Mr. Talbott recommends Olivier Morteau’s anonymous book “ La face cachée de la gastronomie française”. Mr.Talbott who does not seem to question the overall content of the book “assumes, says he, that the authors and their publisher’s lawyers vetted this manuscript before publishing because there have been no libel suits, but André Gayot who left “precipitously” for the US to become the publisher of GaultMillau in the Anglo-Saxon world comes in for some pretty rough comments”. Would Mr.Talbott also read the press he would be aware of the verdict of the Court of Nanterre (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Nanterre). On May 11, the Court ordered all the books to be recalled and a disclaimer to be inserted stating that the allegations against André Gayot were defamatory and to pay $12,000 €uros ($14,500) to André Gayot. In case of a reprint the text concerning André Gayot must be deleted. In an interview with Agence France Presse, the publisher said he would abide by the Court decision and that the book would not reprint due to weak sales. The Court judged that the allegations contained in the book were not supported by a serious, full and objective investigation. This statement applies to most of the content of the book in which factual errors. can be found at almost every page leading to erroneous and detrimental conclusions. This mud throwing may be exciting for gullible and distant readers. In reality the mediocre and defamatory pamphlet is a childish plot- immediately brought out by the French press (see Libération dated April 9, 2004) conceived of by three hungry free lancers trying to put themselves on the map of gastronomic journalism. Not telling the reader who they really are- but everyone in the food world knows their identity, after bashing their predecessors, they hail themselves as the rescuers of the modern gastronomy and try by the same token to promote a couple of stodgy collapsing publications No wonder the public did not bite this gross hook and that the publisher admits in his interview to the Agence France Presse that the sales are weak and that the book is out. However, considering the dishonesty of the trio of writers, André Gayot is suing the presumed authors of the book in the Criminal Court.
