He codified and to some extent simplified classical French cookery, insisted on the finest and most expensive ingredients, and was regarded as the foremost chef of his day. The date of his birth cannot be authenticated and is disputed. The day and month are generally accepted as 8 June and the year as either or There have been two contrasting explanations of how this came about.
More recent biographers have raised the possibility that this is a fanciful account, and that the family simply arranged for the gargotier to take the boy on.
Some biographers portray him as remaining at the gargote for more than five years, sweeping, washing, running errands, serving at table, and later, when he was considered mature enough, helping in the preparation of food. He gained outstanding skill at this, and later put it to use in two confections with which he became particularly associated: the vol-au-vent and mille-feuille.
Bailly was conscious of the need to innovate and attract new custom. He is credited with saying, later, "The fine arts are five in number: music, painting, sculpture, poetry and architecture β of which the principal branch is confectionery".
After the defeat of Napoleon in , the British and Russians occupied Paris. According to the biographer Marie-Pierre Rey, "Talleyrand's generous hospitality undoubtedly had positive effects on the tsar's mood and the magnanimity that he showed to the French state". Already a renowned pastry-cook, he had risen further, to be chef de cuisine to the most powerful man in Europe, reflecting his employer's status with suitable culinary magnificence.
