Ritz & Escoffier : The Hotelier,The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure class by Luke Barr.- 2018 - 290 Pages - A Paris in July 2024 Work

Paris in July 2024

Paris in July does not just include books. Contributions on your Paris vacation, your favourite meal or restaurant, French movies, music, art, Parisian history and more are very welcome. On the home page for the event you will inevitably discover perhaps new to you authors, movies as well as recipes to send you if you are lucky to Paris or at least the kitchen.

Ritz & Escoffier : The Hotelier,The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure class by Luke Barr.- 2018 - 290 Pages - A Paris in July 2024 Work

César Ritz

Born: February 23, 1850, Niederwald, Goms, Switzerland

Died: October 24, 1918 (age 68 years), Küssnacht, Switzerland 

After a series of jobs managing hotels in France, Germany, Switzerland and Monaco ,In 1888, he opened the Conservations Haus restaurant with Auguste Escoffier as chef in Baden-Baden, and the two were then invited to London by Richard D'Oyly Carte to become the first manager and chef of the Savoy Hotel, positions they held from 1889 until 1897. Ritz put together what he described as "a little army of hotel men for the conquest of London". The Savoy under Ritz was an immediate success, attracting a distinguished and moneyed clientele headed by the Prince of Wales, including the British and European Royalty

"Ritz would go on to find investors and open a number of his own hotels. By the late 1890s, Ritz was an extremely busy man, with hotel enterprises in Rome, Frankfurt, Salsomaggiore, Palermo, Biarritz, Wiesbaden, Monte Carlo, Lucerne and Menton and projects in Madrid, Cairo and Johannesburg. According to his wife, "César's suitcases were never completely unpacked; he was always either just arriving from or departing upon a new journey".

In 1896, he formed the Ritz Hotel syndicate with South African millionaire Alfred Beit, reputedly the wealthiest man in the world at the time. They opened what would become the celebrated Hôtel Ritz in the Place Vendôme, Paris, late in 1898. At the inauguration, on 1 June 1898, were many figures of the European elite, including Lady de Grey, the Duke and Duchess de Rohan, Calouste Gulbenkian, and Marcel Proust.He went on to open The Ritz Hotel in London in 1905, which became one of the most popular meeting places of the era for the rich and famous. The Ritz Hotel in Madrid, opened in 1906, inspired by King Alfonso XIII's desire to build a luxury hotel to rival the Ritz in Paris. Ritz enjoyed a long partnership with Auguste Escoffier, the now-famous French chef and father of modern French cooking. The partnership lasted until Ritz had to retire in 1907 because of deteriorating health." From Wikipedia 

Auguste Escoffier 

October 28, 1846 - Villeneuve-Loubet- France

February 12, 1935 - Monte Carlo, Monaco

Ritz & Escoffier : The Hotelier,The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure class by Luke Barr is a totally enthralling work.  It details great hotels and magnificent restaurants all over Europe but keeps returning to Paris where both title figures achieved greatness.   

Barr brings to life a lot of interesting characters, from Sarah Bernhardt, to opera singers, Russian royalty, rich merchants without titles, hotel management and more.

"About Ritz and Escoffier - from the Publisher 

Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed Ritz and Escoffier. In a tale replete with scandal and opulence, Luke Barr, author of the New York Times bestselling Provence, 1970, transports readers to turn-of-the-century London and Paris to discover how celebrated hotelier César Ritz and famed chef Auguste Escoffier joined forces at the Savoy Hotel to spawn a scandalously modern luxury hotel and restaurant, signaling a new social order and the rise of the middle class.

In early August 1889, César Ritz, a Swiss hotelier highly regarded for his exquisite taste, found himself at the Savoy Hotel in London. He had come at the request of Richard D’Oyly Carte, the financier of Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic operas, who had modernized theater and was now looking to create the world’s best hotel. D’Oyly Carte soon seduced Ritz to move to London with his team, along with Auguste Escoffier, the chef de cuisine known for his elevated, original dishes. The two created a hotel and restaurant like no one had ever experienced, in often mysterious and always extravagant ways, where British high society mingled with American Jews and women.

     Barr deftly re-creates the thrilling Belle Epoque era just before World War I, when British aristocracy was at its peak, women began dining out unaccompanied by men, and American nouveaux riche and gauche industrialists convened in London to show off their wealth. In their collaboration at the still celebrated Savoy Hotel, the pair welcomed loyal and sometimes salacious clients, such as Oscar Wilde and Sarah Bernhardt; Escoffier created the modern kitchen brigade and codified French cuisine in his seminal Le Guide culinaire, which remains in print today; and Ritz, whose name continues to grace the finest hotels, created the world’s first luxury hotel. The pair also ruffled more than a few feathers. Fine dining and luxury travel would never be the same–or more intriguing."

If you are a lover of French food, this is your book.  It also details how when the rich no longer travelled with extensive numbers of servants, exclusive hotels and restaurants filled the gap.

LUKE BARR is the author of the New York Times bestselling Provence, 1970. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and Switzerland, Barr attended Harvard and was formerly the features editor at Travel + Leisure magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their two daughters.

Mel Ulm 

The Reading Life