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"This Wizard Of The Cooking Stove": How P.G. Wodehouse Contributed To The Field Of Gastronomy Through Anatole, The French Chef, In The Jeeves-And-Wooster Series, Elizabeth Wilson, Anke Klitzing

European Journal of Food Drink and Society

Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson’s premise that Balzac, a realist fiction author, contributed to the cultural field of gastronomy by his ethnographically accurate depictions of restaurants in mid-nineteenth-century Paris, prompts asking whether this may be true for other fiction authors that painstakingly reflect the foodways of their time and place, such as English author P.G. Wodehouse through his character, the French chef Anatole, in the Jeeves-and-Wooster series. Thematic analysis found three gastronomic themes surrounding Anatole that could be confirmed as historically accurate. The highly-skilled chef employed in the country houses of the Edwardian upper class possessed cultural capital through his professional capabilities …