The first edition was published in 1788 as The Lady's Complete Guide, or Cookery in all its Branches; Containing the most approved Receipts, confirmed by Observation and Practice, in every reputable English Book of Cookery now extant. According to the title page, and to contemporary advertisements for the book, it incorporates recipes "translated from the Productions of Cooks of Eminence who have published in France", specifically the Duke de Nivernois, M. Commo's Histoire de Cuisine, M. Disang's Maitre d'Hotel, M. Dupont, M. Valois, M. Troas and M. Delatour, "with their respective Names to each Receipt".Cole (1788), title page A. W. Oxford in his 1913 study English Cookery Books to the Year 1850 and Alan Davidson in The Oxford Companion to Food both comment that this is curious, as none of the names are known to the standard bibliographers of French writings on cookery.Oxford, pp. 117–119Davidson, p. 203 Davidson suggests that they may have been inventions, designed to satirise "those English authors who made a great to-do about following French authors".
