Charles Elmé Francatelli (1805 – 10 August 1876) was a British chef, known for four cookery books popular in the Victorian era, including The Modern Cook.

[3] In 1838 Francatelli switched from aristocratic households to a gentlemen's club, Crockford's in St James's, in succession to Louis Eustache Ude, as maître d'hotel.

[4] Following the example of another famous chef, Alexis Soyer, who had published The Poor Man's Regenerator in 1847, Francatelli brought out A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes in 1852.

[20] After seven years at the Reform, ending when he quarrelled with the club's committee in 1861,[4] Francatelli took charge of the kitchens of the St James's Hotel, at the corner of Berkeley Street and Piccadilly, from 1863 to 1870, and was concurrently chef de cuisine to the Prince and Princess of Wales at the nearby Marlborough House from early 1863 until at least late September 1866.

[21] The obituarist in The Daily Telegraph acknowledged that Francatelli taught "plain and cheap cookery to the middle and humble classes" but added that in his own cooking he was inclined to excessive lavishness and "truffled his dishes not wisely but too well".

In The Modern Cook, aimed at an upper-class readership, his instructions are phrased more ceremoniously than those in Plain Cookery for the Working Classes, where, in Notaker's view, he adopted "a more direct and slightly patronizing voice".

[26] In a 2006 biographical essay on Francatelli, Mary Ellen Snodgrass calls him "Victorian England’s most famous chef ... able to commiserate with the struggles of the poor to feed their families".

[6] William Sitwell, writing for The Daily Telegraph in May 2024, referred to A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes as "the most revolting cookbook of all time".