This is Eugene Grossrieter, or Chester to friends – a nod to the French word for English Cheshire cheese, apparently due to his dislike for le fromage. He was the grill-room chef at Paris's Hotel Chatham in the 1920s. It's quite unusual to have such a precise and monumental record of a 20th-century working man. He's even depicted with his choice cooling aid for sweaty kitchen shifts – a trusty bottle of stout. The artist, William Orpen RA, saw Grossrieter during his regular visits to the hotel and thought his face and figure would make a good picture. Orpen was a leading fashionable portraitist of Europe's rich and famous, but here he portrays Grossrieter with swagger and poise equal to any nobleman. When Orpen unveiled this work at the RA's Summer Exhibition, the @Tate bought it with a special fund reserved for outstanding art made in Britain. But soon after he was ratted out – a few art-world types had seen him working on the painting in Paris. Orpen had to withdraw from the deal, and ended up donating the work to the RA on occasion of his membership. He later commented that Grossrieter "got more out of the picture than I did, for I gave it away while he got a good 20 Francs worth of whiskey at each sitting, and he didn’t even thank me". #InternationalChefsDay #RACollection Sir William Orpen RA, 'Le Chef de l'Hôtel Chatham, Paris', ca. 1921. Oil on canvas, 1270mm x 1025mm x 25mm.