Louis Ude
Born in 1769, Ude cooked for royalty for most of his life. His father worked in the kitchens of Louis XVI, and he secured a job for Louis as an apprentice sous-chef there as well. Louis hadn’t quite developed his interest in cooking, so he took a series of other jobs (printer, jeweler, casino employee) before returning to his original vocation as maître d’hotel for Napoleon’s mother Princess Maria Letizia Bonaparte. Two years later he left France for England, where he spent the rest of his career. He first worked for William Molyneux, second Earl of Sefton, a renowned epicure who also loved hunting, coursing, steeple-chasing, and gambling. During his twenty years with the Earl, Ude wrote his classic The French Cook, and when the Earl died, he left Ude 100 guineas a year in his will. He then went to work for the Duke of York, and upon his death, was hired as the first chef de cuisine at the newly opened Crockford’s gambling club, which is still in operation today under the name Fifty.
