The French chef de cuisine Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935) is claimed to have revolutionised work in large commercial kitchens by rationalising it and by dividing cooks into specialist groups or parties. Time and again this assertion is repeated. By exploring a more diversified range of sources, one can establish that a hierarchically structured brigade of specialised kitchen workers was not invented by Escoffier round the turn of the century. But not all large hotel and restaurant kitchens adopted the French brigade system, which was typical for high-end establishments and venues catering for an international clientele. Numerous large restaurants appealing to a more local clientele organised their work differently. Typically, they employed more women cooks, for which there was no room in the hierarchically structured brigades.