"NOW WE KNOW WHAT COOKING IS!"

SOYER, Nicolas. Soyer's Paper-Bag Cookery. New York: Sturgis & Walton, (1911). Small octavo (4-3/4 by 6-3/4 inches), original tan cloth, original dust jacket. $300.

First American edition, second printing, issued the same year as the English edition of Soyer's famed cookbook, inspired by "the 'en papillote' of the classical cuisine of the French," scarce in original dust jacket.

In 1911, as a "craze for 'paper-bag cookery' swept over England," Nicolas Soyer, grandson of famed chef Alexis Soyer, was its chief spokesman (Morris, Portrait of a Chef, 117). Calling his process the "equivalent of the 'en papillote' of the classical cuisine of the French," Soyer, chef of Brooks' Club in London, created this cookbook's distinctive recipes. Elizabeth David is among those who continues to credit the influence of "a turn-of-the-century book on paper-bag cookery by Nicolas Soyer" (Los Angeles Times). Preceded by the same year's first English edition: published June 6, 1911. Rear advertisement page for the "Union Cooking Bags" created by Soyer for his process. This copy with a laid-in Union Cooking Bags promotional booklet (3-1/2 by 6-inches) featuring Soyer's recipes. Bitting, 444. Cagle & Stafford 725.

Book fine; light edge-wear, faint soiling to scarce near-fine dust jacket.