FAVRE, JOSEPH

FAVRE, JOSEPH. For the first half of his career, Joseph Favre (1849–1903) followed the traditional path of a chef. He was apprenticed as a teenager in his native Swiss canton of Valais, and thereafter moved around Europe serving in aristocratic households, grand hotels, and restaurants in Switzerland, Germany, England, Italy, and France. In Paris he was also employed by the fashionable caterer Chevet, whose shop was located in the Palais Royal.

Once he had received recognition as a chef, Favre turned his attention to promoting the welfare and status of cooks, founding a professional society and a trade journal. He also wanted to bring the best of French cuisine to the masses, a view which put him at odds with some of his fellow chefs.

Favre wrote prolifically on all sorts of culinary topics, and in 1894 his articles were gathered together into the four-volume Dictionnaire universel de cuisine: Encyclopédie illustrée d'hygiène alimentaire (The universal dictionary of cuisine: illustrated encyclopedia of food health). The Dictionnaire contained thousands of recipes, menus, profiles of well-known people in the field (including Favre himself), and a history of cooking that was pronounced "very interesting" in Prosper Montagné's Larousse gastronomique. Today, manufacturers of traditional foods included in the Dictionnaire continue to use the mention by Favre as an endorsement for their products.

See also Chef ; France ; Larousse gastronomique.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Favre, Joseph. Dictionnaire universel de cuisine: Encyclopédie illustrée d'hygiène alimentaire [The universal dictionary of cuisine: illustrated encyclopedia of food health]. Paris: Librairie-Imprimerie des Halles et de la Bourse de Commerce, 1894.

Montagné, Prosper. Larousse gastronomique. New York: Crown, 1961.

Alice Arndt