He is credited with introducing service à la russe to Western European dining, and the term chef.

He is credited with introducing the now conventional service à la russe (in which dishes are served sequentially, instead of all at once) to Western Europe.

[1] This style of service required a menu — so that guests could gauge their appetite — and a person in charge of it, who Dubois called the chef, not until then a conventional term.

In 1870, at the start of the Franco-Prussian War, Dubois returned for a short period to France but after the peace treaty was signed in March 1871 he resumed his position with the Hohenzollern family.

He shared the position of head chef with his compatriot, Émile Bernard, with each being responsible for the cooking on alternate months.