Cuisiniere Bourgeoise by Menon, Signed (1 results)

Troisiéme Édition, Beaucoup Augmentée. Sm. 8vo. [viii] + 440pp. Title page device, decorative head and tail pieces and initial letters. French text. Light age toning, marbled e.ps., contemporary speckled calf, upper corners with sl. loss, minor scuffing to boards, dec. gilt spine, a.e. red sl. bled onto head of prelims. Signed by the Author to tail of page 1. Vicaire 589. First published in 1746. Menon was one of the most prolific French cookbook writers of the 18th Century and has been referred to by his single surname until very recently. Virtually nothing is known about his life or his dates of birth and death. His name is not shown on the title pages of his books, all of which were anonymously published. His full name was only recently been revealed in his own copy of a La Cuisiniere Bourgeoise dated 1752, currently in the Chateau de Villiers library, in which he had signed his name . His innovation of addressing a cookbook to the female cook of middle-class families, achieved for this publication a unique place in the history of gastronomy. Braudel points to Menon's La Cuisiniere Bourgeoise as being "a valuable book which, rightly or wrongly, [has] run through more editions than Pascal's Provinciales" (Braudel, 1979). . The enduring influence that Menon had on the social engagement over food for more than a half century, lay, in large part, in his unique focus on the solitary female cook. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science Volume 25, October 2021. US$446.