Manuscrit de recettes de cuisine

Quarto manuscript of 111 leaves, a total of 129 pages written in ink, the remaining leaves are blank. Half green parchment (missing leather on the spine, 2 worn corners), green cardboard covers, handwritten inscription on the upper cover: "Cookbook", very legible handwriting.

213 x 164 mm.

Legras Le Jeune. Manuscript of culinary recipes.
1810.

Mistreated over time, old culinary manuscripts are extremely rare.

An original and unpublished testimony to the magnificent renaissance of French gastronomy under the First Empire, this work was composed by someone in the close circle of Laguipiere, Antonin Careme’s mentor, who ended his career in the service of Joachim Murat, King of Naples.

The collection offers 220 recipes as well as lists of dishes that appear to make up menus.

It contains recipes for sauces, various ways to cook meats and fish, soups and finally desserts.

A few examples: “p.5 [sauce] thomatte. [and] For preserved thomatte”; p.9: “Oyster sauce”; p.21: “How to marinate meat and make domestic pork pass for wild boar”; p.22: “English way of marinating salmon” etc.
f.57: “List of entrées served to His Excellency the Ambassador of the King of the Two Sicilies” (an astonishing list of dishes).
ff.68-69: Recipe for Italian pasta.

According to the 1811 Imperial Almanac, the ambassador of the King of the Two Sicilies in Paris was the Duke of Campochiaro.
State Councillor, Minister of the King’s Household under King Joseph Bonaparte, ambassador to Paris and Munich, minister for King Joachim in 1814, Campochiaro was born in Naples.
He showed a taste for literature early on. He embraced the principles of the French Revolution and thus brought severe persecutions upon himself during the proscriptions of 1799. When the French returned to Naples in 1806, he was one of many Neapolitan lords who offered their services to King Joachim and was appointed by the prince as State Councillor and Minister of the Royal House. When his ministry was abolished the Duke of Campochiaro was sent as an ambassador to Paris and received the star of the Legion of Honor. He then went to Munich and participated in the Congress of Vienna. (P. L. P. de Jullian, galerie historique des contemporaines, III, p.131).

In 1810, the duke lived on Rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin. At that time, it was the heart of diplomatic, festive, and gastronomic Paris.

The same Campochiaro would be a plenipotentiary speaker at the Congress of Vienna, which would begin in 1814. In his work entitled Talleyrand and European Society, Frédéric Loliée recalls the atmosphere at the Congress of Vienna.
“Sometimes political controversies no longer held attention. A less heated subject was broached than the question of whether the throne of Naples would be taken from or kept for Prince Murat. Quite simply, the speeches wandered to gastronomic details. And, since national pride never renounces its rights, each of these diplomats had, rather, extolled the subtlety or succulence of the dishes from his own country. When cheese was discussed, Lord Castlereagh naturally praised England’s Stilton; Alvini, Milan’s strachino; Zeltner, the delicious product of Emmenthal; Baron de Falk, minister of Holland, highlighted the excellence of Limbourg, immortalized by Peter the Great, who, it is said, never ate it without measuring the piece with his compass. No one, in this important debate, was willing to cede the advantage to his neighbor’s opinion. Prince Talleyrand remained silent. He did not have his weapons at hand” (F. Loliée, Talleyrand et la société européenne).

“From the 14th to the 20th century, recipes have a whole historical value. As a symbol of our culinary heritage, they characterize French cuisine in its diversity and endurance. A whole aspect of our history appears through these emblematic dishes. Some dishes have been forgotten; others, on the other hand, have endured and survived through time. The recipes thus chart the itinerary of a journey through the legendary dishes that have made French cuisine” (Patrick Rambourg).

Touching original and unpublished manuscript by Legras le Jeune, cook to Campochiaro, ambassador of the King of the Two Sicilies in Paris in 1810.