OP: Le Cuisinier Moderne (5 vols)

Daniel Morcrette, 1984 (1742). Five hardcover volumes. Fine in slipcase.

In the lineage of great French chefs, Vincent La Chapelle (1690 or 1703–1745) was the standard bearer preceding the likes of Antonin Carême and Auguste Escoffier. His 1742 five volume treatise, Le Cuisinier Moderne (Vicaire 868, Bitting 268), was one of the most important texts on aristocratic French cuisine during his lifetime and, frankly, for many years to come.

Dedicated to the Dutch William IV of Orange for whom La Chapelle was working at the time, it is styled the second edition, as an English language The Modern Cook (3 vols, 1733) and a French language Le Cuisinier Moderne (4 vols, 1735) version came before. 

With some 2000 recipes and folding plates illustrating table settings, menus, and dishes, it is an impressive document of culinary history. Notably, La Chapelle includes many international cuisines—English, Polish, Italian, German, Indian—reflecting his experience and travels.

We are offering here a 1984 facsimile published by Daniel Morcrette. Morcrette was a rare cookbook collector whose focus became the preservation of books which might have otherwise disappeared from public knowledge. During the 1970s and ‘80s he printed facsimiles of a number of great works, primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries. 

Ours are a Fine and exquisite set, hand numbered 57 of 200 (20 hors de commerce) and signed on the colophon. Bound in full green sheepskin with gilt edges and embossing, each volume with a ribbon marker. Matching green slipcase, also Fine.