The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book - Victor Hirtzler

The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book

By Victor Hirtzler

  • Release Date: 2014-05-06
  • Genre: Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Description

Note: This edition of The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book has been updated to include Metric equivalents.

One of America's first celebrity chefs, Victor Hirtzler brings you his most famous cook book, The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book, offering you menus and recipes for three meals per day, each day of the year. Hirtzler, was head chef of San Francisco, California's St. Francis Hotel from its opening in 1904 until 1926. He publicized himself and his hotel by inventing dishes, writing cookbooks, and hosting extravagant meals.

He writes, “In this, my book, I have endeavored to give expression to the art of cookery as developed in recent years in keeping with the importance of the catering business, in particular the hotel business, which, in America, now leads the world.

“I have been fortunate in studying under the great masters of the art in Europe and America; and since my graduation as Chef I have made several journeys of observation to New York, and to England, France and Switzerland to learn the new in cooking and catering. I have named my book The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book in compliment to the house which has given me in so generous measure the opportunity to produce and reproduce, always with the object of reflecting a cuisine that is the best possible.”

Hirtzler trained at the Grand Hotel in Paris, France, served as cook and food taster to Czar Nicholas II, and chef du cuisine for Carlos I of Portugal, before moving to Sherry's and the Waldorf in New York City. In 1904 he moved to San Francisco to manage food service at the recently opened St. Francis Hotel on Union Square.

The hotel survived the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, and opened for breakfast as usual that morning, shortly after the quake, to the surprise and admiration of the city's residents. Hirtzler created and named a dish after Enrico Caruso, a prominent guest at the time. For a number of years, including the 100th anniversary of the disaster, the hotel recreated the morning's menu for a special "Earthquake Survivor Breakfast" in honor of the last few remaining survivors, with dishes including "Chilled Rhubarb Stew", "Southern Hominy with Cream", and "Eggs with Black Truffles in Puff Pastry". However, the hotel interior was soon gutted by fires sweeping the city, and the main part of the hotel closed until 1907.

Known for a thick French accent, a pointed beard and curled moustache, showy costumes that included a red fez, and frequent appearances to greet guests and dignitaries throughout the hotel, Hirtzler "exceeded even the Hollywood portrait of a master chef". His cooking style was French, and he specialized in offering his guests many choices: "A typical dinner menu would offer a choice of fourteen cheeses, twenty clam or oyster dishes, eleven soups, twenty-four relishes, seventeen kinds of fish, and fifty-eight entrées from hamburger to Bohemian ham." Breakfasts included 203 different preparations of eggs, such as "Eggs Moscow" stuffed with caviar. In addition to naming dishes after guests (such as "Eggs Sarah Bernhardt", with diced chicken), Hirtzler invented or renamed a number of dishes after himself including "Chicken Salad Victor", "Crab Cocktail Victor", "Victor Dressing", and the best known, "Celery Victor". Hirtzler may also have invented "Crab Louie".

[Portions of this description courtesy of Wikipedia].

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