The man who helped make French cuisine a tourist industry in the 20th century – Ally Mitchell explores the life of the Prince of gastronomy.
On July 22nd, 1956, France’s most beloved culinary critic, a man of fearsome gastronomic reputation, and author of 72 books, fell to his death from a fourth-story window in his apartment in Paris. Aged 83, Curnonsky had led a – and I do not say this lightly – full life, sacrificing his waistline to celebrate the cuisine of his countrymen, earning him the title of “Prince des Gastronomes”.
His death, while sudden, reflected his attitude to life. While there is no doubt that he was old by then, it was certainly an unexpected way to go considering his general indulgent lifestyle. It is alleged he was dieting at the time, came over faint, which caused him to keel over, plummeting to the courtyard below.
The Real-Life Prince of Gastronomy: Curnonsky
Curnonsky wasn’t his real name. The pseudonym was an impulsive decision and one that he came to regret as it resulted in a few problems due to its Russian connotations – during the First World War, he was mistaken for a Russian spy, and on another occasion he was held in custody for six hours. All of this simply because the 18-year-old Maurice-Edmond Sailland from Angers (b. 13 October, 1872), took the words “Cur” and “non” meaning “why not” and added a sprinkle of embellishment, the heel-clicking “sky”, at the end, apparently because he admired the writing of Dostoevski. The character of “Why-not-sky” took over, and he proceeded to live life according to his name’s mantra.
His enthusiastic leap into the world of journalism from a young age saw him writing articles for La Vie Parisienne. As his notoriety grew, he focused increasingly on the topic of gastronomy. This reputation was sealed when he became the first writer to associate regional cooking, the terroir, and travel, taking advantage of the new era’s convenient mode of transport – the car (despite being unable to drive). In 1921, the first of his and Marcel Rouff’s travel books La France Gastronomique was produced, celebrating the Périgord and its musky black truffle. This was followed by another 27 volumes, documenting the country’s bounty. They’re now collector’s items, should you ever see them at a flea market – gobble them up! A man ahead of his time, Curnonsky led the way for future automobile tourism, swiftly popularised by Michelin, and coined the term the “gastronomad”, a label perfectly relevant over 100 years later with food tourism’s continuous growth.
French food influencer extraordinaire
Curnonsky had a way with words for the stinky cheese of the north he wrote: “the vehement Maroilles, king of cheeses whose thunderous flavour resonates like the sound of the saxophone in the symphony of cheeses”. And Bouillabaisse, a traditional southern French fish soup, he described as “soupe d’or” – soup of gold…
Not only did the books provide information on restaurants around the country, but they included recipes and recommendations. Curnonsky’s travel books hailed cuisine du terroir, local country cooking, in his eyes far superior to la haute cuisine. Even under the tutelage of Henri-Paul Pellaprat, co-founder of Le Cordon Bleu, Curnonsky was known to have said “Good cooking is when things taste of what they are” and advocated for the rustic over the elaborate flourishes of 19th-century restauranteurs. It was thanks to Curnonsky’s work that the family-style cassoulet and bouillabaisse are such famous staples in French cuisine today.
In 1927, the industry magazine Le Bon Goût et la Bonne Table held a ballot to vote for the “Prince des Gastronomes”. Receiving over 3,000 votes, Curnonsky won – a title no one has earned since. He embraced his new title with apparent modesty, genially asking only to be addressed as “Sa Rondeur” (“His Plumpness”), although the title appeared in all his writings henceforth. As with his pen name, his title preceded him, bestowing on him the reputation of gastronomic royalty.
Rarely paying for dinner, he habitually ate out, attending at least 4,000 banquets in his lifetime, and according to legend, 80 restaurants around Paris kept a table open in case the “Prince” should appear. As a result of his professional dining out, Curnonsky was grossly unprepared for guests at his home. A lifelong bachelor, the writer had no kitchen, cook, or even a dining room. He slept throughout the day to fast before every evening’s main event.
His 80th birthday called for such a celebration that hundreds of chefs rallied to honour him, preparing a dinner of chicken bouillon, lobster jellied in champagne, spitted ham and truffles, 80 varieties of cheese, and bombe glacée.
Curnonsky’s eccentric lifestyle almost outshines his achievements. In 1929, he was honoured as a Knight of the Légion d’Honneur, rising to Officer ten years later. He founded L’Académie des Gastronomes, a group of forty of France’s most gifted connoisseurs of food and wine in 1930, then in 1933 established L’Académie du Vin de France (with Pierre Le Roy Boiseaumarié, the brains behind the Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) system). He founded two magazines, La France à Table (1934) and Cuisine et Vins de France (1947), the latter of which morphing into a 800-page illustrated tome of French classics and regional delicacies published in 1953.
There was never a moment in his long life that he steered the proud ship of French gastronomy off course, in doing so, helping it reach its internationally celebrated heights of today.
He has left his mark on French cuisine to such an extent that, even to this day, restaurants continue to cook “à la Curnonsky”. It is thanks to his culinography that France still perches high in the ranks of international cuisine, driving millions of tourists to the country every year. It is said he sacrificed himself for the advancement of France’s culinary accomplishments, and according to one admirer, he offered “a heroic stomach to the service of French cuisine”.
Ally Mitchell is a blogger and freelance writer, specialising in food and recipes. She lives in Toulouse and writes at: NigellaEatsEverything.
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