Definition: Saillant Maurice Edmond

He ultimately put his talent as a man of letters and his hearty appetite to work in the service of gastronomy and, together with his friend Marcel Rouff, began writing a series of brochures on regional cuisine and the best restaurants in France. In 1927, the magazine "Le Bon Gîte et la Bonne Table" organised a referendum to elect the "prince" of gastronomes. Curnonsky was chosen. He was invited to dinners and receptions and fulfilled his duties with wonderful grace. At the same time, he continued his literary and gastronomic work. He was responsible for "Les recettes des provinces de France" (Recipes from the Provinces of France) with A. de Croze in 1933 and "Les fines gueules de France" (The Fine Eaters of France) with P. Andrieu in 1935. He also founded the "Académie des gastronomes" (Academy of Gastronomes) in 1930, of which he was the first president. All of its members, including Édouard de Pomiane, Maeterlinck, Paul Reboux, the Marquis de Polignac and Justin Godart, were knowledgeable gourmets. He enjoyed using aphorisms in the style of Brillat-Savarin, whom he greatly admired, but above all he sought to restore prestige to bourgeois and provincial cuisine as opposed to the sophistication of certain great Parisian restaurants. He read voraciously and had a fabulous memory. Curnonsky refused to associate his name with any form of advertising. He thus turned down fortunes. In 1939, he left Paris and settled in Brittany in an inn run by an old friend in Riec-sur-Belon. She was a very good cook whom Curnonsky had discovered during a holiday. He spoke and wrote highly of her cooking, and the inn became a mecca for fine dining. He stayed with her until the end of the war and wrote some of his memoirs there. After the war, he returned to his Parisian flat and resumed his work as a journalist. On 22 July 1956, he fell from the window of his flat and died on the pavement. He was about to turn 84. Until his death, he enjoyed unrivalled fame and was welcomed in all the top gastronomic establishments. On his 80th birthday, on 12 October 1952, on the initiative of the magazine "Cuisine et vins de France" (which he had founded in 1946) and R. Courtine, 80 restaurateurs in the Île-de-France region placed a copper plaque in their dining rooms, in the place usually occupied by the "prince", bearing the words:

"This place belongs to

Maurice Edmond Saillant Curnonsky

Elected prince of gourmets

Defender and illustrator of

French cuisine

Guest of honour of this establishment."