Legendary Inspiration

Marie-Antoine Carême (1783-1833), born in Paris, was the first notable culinary genius and the father of haute cuisine, revered by many as the ‘King of Chefs’ and the ‘Chef of Kings’; he is often regarded as the first ‘celebrity chef.

Abandoned by his parents in 1794, after the impact of the French Revolution, he found work as a kitchen boy at a Parisian chophouse in exchange for food and board. In 1798 he was taken on as an apprentice in the kitchens of Sylvain Bailly, a renowned pâtissier with a shop near the Palais-Royal. Bailly recognized and nutured the talent and ambition of the young and enthusiastic Carême, who gained fame in Paris for his pièces montées, elaborate constructions used as centrepieces which Bailly then displayed in his pâtisserie window. Carême made these confections, which were sometimes several feet high, entirely out of foodstuffs such as sugar, marzipan and pastry. He modelled them on temples, pyramids and ancient ruins, taking ideas from architectural history books that he studied at the nearby Bibliothèque National. (He notoriously said that The Fine Arts are five in number: painting, music, poetry, sculpture and architecture, whereof the principle branch is pâtisserie.)