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Bibliography of Items in the Feeding America Collection
Biography
François Tanty reportedly trained under the famous innovative chef and
writer Marie Antoine Carême (1784 - 1833) which, if true, would date
Tanty in his late seventies or eighties when he wrote his cookbook, La Cuisine
Française (1893). He was chef to Napoleon III, the self-declared Emperor
who reigned from 1851 to 1870 and presided over "a vulgar orgy of conspicuous
consumption unmatched since Louis XIV's court at Versailles." Following
that, Tanty served as chef of the Russian imperial family where, according
to publishers' notes, "he was decorated by the late Czar with the Imperial
Order of the Red Cross in consideration of his services as purveyor to the
Army and Hospital Corps in the Russian-Turkish war." A proprietorship
of the Grand Hotel and the Dussaux restaurant in St. Petersburg followed his
service to Russia, and he then made his way to America, around 1890.
Tanty came to America to establish his sons in business. One of his sons, Louis Tanty, collaborated on the book, translating it from French and providing an effective systematic arrangement of the recipes and instructions. The recapitulation at the end of each chapter, in particular, was designed to make it as easy as possible for an American reader to learn the basic French dishes and cooking terms. For a chef who spent years serving the powerful of Europe, Tanty created a surprisingly family-oriented cooking book, simple and straightforward, with barely a hint of the extravagance he was once called upon to provide for his employers.
- Barbour, Philippe, Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls, France. London:
Cadogan Guides, 2001.
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Tanty, François, La Cuisine Française. French Cooking for Every Home. Adapted to American Requirements. Chicago: Baldwin, Ross & Co., 1893.
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Website: http://www.foodreference.com/html/wmarieantoinecareme.html (consulted July 15, 2003.)