Accomplisht Cook (1660/85) or The Art and Mystery of Cookery by Robert May

Robert May, born 1588, was cook to the aristocracy. He cooked for fellow Catholics and Royalists in their fashionable kitchen. The Accomplisht Cook was first published in 1660 and this is a facsimile of the 1685 edition. Robert May was cook to the aristocracy of Royalist England; born in the year of the Armada; trained by his own father, then by powerful patrons in Paris; before apprenticeship in London with the cook to the Star Chamber. In the course of a long life, working almost exclusively for fellow Catholics and Royalists, he absorbed all the most fashionable tendencies at large in the kitchens of England.