LA CHAPELLE (Vincent). Le Cuisinier moderne, qui apprend à donner toutes sortes de repas, en gras et en maigre, d'une manière plus délicate que ce qui en a été écrit jusqu'à présent. The Hague, Antoine De Groot for Antoine van Dole, 1736. 4 volumes in 2 volumes in-8, half red basane, untrimmed (Binding of the period). First French edition of one of the most important gastronomic treatises of the eighteenth century. This very rare and sought-after book is dated both 1735 and 1736. The illustrations include 11 folding plates engraved in intaglio, representing models of dishes, main courses and pots à oille, table plans for twelve to one hundred place settings, plus 4 folding plates of menus printed in letterpress. After serving Lord Chesterfield, Vincent La Chapelle became head chef to William IV of Orange-Nassau, the dedicatee of this work. After the trial run of The Modern Cook, the English edition published in 1733, La Chapelle had this first edition of his work published in French in The Hague. The work, considered by Carême, Escoffier and Nignon to be a master book of great novelty, describes more than fifteen hundred dishes: soups, coulis, terrines, poultry, pâtés, entremets, ragoûts, starters, fish, etc. The author insists on the need to use the most modern cooking techniques. The author insists on the need for a new refinement in taste and presentation. Above all, he invented the modern coulis and Spanish sauce, and adapted many foreign recipes - English, Dutch, Italian, Polish and German, and even exotic ones that he had discovered during his travels in India and on Bourbon Island. "One of the most reliable of reference books dealing with the knowledge of cookery and the pleasures of the table during the eighteenth century" (Simon). Pronounced foxing; minor rubbing to spines. Vicaire, 867-868 - Simon, BG, 933 - Bitting, 268 - Livres en bouche, n°193.