Le Répertoire de la Cuisine
Le Répertoire de La Cuisine by Louis Saulnier, is a reference book available in the original French and in English translations. Several used editions are in circulation, such as the Canterbury Press (Westminister, Maryland) translation of 1961, or the Barrons Educational Series edition of 1976. The book is currently available in a version printed by Biddles Ltd, Great Britain (ISBN 0812051084), although it has been out of print in the past and may be again in the future. Louis Saulnier was a student of Auguste Escoffier and wrote this book (commonly called simply "the Répertoire") as a guide to his mentor's cooking. The Répertoire is widely used in the catering industry as the principal authority on classic French cookery, Although dishes are frequently altered to accommodate new technology (such as microwave ovens) and the exigencies of particular kitchens, most professional Chefs will recognise the Répertoire as providing the stricly "correct" recipe. The style of the Répertoire is highly unusual in that the recipes provided are little more than "aide mémoires" and assume a great deal of background knowledge, the book does not make any allowances for the reader; no quantities are given (a chef is expected to be able to estimate these for himself) and frequent use is made of terms of art which are opaque to those without the necessary background. A fairly typical recipe is: - Beurre a l'Anglaise - Batarde Sauce without liaison.
Obviously this is little use without the recipe for Batarde Sauce: - Batarde Sauce - White roux moistened with water, cohered with yolk of egg, buttered and creamed lemon juice, pass through fine sieve.
Note however that even with the recipe for Batarde Sauce it is impossible to follow the recipe for Beurre a l'Anglaise without the assumed knowledge of: - What "liaison" refers to
::*What "White roux" is
::*How to make "buttered and creamed lemon juice"
::*Roughly what quantities of the ingredients will be required
::*The actual cooking method (this is not stated)
The recipes are presumably given in this abbreviated manner for two reasons firstly, to cram over 7,000 recipes into a very small book and secondly, because these minimal notes are all that someone with proper training should require.
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