The late medieval cookbook Du fait de cuisine ("On cookery") was written in 1420 in part to compete with the court of Burgundy [1] by Maistre Chiquart, master chef of Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy. [2] [3]
The book contained banquet, supper, and curative recipes prepared for the duke, [4] including a dish composed of "a castle made of molded meat paste, adorned with five firebreathing roasted animals, innumerable smaller molded figures, and a fountain spraying rosewater and mulled wine." [5]
A translation of the work from Middle French to English was published in 2010. [6]
At the beginning of the 15th century, in the duchy of Savoy, Amadeus VIII employed a kitchen staff of twenty. Two chief cooks had charge of this highly specialized personnel in 1428, and one of them was Master Chiquart Amiczo. It was to Master Chiquart that the duke turned in 1420 to compose a treatise that would contain and preserve for posterity all that this master craftsman Knew about the craft of cookery.