Louis Eustache Ude

The French chief that England Adula

Before Escoffier and many others, a name had French cuisine shine on the banks of the Thames: Louis Eustache Ude. Son of a cook of Louis XVI , he does not grow in the golden salons but in the discreet wake of the royal stoves. It was however on the other side of the round that he built his legend, reigning over the kitchens of the most exclusive London clubs French by birth, celebrated by England, he played a culinary gateway between two worlds. Behind his learned sauces and inflexible requirements hides a story of exile, pride and refinement. This portrait gives voice to a chief that England Adula… and that France forgot.

First fires of a master cook

Louis Eustache Ude was born in France around 1768 . His mother is a milliner, his father works in the stove of the Palais de Versailles . He joined the latter for a while, rubbing shoulders with the vapors of the sauces and the rustles of the pans. But the fate of Ude is anything but linear: he leaves the kitchens to explore a thousand trades - jeweler, engraver, printer, fabric merchant, theater actor ... He runs after his way as we seek a light in the fog.

During the revolution, some say it exiled. However, the most reliable testimonies - those of Abraham Hayward and Joseph Favre (Universal Dictionary of Cuisine, 1892) - affirm that he remains in France, discreet, obstinate. This is where he returns to his first fire: the kitchen. Shortly after, he became a hotel manager of Letizia Bonaparte , mother of Napoleon. An austere post, certainly, but decisive: he refines there what will soon make his reputation - an acute sense of order, an elegance without ostentation, and the idea that cuisine can be a sovereign art.

England as an ascent land

After her visit to Laetitia Bonaparte, Ude left France . Arrived in London around 1808, he quickly reached unprecedented fame. It was at the service of William Philip Molyneux, 2ᵉ count of Sefton , that he deploys all his art. It was reported that he received an annual salary of £ 300 - a generous sum - and that Sefton even bequeathed him to be a pension of £ 100 when he died in 1838, although the cook would have left his service since 1815. The table of Sefton became famous for his refined dinners, where the elegance of the food rivals with the refinement of the guests.

After leaving the count, Ude is appointed head of the prestigious United Service Club , frequented by the British military elite. The historian Al Humphreys will later write that " his dinners were the best in all of London ". He stayed there for a few years, before joining the house of the Duke of York, Frederick Augustus, son of George III . Here again, his culinary talent serves the cause of British prestige, skillfully raised French.

The French Cook

In 1813, when he still officiated with the Count of Sefton, Ude published The French Cook. This work in English, intended for cooks of the big houses and the hosts anxious to shine at the table, codifies with clarity the French culinary art . More than 300 recipes are carefully organized there: soups, sauces, meats, desserts ... but also practical, menus, and label rules.

Ude exposes his vision of elegant, disciplined, specifies . Each dish reflects an ideal of order and taste, far from rustic improvisations. The book is very successful : it is reissued at least eight times during his lifetime, and enriched with each edition - the fifth (1818) already has almost 500 recipes . Without looking for innovation at all costs, Ude offers a model: that of an accessible refinement, of a structured art of living, where the table becomes the theater of French-style vivre.

The splendor of Crockford's

In 1827 , Ude was recruited to supervise the kitchens of her new and very select game game, Crockford , installed on rue St James. Standard announces the news: “ Mr. Ude, famous in the culinary world, is engaged by Mr. Crockford with a salary of £ 1,200 per year. A colossal sum, supposed to cover the costs of all its brigade. He installs his family a stone's throw away, rue Albemarle. Under its direction, Crockford's becomes a high place of gastronomic refinement : exquisite sauces, delicate fish, service set to the millimeter. The members, seduced by this luxury, slide without resistance from the dining room to the play salons. The historian Al Humphreys writes it bluntly: " They were fed on the best dishes, watered with the greatest wines, then attracted to the tables without difficulty. »»

But in 1838 , an argument broke out with the club committee. Ude leaves the scene with a crash, after eleven years of reign. In a letter to his sister, the young Benjamin Disraeli - future Prime Minister - quipped on the scene: " Ude told the committee that he was worth £ 4,000 per year. His successor is a total failure - I think the great artist will return from Elbe . It will be nothing. The chef folds his utensils, turns the page, and enters a comfortable retreat, far from the bustle of the stoves.

From Versailles to London, pans of the palace with curled spouts of Crockford's, Louis Eustache Ude played a rare figure: that of a French chief who marked England without ever denying his roots. With requirement, pride and a keen sense of detail, he had French cuisine shine across the Channel -and that still earned him our recognition.