The Culinary Guide

Le Guide Culinaire, by Auguste Escoffier

Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935), regarded as the father of modern cuisine, catalogued more than 5,000 recipes — from starters to pâtés and terrines, roasts to soups, desserts to sandwiches… without forgetting caviar.

Here is an excerpt dedicated to “the finest of hors d’oeuvres,” taken from his essential work Le Guide Culinaire:

Caviar: served in a special dish surrounded by ice, accompanied by blinis and thin buttered slices of rye bread.

Note — By caviar, we mean caviar of excellent quality, with large translucent grains and a light colour, which is the finest of hors d’oeuvres. It is sometimes served with very finely chopped onion and lemon — a method strongly discouraged, since fresh caviar, whose flavour is perfect, requires no supporting condiment.

When fresh caviar is unavailable, pressed and salted caviar may also be used in the preparation of hors d’oeuvres; however, these products should never be served plain like fresh caviar, to which they are far inferior.