England

Throughout the eighteenth century, English cookbook writers kept an eye on their French counterparts, whether seeking to emulate them or rebelling against them. Massialot’s Le cuisinier roial et bourgeois (The Royal and Bourgeois Cook, 1691) appeared in English as The Court and Country Cook in 1702, and his influence is clear in a handful of English cookbooks, three published in the first third of the century and one closing out the era. All were by men who claimed to present cooking in the logical, structured manner of the Enlightenment, and to a large extent, they succeeded in their task. To today’s eye, their books are easy to follow, presented in familiar alphabetical or subject-driven formats and sometimes even including lists of their contents and indexes to show the way.