“The dining scene in England really wasn’t a scene at all. In fact, it was pretty much private. You ate at home. Everything carried on at home. A wild night out was going to someone else’s house for a dinner party.
Ritz and Escoffier made dining respectable, especially for ladies, by turning the Savoy into a very feminine place, a very respectable place, and somewhere that ladies could go without the fear of being bothered, or the suggestion that they might be issuing some kind of ‘invitation’. It was somewhere where everyone had to dress up. Only certain people were allowed here.
They had a really cunning idea. They thought they could make their own human advertising. So Ritz and Escoffier got Lady De Grey, who was a great glamorous leader of society. And she was set to eat in public in The Savoy. Once she’d done it, everyone else had to join in. It was like Coco Channel having a tan. All these ladies flocked in and suddenly The Savoy became incredibly popular, for ladies, for couples, people on their own. And this was a complete turnaround: the British dining culture was born.
The restaurants of London became crucial, important social spaces where you could display your wealth, your could display yourself, and the top ladies of the time were seen there. You could see and be seen.
Escoffier was an incredible publicist. His brilliant advertising, that every time Dame Nellie Melba went on stage, everyone thought about his pudding! For free, it was like wandering around with great big placard saying ‘Eat a nice stewed peach with lovely sugar on top!'”
Kate Williams, very very British historian
Michel Roux Jr explores the life and influence of his great culinary hero, Georges Auguste Escoffier – the man who turned eating into dining.