The accomplisht cook By Robert May The Accomplisht Cook was first published in 1660 and this is a facsimile of the 1685 edition. Robert May was cook to the aristocracy of Royalist England; born in the year of the Armada; trained by his own father, then by powerful patrons in Paris; before apprenticeship in London with the cook to the Star Chamber. In the course of a long life, working almost exclusively for fellow Catholics and Royalists, he absorbed all the most fashionable tendencies at large in the kitchens of England.