M. Escoffier was suggested as a subject by Anita-Clare Field.

Georges Auguste Escoffier,

Was born in the village Villeneuve-Loubet,

And could simply take your breath away,

With a Melba toast or a grand soufflé.

At 13, he was apprenticed at his uncle’s cafe,

In Nice, it was called Le Restaurant Francais,

Six years later he decided to move away,

To Paris to see if he could make his career pay.

At the start of the Franco-Prussian war,

He joined the army, a job really hardcore,

But in the summers he found what he was looking for,

To meet wealthy men who came from the top drawer.

In Lucerne it was he met Cesar Ritz,

And then D’Oyly Carte,so bit by bit,

Everything suddenly seemed to fit,

He’d take London by storm, be a palpable hit.

These 3 men then added Louis Echinard,

A maître ‘ d and didn’t find it hard,

To persuade the royal, the rich and avant garde,

And talented chefs into their backyard.

So Escoffier set out to fulfil ‘Oyly Carte’s ploy,

To run the kitchens at the Savoy,

Only the best of the best would he employ,

Much to the rich guests and diners satisfaction and joy.

Escoffier left the Savoy in 1898,

And Ritz left the hotel too, on that date,

It seems wines worth £3400 had got mislaid,

Was it a scam that the two men made?

Despite this, his reputation didn’t fall to bits,

He continued to work at the Savoy, the Carlton, the Ritz,

His signature dishes were palpable hits,

A gourmet of glamour, of colour, of glitz.

He ran the Carlton kitchens through World War I,

In which he lost his younger son,

At 88, in 1935, his life was done,

A chef who was truly second to none.