УСТАНОВИТЕ СООТВЕТСТВИЕ МЕЖДУ ЗАГОЛОВКАМИ И ТЕКСТАМИ
1. The career decision
5. His favourite dishes
2. Rapid progress and a brilliant career
6. Innovations in management
3. A hard start
7. A man of many talents
4. The special guest
8. Masterpieces in the kitchen
A)An old man entered the restaurant. He looked very much like other people dining there – an elegant suit and noble manners. He could have been a banker or a businessman or was even a senator. However, a brief whisper among the waiters indicated that this guest was even more special than the others. It was a great honour to have the grey-haired visitor who was called the king of chefs and the chef of kings.
B)The man was Auguste Escoffier. He spent his early years in a small village not far from Nice, went to school ad dreamt about becoming a sculptor – he was very good at painting and making wooden and iron figures. However, his father thought that it wouldn’t earn his son a living and at the age of thirteen Auguste was told that he would become a cook. The boy left home to take up an apprenticeship with his uncle, who owned a restaurant in Nice.
C)Auguste didn’t mind his father’s decision very much – he liked helping his grandmother in the kitchen. However, the restaurant kitchen was very different from his grandmother’s. It was a small room, unbearably hot and stuffy. Lots of dishes were being fried, boiled or stewed at the same time. The people were sweating and swearing and the standards of hygiene were very low, if there were any at all. D)Escoffier, however, didn’t give up and was quickly rewarded for his hard work. At the age of nineteen he was offered a job in a highly Parisian restaurant. At the time of Franko-Prussian War Escoffier served in the army as a Chef and managed to prepare delicious dishes from very basic ingredients. When Escoffier returned to civil life, he became really famous and worked in the most fashionable restaurants of Paris, London and Monte Carlo.
E)Escoffier was in the culinary profession for more than sixty years. He wrote several culinary books that are still popular with chefs. In the books one can find detailed instructions on how to make a piece of art in the kitchen. He created lots of new salads, meat and fish dishes, sauces and desserts. One of Escoffier’s most famous desserts is probably Peach Melba, a dish that he created specially for the opera singer Nellie Melba, who dined in his restaurant.
F)Escoffier made French Cuisine famous worldwide. Apart from creating new dishes he changed cooking techniques, the order of serving dishes and kitchen organization. Escoffier introduced the brigade system – each member was responsible for particular operations and the chef supervised the whole process. Escoffier’s kitchens were spotlessly clean, his staff were efficient and polite, swearing and drinking was absolutely prohibited. He turned cooking into art.
G)As with any outstanding person, Auguste Escoffier was gifted in many other ways. The famous Sarah Bernhardt liked his paintings and reproached him for burying the talent of an artist. Cesar Ritz, the founder of the Hotel Ritz in Paris and London, highly valued Escoffier as a businessman. Thy had worked together in Baden-Baden Paris, London and Monte Carlo.