came to Vietnam
We didn't want to be there, only our government did to aquire certain resources from the ground in Vietnam.
And when they did, we left.
Same as Afghanistan.
Basically thousands of young men died for old men that didn't care about them.
And on both sides.
Five *thousand* recipes? (gasp)
The man truly did an outstanding job.
I wish more people, today, were as keen as he was on finding ways to improve the lives of those working in restaurants. I'm under the impression those are very tough jobs, according to what I've heard from friends working in the field.
As someone who was head Chef and manager, yeah it's exhausting. I worked three shifts 6 days a week and you get real tired of food after awhile. Low pay and long hours (on your feet to boot) plus customers who get .... let's just say they get weird and call it a day.
@@davidmiller9485 The part that I find more puzzling is the one relative to "difficult customers". Especially when their behavior is disrespectful and arrogant, as if treating the staff in a diminutive way were not only acceptable, but functioned to stress how th staff stands in a sort of "inferior status". I've witnessed a few cases, just as a nearby customer, and my palms itched. I could never handle that, if I were in the staff's shoes.
@@fedra76it It can get trying. I've had to throw customers out because of how they treated my wait staff, so i've seen some real award winners in the "act like an adult" category.
@@davidmiller9485 With all the 'Karens' operating out there, and then the COVID restrictions on top of that, it must be hell for front of house nowadays.
Max: "I dont actually have a silver..."
Me: *clutches pearls* "You...monster!"
We need to all pitch in and get Max and Jose' some silver cups.
Awesome and eerie timing: I’m a home brewer and currently working on a Peach Melba mead. Peaches, raspberry and vanilla. A great combination. Perhaps I should call it Escoffier’s Tipple. Or Péché Mignon au Cygne: a wordplay in the original name of the dessert. Pêcher is the word for sin and Pêcher can both mean ‘to fish’ or ‘peach tree’ in French. Both are pronounced exactly the same. A ‘péché mignon’ literally translates to ‘cute sin’ and the closest English translation I can think of is an indulgence. That delicious thing you know isn’t exactly good for you but that you can’t resist…
I absolutely vote for the latter name - I love the layers of meaning :-)
My given name is Mignon...cute.
There is a Belgian beer called Pêcheresse 😉
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%AAcheresse
@@emaarredondo-librarian - True. Thanks for reminding me! I should have known as I’m a Belgian. It’s a Peach-flavoured Lambic-style beer.
You are definitely onto something!! It sounds like a perfect summer refresher.
As an Aussie, Thanks for the background on the Peach Melba and the tribute to her swan entrance. I always wondered what the connection was.
When you were speaking about Richard D'Oyly Carte. I remembered a saying my high school drama teacher used to say "One can preform Shakespeare one survives Gillbert and Sullivan.".
🤣
Gilbert and Sullivan are quite witty all on their own. The Pirates of Penzance was my first favorite Opera (within the genre as a whole) and it just keeps getting funnier as the years go by. And the singing chops you need to pull it off are fantastic!
@@adedow1333 does this make you the very model of a modern Major-General?
Personally I survive Shakespeare and love G&S. My daughter sang in the Mikado, the male romantic lead. And I helped costume the pirates of penzance, 16 identical night gowns for 16 lovely daughters....
@@lenabreijer1311 Oh, that brings back such memories - I worked on the costume crew my first year in college, and loved it. We were known for our children's theater repertoire (Christmas Carol, Tom Sawyer, Rumpelstiltskin), but as I remember we also did Antigone and The Little Foxes. It's a wonder I did any school work, but amazingly, I managed it all, and changed my major from English to Art.
the spirit of escoffier is still present in the way of working, in restaurants in France in 2022.
Even the large dishes, in metal (or silver), which are used for service, bear his name. Escoffiers.
Escoffier didn't write a recipe... he wrote pure poetry! The desire for perfection through pure quality of ingredients is inspiring 🤤
I feel almost attacked by the chance that the book I grew up with, Fannie Farmer, being the next book to be shown on a historical based channel. My mothers mother was the only one in my family who knew how to cook, and that gold covered cook book was treated like a family bible. It has 4 generations of use now, and I default to it before I check anything else out of learned habit.
I also learned to cook from my mother and grandmother, who learned from Fanny Farmer. I have a copy of an early edition of the book, now held together with cellophane tape, which was my grandmothers, and had been handed to my mother and then to me. It's what I go to when I need to know how to cook a duck (my mother-in-law showed up on my doorstep one day, after having carried a half-cooked duck on the bus from her apartment on the other side of the Bronx, and told me to "cook it" for her. It all got eaten (not by me, I don't like duck), so I must have gotten it right.
@@purplealice How wonderful! You can have a bookbinder put a new cover on the cookbook to save it for future generations.
It helps to more easily peal the poached peaches if one cuts a small cross (the width of a small paring knife) on the bottom of the peach before blanching.
did they, I wonder, cut it off the stone?
Genuine question.
THANK YOU!!!!
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 If you choose "Freestone" peaches, the come right off the stone. "Cling" peaches WOULD need to be CUT off the stone.
What a coincidence that you uploaded this yesterday, because I've just finished reading a book about Dora Lee, one of the few women to train under Escoffier! She made her way up the servant hierarchy from being a scullery maid to the head chef for the Canadian Governor-General and his family. There was lots in the book too about Escoffier and how he revolutionized so many aspects of cuisine. Anyway, the peach Melba looks delicious! Always love your videos!
i feel like everything tastes better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!!!
So true
@@TastingHistory what a history vanilla must have!
@@jordanhamann9123 The History Guy did an episode on vanilla. You should check it out.
I'll try it on my currywurst next time..
@@TastingHistory peanut butter and sausage is good
Same with meatballs and nutella
I don't know if anybody has already done this, but I did the conversions. In the 1890s in England, £3,400 would convert to $383,205.27 in today's (well, 2017) US dollars. "The staff" drank almost $64,000 in alcohol each month.
The "cat days of Summer" is now officially a thing. Max spoke it into existence.
Meow
The Old Farmer's Almanac calendar entry for August 17 of this year: "Cat Nights begin." They attribute this traditional almanac entry to some Irish thing about witches and cats. All I know is, somewhere around this time of year it starts getting cool enough at night that when your cat curls up next to you at 3 am, you don't kick her off the bed.
Love Frokie just chillin’ in the background!
Peach Melba! This dish was mentioned in an episode of “Supersizers Go”, that show is so much fun :D So happy to see something familiar, and from one of my favorite periods in history, too.
Such a great show
Loved the bit where Sue got the sugar cage caught on her glasses!
Peach Melba got me thinking of the show "The Expanse" and the Ho Chi Min tidbit got me thinking of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in the Treaty of Versailles episode... Looks like a tasty refreshing desert.
I love that froaky is just chilling on the left.
Ooh. I always heard of Peach Melba, but never really delved into it. Thank you for the recipe and history lesson to boot!
Same, I've had peach melba flavoured ice cream and sweets but never known what the real thing is.
Reading Escoffier's original recipe made me think that you should do more recipes out of older French cookbooks. Especially some of the infamous ones that just kind of... expect you to know how to already cook the recipes without providing the weights, measurements, cook times, or methods.
So true. I received, as 1965 wedding gifts, The Joy of Cooking, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Escoffier. Once I had the basic methods down pat, I was able to use Escoffier with more confidence, since a lot of it assumes knowledge of technique and acts as an 'aide-memoire' for the more experienced cook.
Peach Melba, also known for being the dish that was Mary Mallon's specialty as a cook! Mallon was later known by the name "Typhoid Mary" and one of the ways she ended up spreading typhoid to people was via cooking.
this is a fascinating historical fact I never knew - thank you!
WASH YOUR HANDS YAL L
@@nora4642 yup
I was led to understand it was peach ice cream she was known for. No mention of raspberry sauce ...
Exactly! I was sort of expecting this to be her recipe and the history piece to be about her and Typhoid. Maybe Max will talk about it in a Drinking History episode!
I recreated Escoffiers recipe today and it was delicious. In fact the best ice cream dessert, I ever had. The fresh peaches are really outstanding in taste and texture. So glad I found this channel.
Actually, the peaches from Montreuil were reknown through Europe. They are even mentioned in a Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. The peach trees used to grow in the city near walls oriented south, creating a micro climate. Today these walls are gone, destroyed by two world wars, and urbanism. Thank you mom(1929-2016) & grandma (1891-1988) for the memories of a time I didn't experienced.
That is both touching and informative. I lost my mum in 2016 too.
I wish you the best
A little fun story from my family.
My mother's aunt sent her some family keepsakes when she downsized to her apartment. One was a large chest with a cedar lining. When I saw it I said "oh a hope chest." My mom responded "no, it's a Melba chest." When my great-great-great-grandparents were doing the transatlantic crossing to America they filled the chest with non-perishable food stuff, mainly Melba toast.
I learned to cook from the Fanny Farmer Boston Cooking School cookbook and my southern mother and grandmother. They kept me from a lot of the “jello” culture cooking in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Techniques were important, then you can apply them to lots of different foods.
I've never used Fanny Farmer; I'll have to find a virtual copy. I grew up with The American Woman's Cook Book, which had a lot of suggestions for wartime substitutions.
Nellie Melba came from the state of Victoria, Australia, where her memory is respected. Everyone knew that Peach Melba and Melba Toast bears her name but, after years living in Melbourne/Victoria ('77-'84) I can't remember seeing Peach Melba on any local menu although Australian orchards produce superior fruit. Do more Aussie chefs champion this dessert today?
(Shows pic of Van Ba)
Me: hmm, Vietnamese?
"He later went by Ho Chi Minh"
Me, Vietnamese-American:
👁 👄 👁
I knew he looked familiar haha
...and now you know the rest of the story - paul harvey (good day!)
I was like, 'holy shit!', when I saw the name and picture, 'cause I knew!
And he also worked at the Antica Osteria della Pesa in Milan. Pretty peculiar i say.
Peach Melba is still not an uncommon menu item in Paris (unsurprisingly, I suppose). I've always considered it my favorite dessert as it combines my two favorite fruits and they meld in such a delicious fashion. One of the times I had it in Paris, they used banana-walnut ice cream instead of vanilla and you'd think that would be horrible but it was amazing! Loved it. Leave it to the French.
Another great video, Max! Thanks!
I absolutely love it!!!! Thank you, I also love Escoffier's rule: if it's not meant to be eaten, it doesn't belong on the plate!!! Hate those people that fill up the plate with decoration that tastes awful with the excuse of "it looks pretty", I mean, so do bitter almonds but they kill people, you know?
Flowers.
Some taste genuinely good; some are just for decoration.
Nothing inedible/unpalatable on the plate: please!
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 Yeah, I love the taste of most flowers used in cooking (especially violets), but most people actually don't. And when you're a housewife, lol, you don't really have the luxury of cooking just for yourself and your own tastes. So I skip the flowers. The only exception I make is for thyme flowers. If I'm cooking with thyme, it goes well the flavor, plus they're so tiny and pretty. I'll put a couple on top.
@@Revelwoodie Yes, thyme flowers ARE good for those reasons. And I've always loved violet pastilles.
We used to go to a café, though, where they would sprigs of carnation, baby's breath, and some kind of backing leaf on the plate. Sort of like a boutonniere? They didn't tell you not to eat it. It was...weird. And kinda twee :-D
My favorite dessert! My dad was working on a joint US/UK Navy project when I was in my teens, and we spent a summer living in southern England; I had never had Peach Melba before then-- but man, I fell in love with it. So good! The only difference between what they served and this was that the old hotel we lived at made these very light, crisp little cakes that they'd include beneath everything; they weren't anything like the sickly-sweet horrors that are sold in the US for Strawberry Shortcake but were instead more like very light and fluffy pound cake with a crisp crust. Delicious!
I'm just starting the video and I noticed the Pokemon in the background and I'm already going "ohhhhh boy, does that mean eating frogs is gonna be brought up?" Time to watch more and find out
Look up spring chicken
That painting at 4:25 is 100% the origin of the "My girlfriend saw you from across the bar and we really dig your vibe" meme, you can't convince me otherwise
I can imagine that it tastes divine.
My brain is telling me "if you had home-made icecream, home-grown peaches, and home-picked raspberries, this is a dessert for heavenly food-gasms"!
Or Peaches selected for the Ritz , Raspberries selected for the Ritz, ice cream made by the Ritz cold desert chef , yes it would be heaven. This is a recipe that is totally dependent on its its ingredients.
Just go to the store buy your ice cream, a can of peach halves, raspberry syrup and shipped cream in a can. You don’t have to be fancy, just get it done.
Your "Yes that Ritz" joke made me snort fizzy pop out my nose. Good to see Young Frankenstein getting another apprentice here.
His recycling of his dishes for multiple celebs kinda reminds me of "Candle In The Wind' with Elton John recycling his Marilyn Monroe song into a Princess Diana song.
🤣 so true
Ice cream and peaches are a perfect combination.
My favorite that I've made was grilled peaches, vanilla ice cream, and a caramel sauce. I blanched, peel, and halved the peaches, brushed them with just a little bit of sherry, and put them on the well-oiled top rack of the grill juuuust until they had some light grill marks. Set those on top of some ice cream, and then pour a generous amount of caramel sauce (which I made earlier on the side burner of the grill, also with a little of the sherry in it) and it was just so good and perfect for a late summer evening.
“Crunch to the nuts”
- Max Miller, 2021
Peach melba is so underrated. This should be offered in more ice cream shoppes.
Montreuil Peach ! Montreuil is my hometown, and it make me smile every time I read/heard of Montreuil peach. We don't have peach tree anymore (well maybe 2 of them are still alive in Montreuil) but it funny to heard about my town :D.
peaches generally come fairly true from seed. you could grow more if you can get fruits
I went a little crazy one day and made what I called a Peach Melba Preserve. I started out making a peach jam, and just at the end before jarring, I added whole raspberries and almonds. I let that heat back up and then jarred it. God that eas so good on scones.
Thrilled to see that you've made a video on Escoffier! I hope to attend the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in the near future so I've been reading up on him quite a bit lately. There is no denying his influence on culinary history!
Where would you like to attend?
I went there! The one in Boulder. I even got to meet his great grandson, Michel Escoffier.
@@Snowstorm9lives How was it? I am a bit ashamed to say that until a few years ago I had not heard of it, and the main culinary programs were seemingly the CIA and Le Cordon Bleu. Is the job market friendly to graduates (if you don't mind me asking, of course)? My local community college offers a decent culinary program but I became enamored with Escoffier immediately upon discovering it. Does the family have pretty close ties with the school?
The time of Instagram and comparing notes: very good point
🤣 “Cat days”
The recipe is really simple. I would like to someday make this with grill or bake the peach to caramelise the sugar mmm😋
You mean fur net 🐱
ooooh yesss. or even braise the peaches in a little white wine sauce or moscato.
Absolutely love your videos.
Great voice and since of humor. You have combined three of my favorite things cooking, food and learning.
So entertaining.
Thanks so much 😊
Yeah, I just had a bunch of raspberries from my moms small backyard garden.
Delicious!
Can't decide what makes me happier, the recipes or the history or Max and his humor. I delight in all of the show. Thank you.
Another Escoffier anecdote: When he was asked what he wanted to receive in return for becoming the chef to the German Kaiser, his answer was "Alsace-Lorraine".
(Alsace-Lorraine is the border region that Germany took from France after the German victory in the war of 1870.)
The Rhine region is the best as far as food goes! The only difference in the cuisine between them it that where Lorraine uses butter, Alsace uses duck fat.
🤣🤣🤣🤣😮😮🤣
@@adedow1333 No, i live in the Rhine region. Our cuisine couldn't hold its own against foreign cuisine, as i myself think it's kinda bland. Would go to southern or western France and Southern and Eastern Germany for food.
Oh God, Alsace Lorraine was the Kosovo of the XIX Century, big fights to where it actually belongs.
This put a smile on my face
On list of mother sauces I almost see Alex the French Guy scribblings, striking out hollandaise and correcting it to mayonnaise.
Omg. I am actually making his Brown Stock or Estouffade right now. It’s simmering. Involved a skill saw, hammer, and a couple thumb injuries. Now just 14 hours and it should be ready. 🤣
Tell us how it turns out!
bloody hell that sounds good! I bet the effort is worth it!
Please do let us know how it goes :-)
Bon appetit.
Saw and hammer? Shades of Dexter! But I admire your fidelity to tradition. Bon appétit!
It turned out great. I thought it was horrid and bland when tasting it, but I did as he said and didn’t add salt until I was using it in a dish and seasoned accordingly. Oh god. Just a pinch of salt unlocks all that amazingness.
Peach and raspberries are my favorite temperate fruits so I absolutely looooooove peach melba! My peach tree is almost ripe and I can’t wait to gorge myself on fresh off the tree fruit and make oodles of jam and pie filling.
My mom made this sometimes during summer, had no clue about it's history. Thanks!
Such a perfect summer treat
Never thought i would ever see Ho Chi Minh being mention on a channel about food history.
Glad I'm not the only one who laughed a bit when he said nut crunch. 🤣
He how has his first best selling T-Shirt
I flinched, and I'm not even a guy.
He really did change the kitchen for the better. And better yet, made quite a few amazing recipes. This looks lovely
Cat chefs in hairnets.
Thank you for the wonderful imagery.
"Do as I say, not as I do" is the general anthem for last year and this year for America and the world. Lol.
I've read a replica edition of the Fannie Farmer cookbook, and I remember that in the back there were ads for her cooking school's classes, including one course directed specifically at household kitchen staff. The book in general was pretty interesting, and I'll be looking forward to next Tuesday's episode where you'll be cooking from it.
One of the first cookbooks I owned! The joy of cooking and Fannie Farmer are the kind of cookbooks you give to your kids when they’re starting their own household.
This particular era of cooking history is so interesting to me, you get to really see the tail end of where fine dining and particularly good food went from being something non-specific and largely relegated to royalty turn into a real artform in the rough. To someone pioneering a concept, of creating delicious food for the purpose of sharing the experience with many people rather than something made for a king.
HAHA Escoffier, good cook, actually like his method of making hollandaise. Oddly Ive this week been exploring Icelandic foods and looking up how to preserve meat in lactic acid. That desert looks SO far removed from lambs tongue in whey.
I imagine MANY things look removed from lamb's tongue in whey
(which does, though, sound to me as if it might be quite delicious :-) )
I think most of the Icelandic foods preserved in whey are quite good. I like the liver sausage and blood pudding preserved in whey. Some of us in Iceland also drink the whey. It is refreshing on a warm day and tastes like white wine.
Thanks for this comment stream ... I know it's "Escoffier" and Ice cream an' all but this sounds like a worthy bit of research. And tasty as ...
Why are you researching? Are you making cheese and have left over whey?
@@deirdregibbons5609 Interesting ... I sometimes make fresh cheese for quick pie or spinach and cheese side dishes. Whey makes good scones; but there's always too much of it. And if I'm not making scones or bread, sadly I have to throw it out. I never thought of it as a drink. Thanks
@@ValeriePallaoro welcome. The simple answer is that I like food and food history and like to 'travel' the world through food. A few years back my daughter for a short time was of the mindset to move to Iceland, and at that time on youtube was one of the funniest and to this day best videos for new comers to Iceland (now removed). The mantra at the dinner table was "preserved in lactic acid". So when I was watching Hrafna eat her traditional foods with her father (and near dying while trying) her father explained one of the meats as having marinated in whey for 5 months. At my local shop a few blocks up the road they do sell lambs tongues, heads and rams testicles. So, this week Ive been looking at what it would take to give this a go. I have made cheese as well (made, I don't make it regularly), and yes uses for whey is always a worthy pursuit.
I went to Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, CO and met Michel Escoffier, the great grandson of Chef Auguste Escoffier. He is the president of the Escoffier Museum and Foundation in Villanueve - Loubet, France which is affiliated with the school in Boulder and the one in Texas. Just inherited all of his great grand daddy’s work lol. He’s a neat guy
Escoffier was (part of) the inspiration for the character of Auguste Gusteau in Ratatouille, right?
😮😮😮😮😮😮😮
I was scrolling to see if anyone else had this thought!
His first name, surely. But he looks like Paul Bocuse and Bernard Loiseau, two great chefs of the 20th century. His story is closer to Loiseau. In the movie, Gusteau disappears and the rumour is that he committed suicide after losing a star. Loiseau indeed commited suicide in 2003 after being rated 17/20 by restaurant guide "Gault et Millau," 2 points down from 19/20, and because critiques wrote that he was not as creative as he was.
In the UK we have a term "scoffing your food" just wondered if it came from Escoffier's name, who knows! Great episode as always Max
Scoff comes from scaff, as does scarf. They're all dialect versions of the same Anglo-Saxon verb. There's a Dutch equivalent (which I can't quite remember, and probably couldn't spell anyway) that will have reached modern Dutch from Frisian, which was very closely related to the languages of the Angles and the Saxons. I had to look up Escoffier to see if there was a known root for that surname, and while it too turns out to be Germanic it is however related to the word for cap or helmet.
I've found the Dutch word: schoft, a daily meal.
When I went to culinary school (big mistake for future me), Escoffier was practically law in terms of food preparation. There is a reason why he was considered the Godfather of Culinary Arts by most/all chefs I know.
He made them a profiterole they couldn't refuse?
Why did culinary school turn out to be a mistake?
@@Revelwoodie the degree didn't end up mattering after my culinary school shut down due to many class-action lawsuits, the market is saturated with culinary arts degrees. You really only have a chance of making it in a dog-eat-dog world if you lived more in the cities, which I do not. I used to love cooking, but then I got in the real world. It's a grim thankless industry.
Like others I'm also looking forward to learning more about Fannie Farmer. When my family goes Christmas cookie crazy one recipe that has been with us for decades (in addition my German great grandmother's butter cookies) is Fannie Farmer's double chocolate chip cookies. You use some instant coffee in the dough as well as melted unsweetened chocolate. I have a very early childhood memory of the shock in discovering that you should not lick unsweetened melted chocolate from the bowl or plate. Childhood milestones aside, the recipe makes a great cookie.