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Books

Du fait de cuisine / On Cookery of Master Chiquart (1420)

Du fait de cuisine / On Cookery of Master Chiquart (1420): “Aucune science de l’art de cuysinerie et de cuysine”

Translated by Terence Scully

Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-86698-402-7

The Archives of the Valais, Switzerland, hold a manuscript a culinary treatise of a certain Chiquart. Dated 1420, the Du fait de cuisine turned out to be a remarkable presentation of fine banquet fare and the best cookery practices of that time. The novel format that Chiquart chose for his work is of a pair of elegant two-day banquets, one for meat days, the other for lean days. Thirty-three more recipes cover contingencies: a prolongation of the banquet and the presence of sick persons at the lord’s court. An initial section of the work lists all the provisions and personnel that a cook should ensure he has at hand.

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This edition offers an introduction on the alimentary traditions that Chiquart drew upon and contributed to. An English translation, the only full English translation of the text available, accompanies the manuscript text. Footnotes help explain the techniques and procedures that Chiquart uses; an index helps the reader navigate the translated text.

Click here to go to the Publisher’s website

Click here to read selections from the original text with facing modern French translation

Click here to see our section on Medieval Food

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