Pierre Blot

Pierre Blot was a 19th-century French-born chef and food writer whose life before America is still not well documented. Library and reference records describe him as arriving in the United States in the 1850s, and one contemporary newspaper account later referred to him as a political refugee.

In the 1860s, he became known for teaching cookery in a public, almost classroom-style way. He was identified on his books as a "Professor of Gastronomy" and founder of the New York Cooking Academy, and records of the period note that his lecture series in Boston in 1866 was successful enough to be published.

Blot is best remembered for books such as Prof. Blot's Lectures on Cookery and Hand-book of Practical Cookery for Ladies and Professional Cooks. Those works helped present French culinary methods to home cooks and professionals in a more organized, instructional format, which is part of why he still stands out in early American food writing.