Chef Ranhofer was born in France but spent most of his professional life in America. As chef for the legendary Delmonico Restaurant in New York City, he had a huge influence on American professional cooking, culinary benevolent societies, his profession of chef and the international reputation of the United States as a country and how we were perceived by other societies around the world.
In a world where excessive wealth was constantly on display, he was the chef who displayed the consummate artistry of chef and pastry chef for some of the world's most influential people.
His career and book profiled in The Founders of American Cuisine has me call him America's chef. See if you agree. And by the way, his massive book was published 11 years before the much more well-known Ma Cuisine by August Escoffier. So is it fair to say that Escoffier was the French Ranhofer?
You decide.
