Little is known of the early life of the French chef Louis Eustache Ude (d.1846). He claims in this work, first published in 1813 and reissued here in its 1827 eighth edition, to have had 'upwards of forty years practice and assiduous application to the study of his profession'. The book describes him as 'ci-devant cook to Louis XVI', but the greater part of his career was spent in England. His first English employer, the earl of Sefton, paid him the considerable sum of 300 guineas a year. After twenty years, Ude moved on, to the United Services Club and then to the duke of York's household,...