Henri Babinski

Henri Babinski (2 July 1855 – 20 August 1931), who wrote under the pen-name Ali-Bab, was a French gastronome and food writer. After a successful career as a mining engineer he retired to his native Paris, where he wrote ("Practical Gastronomy").

Born to Polish refugees, Babinski, together with his younger brother Joseph, was educated at the Polish school in Paris. Babinski then studied at the National School of Mines, before working in three continents as a consultant mining engineer. On retirement he joined his brother in a flat in Paris, where he wrote his book. It was his only book, but such was its success that he revised it for four new editions between its first publication in 1907 and 1928, and it ran to more than a thousand pages.

The book was not translated into English until 1974, when it was hailed in ''The New York Times'' as a major contribution to gastronomic literature. Provided by Wikipedia