Henri Lecourt’s La Cuisine Chinoise, 1925 – (#1 of 3) – La Cuisine Chinoise and Henri Lecourt

Posted: December 27th, 2025 | No Comments »

A beautiful 1925 edition of La Cuisine Chinoise by Henri Lecourt, a French member of Tianjin’s interwar “foreign colony” and Directeur du Bureau de Poste de la Concession Française for the French Concession there.

It’s quite rare – only 500 or so copies were ever published – and commands high prices when it does come up for sale. It has been argued that it is the first French book on Chinese food? It was published in Peking (or Pékin, as the French say) by Albert Nachbaur (as “Éditeur”) ( see part 2 of this 3-part series on the book). 40 copies of La Cuisine Chinoise were issued on papier Honan, a further 10 copies were issued on papier Coréen, and 500 copies released as the trade issue on papier pelure Chinois. So it’s rare and expensive!

The London rare book dealers Peter Harrington have posted the following on the book:

‘This in-depth study of Chinese cuisine was written by a master French chef, Henri Lecourt, who was was head of the French post at Tianjin and a member of the Order of the Cloud of Jade Green. He was married to a Chinese chef with whom he conducted the research for this pioneering work, and was a learned connoisseur of both French and Chinese cooking. The work includes a chapter on smoking vegetables, which spices to use and what to replace them with if unavailable, and many recipes using tofu. It also includes detailed accounts on the origins of the recipes, and on table manners and dining etiquette. The publisher notes that “In the enormous bibliography devoted to cooking, one would seek in vain, written in European language a document on Chinese gastronomy. We must therefore praise Mr. Lecourt, one of our compatriots residing in China for many years, knowing Chinese and Chinese inside out, for having filled this gap”.’

Tomorrow some more on Albert Nachbaur, a most interesting old Peking resident…..

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