Charles Elmé Francatelli

Charles Elmé Francatelli (1805 – 10 August 1876) was a British chef, known for four cookery books popular in the Victorian era, including The Modern Cook. He trained in Paris under Antonin Carême and became one of London's best-known chefs, succeeding Louis Eustache Ude at Crockford's Club and following Alexis Soyer at the Reform Club. In the early 1840s he was head chef to Queen Victoria. In addition to cooking for the upper classes, Francatelli tried to help the poorer members of society to feed their families, and he published A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes in 1852, containing recipes with inexpensive ingredients.

Life and career

Francatelli was born in London in 1805, the son of Nicholas Francatelli, a steward. Although of Italian descent, he regarded himself as an Englishman. He trained in Paris under Antonin Carême, the founder of French haute cuisine, before returning to England. French cuisine was becoming fashionable there and he was appointed chef de cuisine to the Earl of Chesterfield, after which he worked in the same capacity for the Earl of Dudley, Lord Kinnaird and Rowland Errington.

In 1838 Francatelli switched from aristocratic households to a gentlemen's club, Crockford's in St James's, in succession to Louis Eustache Ude, as maître d'hotel. He left Crockford's to become chief cook to Queen Victoria from 9 March 1840. He had a staff of two "Yeomen of the Kitchen" – deputy chefs – and twenty-four subordinate cooks. That engagement lasted until 31 March 1842; accounts differ about his reason for leaving the Queen's service: one suggestion is that the royal family preferred "plain food", as opposed to the elaborate multi-course dinners he prepared; another is that he quarrelled violently with a senior member of the Queen's staff, a third is that he thought himself underpaid and hated the foul-smelling, ill-ventilated kitchens at Buckingham Palace, which were in need of modernisation.