maître d'hôtel

plural maîtres d'hôtel · alternative maitre d'hotel · alternative maître d'hotel

1. Synonym of maître d' (“headwaiter”).

   She had previously appointed a maître d’hôtel and a number of domestics.

   1895 August, Louis de Conte, translated by [Jean François Alden] [pseudonyms; Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)], “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. […]”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XCI, number DXLIII, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →ISSN, [book I], part II, chapter X, page 464, column 2

   3 more examples

   After the first course, the maître d'hôtel came in, holding a silver dish, on which were two fish, which I did not recognise.

   1866, Alexandre Dumas, Memoires of a Maître D'armes; Or, Eighteen Months at St. Petersburg, page 106

   [Henri] Soulé had decided to keep the Pavillon open, after a fashion, by closing down the salle and serving meals only in the bar and the nouvelle salle, with the help of the non-striking members of his staff—two maîtres d’hôtel, twenty-two chefs and cooks, the cashier, the hat-check girl, and a pantryman.

   1953 March 28, Joseph Wechsberg, “Profiles: The Ambassador in the Sanctuary”, in The New Yorker, volume XXIX, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 40

   The staff for both cuisine and office were hired and fired by the maître d'hôtel.

   2011, Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789, page 102

   Synonyms: maître d'