The Accomplisht Cook (1665-85)

Encouraged by Frances Bissell's recent statement that Robert May's was her favourite cookery book, I thought of the very small number I printed of the hardback version of this facsimile in 1994. There is no more important 17th-century work: written after a lifetime's professional experience; receptive to, but not dominated by foreign in-fluence; a master of the colourful recipe; prefaced by a cook's biography; 'a prototype of the modern cookery book' that excludes medical recipes, covers the whole gamut of cookery and includes illustrations to clarify points in the text. This is a facsimile of the 1685 edition, incorporating Robert May's last amendments from 1665. There is a useful biographical introduction, a graceful foreword by Alan Davidson, and a full glossary.

The Accomplisht Cook was first published in 1660 and this is a facsimile of the 1685 edition. Robert May was cook to the aristocracy of Royalist England; born in the year of the Armada; trained by his own father, then by powerful patrons in Paris; before apprenticeship in London with the cook to the Star Chamber. In the course of a long life, working almost exclusively for fellow Catholics and Royalists, he absorbed all the most fashionable tendencies at large in the kitchens of England.

Robert May was born in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1588. At age ten, he was sent to Paris by Lady Dormer where he trained for five years to become a chef. He then served his apprenticship in London. He then worked for several country estates, thirteen household of minor English nobility. He wrote The Accomplisht Cook after the civil war, amd this book is known for its focus on potages or soups.