Guillaume Tirel

Engraving based on the tomb of Guillaume Tirel (see original below) flanked by his two wives, and showing three casserole pots on his shield. Image extracted from the edition of Le Viandier by Baron Jérôme Pichon et Georges Vicaire

Guillaume Tirel , known as ( (ca. 1310 – 1395) was an important figure in the early history of French cuisine. He was cook to the Court of France at the time of the first Valois kings and the Hundred Years' War. He was the author of one of the earliest known French cookery books and the first to be printed.

Life and career The food historian Anne Willan has remarked that Taillevent "must have been quite a character" because "a remarkable amount is known about him in an age when most craftsmen, like the builders of the Gothic cathedrals, passed forgotten into history". a 2020 article suggests that the word meant a light sail on a small boat and was a reference to his large, pronounced, aquiline nose.

Taillevent's first position was or (kitchen boy) to Queen Jeanne d'Évreux of France in 1326, with the task of turning the large roasting spits before the open fire. By 1346 he had risen to be a (cook) to the French King Philip VI, and in 1349 he was granted a house in consideration of the good and pleasant service the king had received. He was raised to the rank of or squire as , and his master was the Dauphin de Viennois – the heir to the French throne. In 1381 he became to Charles VI and from 1388 to 1392 he was of the royal kitchens, heading the half-dozen kitchens of the queen and the various royal dukes as well as those of the king.

He expanded a collection of recipes as Le Viandier, a famous book on cookery and cookery technique, probably written with the encouragement of Charles V, who was known as Charles the Wise because of his fine judgment and cultivated tastes. In the view of the cookery writer Terence Scully, the Viandier embodies late medieval French cookery: its influence can be seen in most of the printed cookery books of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The grave was vandalised during the French Revolution, when the church and its dependencies were sold as national property. The remains of the tombstone were preserved in the museum of the city of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. and subsequently restored at the church.

Taillevant is still a major name in cooking. The two-Michelin-star Taillevent restaurant was founded in 1946 and moved to the former town house of the Duc de Morny in 1950 in the 8th arrondissement of Paris between the Boulevard Haussmann and the Champs-Elysées. The Michelin Guide (2026) calls it a "legendary establishment ... the epitome of French classicism". It has two subsidiary outposts, one in Paris (described by Michelin as an "ultra-chic brasserie") and one in London, both called Les 110 de Taillevent. Additionally, there is a hospitality school – the Lycée Hôtelier Guillaume Tirel – which has four training restaurants and focuses their practices on the foundations of Taillevent's work in Le Viandier.