grimod de la reyniere

[ladybugseattle]

He's often quoted and was such a character but I can't seem to find any translations or anthologies of his Almanach. Amazon, Alibris, Addall, the Seattle Public Library reference librarians all come up empty, any suggestions?

[MaxH]

A very brief (purported) passage is quoted in Rouff's translated Passionate Epicure (which in turn I mentioned in one or two postings here).

In fact, I see I have it transcribed. There may be more in the same book. This is an argument for getting Rouff, if you don't have it already (which makes this posting a book review). It also suggests, apropos the French cookbook thread, that people complained about thickened sauces long before our time.

-- Max

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Sometimes, in the middle of the conversation, [Dodin-Bouffant] would rise, walk over to the favourite shelves of his library, select therefrom a rare volume of the Almanach des Gourmands, open it with the deft gesture of a habitual book handler, and say: 'Grimod de la Reyniere wrote: “Sixth year. Chapter on bindings. The immoderate use of roux and coulis has formed all the charlatanism of French cuisine for the past hundred years.” '

[MaxH]

Maybe the most common reference I hear, connected to Grimod at least implicitly, is a roast called a "Turducken" that people in the US started talking about a few years ago, though the ones I heard, like John Madden, didn't mention Grimod. It's a boned turkey stuffed with a boned duck stuffed with a boned chicken. I thought, OK, that's a simplification of the famous one, which various food writers and pundits allude to. Who knows how much of this is available online (little that I post on eG came from reading online), but I do find plenty of people who are not food professionals but know about the older dish. ("And isn't there, like, an anchovy in the very center, and some decadent gourmet would just eat the anchovy?" That sort of thing.)

Something I posted elsewhere a few years ago. Some details here are from 1988 anglophone LG.

--

This US triple bird is a simplified form of a venerable tradition of concentric bird roasts dating to the Romans and re-popularized in 1837 by the great food writer and theater critic A. B. L. Grimod de la Reynière at his death, Christmas eve 1837 -- he died during the midnight feast -- leaving a recipe for an "unparalleled roast," beginning with an olive stuffed with capers and anchovies and then into a garden warbler, and on up to a pullet, a duck, a turkey, and beyond -- 17 birds in all, and at the same time the recipe was an allegorical critique of the leading actresses of the day (except for the one that was his girlfriend) -- since he was, after all, a drama critic.

By the way, on the snails issue (from another thread), Dumas does not have the story either [the one about the medieval family being saved after crop failure by eating snails, consequently being suspected, and cleared, of dealing with the devil], but he does say that snails were known as food also to the Romans and that "a broth that is very soothing to consumptives is made from snails."

[MaxH]

ladybug, I'm no expert on food books but I got curious and did a tiny check. (Again not online.) Vicaire, ultimate reference on food books (more posted here, search under his name) has pages on Grimod's Almanach and they're all about the original editions, First through Eighth Years (pub. 1803-1812, anonymously by the way) and his Manual des Amphitryons. A little about editions soon after. Publishers at Paris were Maradan, Joseph Chaumerot. Nothing on English translations (which Vicaire does list for other works). Two main 20th-c. English-language counterparts (US and British) just summarize Vicaire.

If you are still and seriously interested, please send an email. I know at least some heavyweight resources in US and Europe, not to be used casually, who might rise to a challenge like this. If you can converse even slightly in French, it expands the options, but it's not essential.

-- Max

[The Old Foodie]

I have searched long and hard for an English translation, so if anyone does find one, please post about it here! The French version is not even available on the Gallica site, which is surprising.

I understand that translations of some sections of the Almanach, and commentary appear in:

Garval, Michael. "Grimod de la Reynière's Almanach des gourmands: Exploring the Gastronomic New World of Postrevolutionary France." French Food: On the Table, on the Page, and in French Culture. Ed. Lawrence R. Schehr and Allen S. Weiss. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Gigante, Denise, ed. Gusto: Essential Writings in Nineteenth-Century Gastronomy. New York: Routledge, 2005.

I haven't actually seen either of these though.

Janet

[ladybugseattle]

I have been able to find info on the French editions it just seems odd he doesn't seem to have been translated. My French is pretty rough these days and was hoping for a poetic translation out there a la Fisher's version of Physiology of Taste. At this point if I could find the original text in french I'd be happy to run it through a translation program. Anyone savvy with the Francophone websites? Since it must be public domain at this point any ideas?

[MaxH]

Davidson's quirky and useful encyclopedia the Oxford Companion to Food (1999) has a biography sketch on Grimod, by the way. This has less about his life in general than other references do, but stresses his establishment of food and restaurant criticism, and also his practical jokes.