Keep to Eat: The History of Garde Manger

Keep to eat! This is the translation for the French phrase “Garde Manger”. “Garde Manger” also translates as “Keeper of Food”. This term originated in France prior to the French Revolution. During this time in France maintaining a substantial supply of food was a representation of power and wealth. Aristocratic households had a steward who managed the household’s cold store room. The store rooms were usually located in the lower levels of the manors because the coolness of these levels was the ideal environment for storing food. “Officer de bouche” was the French title for steward and was later to be replaced with today’s title of “Garde Manger”. Most food was butchered, pickled, salted, cured or smoked in the fall and stored during the winter months, sometimes until spring, making the steward’s job a very important position. Though most of the food was eaten some was not. Some items such as large portions of aged cheeses and smoked hams were used as portions of dowries. The items of food saved for dowries were combined with live stock, precious metals, and property. The steward’s duty of supervising food preservation and managing its utilization is why many people interpret “Garde Manger” as “keep to eat”.

Merchants who did not work in the noble manners were usually members of a guild. A guild is similar to today’s unions. They were an association of people who work in the same trade and made for the mutual aid and protection of those people. Training programs were available to those who were members to help preserve their knowledge and skills of their chosen trade. These training programs took members from an apprenticeship position and brought them up to journeyman position. After the journeyman position, members can become masters of their trade.

There were approximately two dozen guilds dedicated to food by the end of the sixteenth century. There were two different categories that the food guilds were put in; raw foods and prepared foods. Charcuterie was the guild that prepared and sold items made from pigs. This guild worked on preserving meats, making bacon, ham, sausage and pates. Charcuterie is sometimes referred to as “The Art of the Pig” though the actual translation is “cooked flesh”.

During the French Revolution several Garde Mangers, Chefs, and cooks were put out of work when their employers fled France in fear of being beheaded by the guillotine. The workers left behind found their way into working at restaurants; some even opened their own restaurants. The guilds were eventually abolished in 1791, at the end of the French Revolution. The guild members had difficulty finding jobs since they were competing against the much more experienced Garde Mangers. The Garde Mangers had the opportunity to work with several different types of foods while those who were members of the guilds had very limited access to the types of foods they were able to work with.

The butcher position was first created as a specialty in the Garde Manger kitchen. More space was needed for fabricating and portioning raw meat once the cost and demands of animal proteins increased. The increased sales of meats and the need to keep raw food separate from prepared food in order to prevent cross-contamination was the start of butcher shops. Special shops were created for the butchering of raw meats. These shops were created in such a way that portion sizes, product utilization, temperature could be firmly controlled.

Today Garde Manger is referred to as “The Art of the Cold Kitchen”. Some may even say it is the arts and crafts of the culinary industry. Today’s Garde Mangers must behold more than simple food preservation skills. They must have the knowledge and skills to create everything as small as a batch of mayonnaise to something as large and elaborate as ice carving.

Some food establishments use the word pantry instead of Garde Manager. Some may even refer to it as the salad station…the list goes on and on. In the restaurant scene the Garde Manger’s job is typically plating salads and preparing cold appetizers. In some situations it may even be their job to plate desserts. Some find the experience of working in the Garde Manger extremely challenging and stimulating that they often decide to make it their life long career. The skills needed for the Garde Manger are so extreme that it is often the walkway that leads some to the path of being a great chef, possibly even a famous chef.