Xavier Marcel Boulestin

French-born British chef, restaurateur, and author, Xavier Marcel Boulestin (1878 - 1943) has been called 'the most subtle, imaginative, and liberating food writer of his day' and was a major influence on the work of Elizabeth David.

In 1925, Boulestin opened Boulestin's Restaurant Française in London. It was called 'the prettiest restaurant in London' by Cecil Beaton, and writer Edward Laroque Tinker declared in The New York Times that at Boulestin's 'one gets the most perfect and récherché dinner to be found in all London'.

Boulestin followed the success of his restaurant with cooking courses and popular books, and wrote many articles about food in Vogue and The Manchester Guardian. Boulestin was also the first television chef, appearing on a BBC programme in television's earliest experimental days, in 1937.