A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes

Charles Elmé Francatelli

Charles Elmé Francatelli was a British chef, known for four cookery books popular in the Victorian era, including The Modern Cook. He trained in Paris under Antonin Carême and became one of London's best-known chefs, succeeding Louis Eustache Ude at Crockford's Club and following Alexis Soyer at the Reform Club. In the early 1840s he was head chef to Queen Victoria. In addition to cooking for the upper classes, Francatelli tried to help the poorer members of society to feed their families, and he published A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes in 1852, containing recipes with inexpensive ingredients.