Alessandro Filippini

Alessandro Filippini was a chef at Delmonico's Restaurant in New York, and a cookbook author.

Filippini was born in Airolo, a town at the very north end of Ticino canton in Switzerland (the same canton that the Delmonico family came from.) Today, the St Gotthard road tunnel under the alps, which starts in the north at Göschenen in Uri canton, ends at Airolo.

Filippini was hired by Delmonico's in 1849 by Lorenzo Delmonico. At the time, Delmonico's had just one restaurant, at 2 South William Street. By 1884, Filippini was manager and "chef de cuisine" at their second restaurant on Pine Street. Several sources mention that Filippini left Delmonico's in 1863; he may have left for a short time, but then would have come back. If he did leave, he had returned by the next year, 1864, and resumed his previous duties. In 1800, he published his first cookbook, "The Delmonico Cookbook."

He retired in 1888, when the Pine Street Restaurant was closed, and dedicated himself to writing cookbooks. In the same year, he wrote a letter to Charles Constant Delmonico to ask if he could dedicate his book, "The Table", to the family. He wrote: "Having been with the 'Delmonico's' for nearly a quarter of a century . . . " In 1888, he had in fact been with Delmonico's for 39 years, but if he were counting from an 1864 return to the restaurant, that would make nearly the quarter of a century that he referred to.

In his cookbooks, he gave precise measurements (many cookbooks of the time were still giving imprecise, general measurements.)

Louis Fauchère, another chef at Delmonico's, is said to have trained under him.

Books

1880. The Delmonico Cookbook
1888. La Table: How To Buy Food, How to Cook It, and How to Serve It. republished 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1895. In contrast to Ranhofer's later book, The Epicurean (1894), which gave complex recipes from Delmonico's, Filippini sought to simplify the dishes for the home cook. It wouldn't be the lady of the house who was doing the cooking, though: this was for well-to-do people who had cooks, many of whom were immigrant girls who had only the most basic of cooking skills. One suggested weekday home dinner menu includes venision with Colbert sauce, sweetbreads à la Pompadour, roast ducks and omelettes soufflées for dessert.
1892. 100 Ways of Cooking Eggs.
1893. 100 Desserts. New York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1893
1912. The International Cook Book
also: 100 Ways of Cooking Fish