King Louis IX, later known as Saint Louis, tasked Étienne Boileau with bringing order to the trades and guilds of Paris. Boileau gathered the charters of more than 100 trades. Among them: the Guild of "Les Oyers," the Goose Roasters, whose reach eventually grew to cover all poultry, meat, and game.
New statutes under King Louis XII formally renamed the guild to "Rôtisseurs" and narrowed their charter to poultry, game birds, lamb, and venison.
King Louis XIII granted the guild a royal charter and its own coat of arms: two crossed turning spits and four larding needles, surrounded by flames of the hearth on a shield.
The French Revolution abolished the entire guild system. The Rôtisseurs, along with every other guild in France, were disbanded. For more than 150 years the brotherhood was all but forgotten.
Dr. Auguste Bécart, Jean Valby, and the legendary "Prince" Curnonsky (elected Prince of Gastronomes in 1927) joined forces with chefs Louis Giraudon and Marcel Dorin to bring the Society back to life as La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.
On October 26, nineteen members were inducted into a new Bethesda/Chevy Chase, Maryland Bailliage. It would later become the Bailliage of Greater Washington, D.C.
Fifty years to the day after its founding, the Bailliage of Greater Washington celebrated its 50th anniversary with over 130 members.
La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs is now the oldest and largest gastronomic organization in the world. More than 80,000 people take part in its activities across nearly 80 countries, with over 6,000 members in the United States alone.
