Le Baron Brisse by Andre Gill – French Cookbook Author Gets Roasted
Le Baron Brisse – by Andre Gill
Caricature by Andre Gill
Le Baron Brisse – Cover Illustration for La Lune April 14, 1867 showing the Baron roasting on a spit.
Le Baron Brisse was a notable celebrity of the Second Empire and a good friend of Alexandre Dumas. He wrote on food for Le Figaro and La Liberte.
Baron Brisse’s cookbook “Three Hundred and Sixty-Six Menus and Twelve Hundred Recipes” was an indispensible guide to French cuisine.
Andre Gill
(1840- 1885)
Andre Gill was one of the great French caricaturists of the 19th Century. His amusing portraits of the great figures of his time – Charles Darwin, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, – typically showed them with immense heads on tiny bodies, a style often copied later. Gill notably also painted the rabbit on the Lapin Agile (which was originally the Lapin a Gill – or Gill’s rabbit), the famous Montmartre bar frequented by Picasso and other artists.
Dimensions: 18.5 X 12.5 inches
Conditons: There is a crease just under the title La Lune. Small piece of missing paper at the edge of the paper where the line seperates the page. Rough edges.
Notable QUOTES from Baron Brisse
A host at a table where a guest is obliged to ask, is a host dishonored.
La Petite Cuisine, du baron Brisse (1870)
One must always welcome guests sincerely, with a certain effusion of the heart, for when they come to your table they must already be happy with you.
La Petite Cuisine, du baron Brisse (1870)
Text below the caricature reads: “Recette pour accommoder un baron. (Recipe fit for a Baron)
Depuis un an que j’ai l’honneur de rediger, chaque semaine, le menu de la Lune, nombre de personnes me demandent ce que j’entends par un BARON BRISSE: L’entree dans une salle a manger d’un baron copieux sortant de broche est un triomphe síl a ete engraisse a la Liberte, et s’il n’est age que de soixante-dix ans.
Par son excellence et son prix toujours eleve, le baron de la Liberte constitue un mets des plus serieux, digne des plus respectueux regards de la solicitude la mieux entendue.
Un bon principe, et c’est le mien, consite a avoir chacun raison de son baron. S’il est trop gros, la tache est rude, mais on y arrive sans trop d d’efforts avec la recette suivante: Videz, flambez, troussez, embrochez, couronnez de roses, et faites le bien rendre: poivrez et servez dans son jus avec adjonction dúne bonne reclame.
