zabeth in 1577 by Lord
Keeper Bacon at Gorhambury, is an item of L12 as wages to the cooks
of London. An accredited anecdote makes Bacon's father inimical to too
lavish an outlay in the kitchen; but a far more profuse housekeeper
might have been puzzled to dispense with special help, where the
consumption of viands and the consequent culinary labour and skill
required, were so unusually great.

In the Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales," the Cook of London and his
qualifications are thus emblazoned:--

"A Cook thei hadde with hem for the nones,
To boylle chyknes, with the mary bones,
And poudre marchaunt tart, and galyngale;
Wel cowde he knowe a draugte of London ale.
He cowde roste, and sethe, and broille, and frie
Maken mortreux, and wel bake a pie.
But gret harm was it, as it thoughte me,
That on his schyne a mormal had he:
For blankmanger that made he with the beste."

This description would be hardly worth quoting, if it were not for the
source whence it comes, and the names which it presents in common
with the "Form of Cury" and other ancient relics. Chaucer's Cook was a
personage of unusually wide experience, having, in his capacity as the
keeper of an eating-house, to cater for so many customers of varying
tastes and resources.

In the time of Elizabeth, the price at an ordinary for a dinner seems
to have been sixpence. It subsequently rose to eightpence; and in the
time of George I. the "Vade Mecum for Malt Worms (1720)" speaks of the
landlord of The Bell, in Carter Lane, raising his tariff to tenpence.
In comparison with the cost of a similar meal at present, all these
quotations strike one as high, when the different value of money is
considered. But in 1720, at all events, the customer ate at his own
discretion.

Their vicinity to East Cheap, the great centre of early taverns and
cook's-shops, obtained for Pudding Lane and Pie Corner those savoury
designations.

Paris, like London, had its cook's-shops, where you might eat your
dinner on the premises, or have it brought to your lodging in a
covered dish by a _porte-chape._ In the old prints of French kitchen
interiors, the cook's inseparable companion is his ladle, which
he used for stirring and serving, and occasionally for dealing a
refractory _garcon de cuisine_ a rap on the head.

The Dictionary of Johannes de Garlandia (early thirteenth century)
represents the cooks at Paris as imposing on the ignorant and
inexperienced bad