Page:Escoffier - A Guide to Modern Cookery.djvu/15

 PREFACE

the art of Cookery in all its branches were not undergoing a process of evolution, and if its canons could be once and for ever fixed, as are those of certain scientific operations and mathematical procedures, the present work would have no raison d'étre; inasmuch as there already exist several excellent culinary text-books in the English language. But everything is so unstable in these times of progress at any cost, and social customs and methods of life alter so rapidly, that a few years now suffice to change completely the face of usages which at their inception bade fair to outlive the age—so enthusiastically were they welcomed by the public. In regard to the traditions of the festal board, it is but twenty years ago since the ancestral English customs began to make way before the newer methods, and we must look to the great impetus given to travelling by steam traction and navigation, in order to account for the gradual but unquestionable revolution.

In the wake of the demand came the supply. Palatial hotels were built, sumptuous restaurants were opened, both of which offered their customers luxuries undreamt of theretofore in such establishments.

Modern society contracted the habit of partaking of light suppers in these places, after the theatres of the Metropolis had closed; and the well-to-do began to flock to them on Sundays, in order to give their servants the required weekly rest. And, since restaurants allow of observing and of being observed, since they are eminently adapted to the exhibiting of magnificent dresses, it was not long before they entered into the life of Fortune's favourites. But these new-fangled habits had to be met by novel methods of Cookery—better adapted to the particular environment in which they were to be practised. The admirable productions popularised by the old Masters of the Culinary Art of the