Which French chef wrote about riz valenciennes in Le Guide Culinaire?

Auguste Escoffier wrote about riz valenciennes in Le Guide Culinaire.

Escoffier was one of the most influential French chefs of the modern era and a major organizer of classical French cuisine. In the 1903 first publication of Le Guide Culinaire, he included riz valenciennes, the French high-cuisine treatment of rice associated with Valencia.

The dish had already appeared in French culinary writing before Escoffier. Urbain Dubois described a Valenciennes rice garnish in La cuisine classique in 1868, using ingredients such as bacon, onion, stock, chipolata sausages, Spanish pepper, artichokes, mushrooms and ham. Dubois later published another version with chicken and tomato.

Escoffier’s version treated the rice as a garnish rather than necessarily the one-pan meal familiar from modern Spanish restaurants. He used it alongside dishes such as chicken supremes with truffles. That context helps explain why “riz valenciennes” should not automatically be assumed to mean a contemporary paella recipe.

Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire was published in 1903 and became a foundational reference for classical French professional cooking. Julia Child, Fernand Point and Paul Bocuse were important chefs, but they are not the answer to this historical reference.