It was in the year 1248, under St. Louis, King of France, that the Royal Guild of Oyers Rôtisseurs was established. Limited at first to the "masters" in the art of roasting geese, the object of the Guild was to perpetuate the standards of quality befitting the royal table. Soon the craft of "Rôtisseurs" encompassed the preparation of all the various meats and fowls destined for the spit or rack, and the activities of the Guild, always under royal patronage, enlarged to include the development of an apprentice program, wage and work standards, and the conferment of appropriate honors. In 1509 the official Coat of Arms was awarded to the Guild by King Louis XII.

As recorded by Hozier in L'Amorial, the components of the coat of arms are two crossed turning spits in juxtaposition with four larding needles. Flames indicate the hearth fire surrounded by the fleur-de-lis. The inner chain recalls the pulleys used to turn the spit and the outer chain represents the bond which brings together the members of this ancient order. The increasingly wealthy monopoly continued until 1776, when Louis XVI declared freedom of work laws in an effort to forestall the French Revolution. As his efforts were in vain, in 1791 the Chaîne was disbanded. Gastronomically speaking, 160 years passed until three amateurs and two professionals met in Paris in 1950 with a common goal -- to restore the pride in culinary excellence lost during a period of wartime shortages. La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs was reincorporated and the Coat of Arms of the ancient guild was restored by the French Government to which the year of incorporation of the modern Chaîne, 1950, was added. Among the founders were Jean Valby, Grand Chancelier, and Curnonsky, the justly renowned "Prince of Gastronomes."