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A Party Dish by X. Marcel Boulestin
Guests to impress? Celebrity chef Marcel Boulestin out a quick veal escalope with the aid of a shiny new gas cooker.
Overview
Think of party food, and escalope of veal with boiled cucumber and cream sauce followed by Spanish omelette may not immediately spring to mind. But in the 1930s top chef Marcel Boulestin was on a mission to inspire Britain's home cooks, and to persuade them that fancy food needn't be a chore - thanks to the trusty new gas cooker. This was one of several gas industry-sponsored films directed by British documentary pioneer Arthur Elton, most famous of which was Housing Problems (1935, co-directed by Edgar Anstey).
Born in Poitiers, France, Xavier Marcel Boulestin moved to London in 1906, and played a key role in popularising French cuisine in Britain. His eponymous restaurant, reputed to be the most expensive in London, opened in 1927, followed by a stream of cookery books which made him an early celebrity chef. He made a second film promoting the gas cooker, A Scratch Meal with Marcel Boulestin (1936), also directed by Arthur Elton.
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