Alexandre Étienne Choron (1837 in

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Voisin Voisin (French for "neighbour") may refer to: Companies *Avions Voisin, the French automobile company :*Voisin Laboratoire, a car manufactured by Avions Voisin *Voisin (aircraft), the French aircraft manufacturer * Voisin, a Lyon-based chocolat ...

on the rue Saint Honoré, Choron is best known for his invention of

Choron sauce Choron may refer to: * Choron string drum from the middle ages * Choroń, village in Poland * Choron (dance) * Professeur Choron, French writer and publisher * Alexandre-Étienne Choron Alexandre-Étienne Choron (21 October 1771 – 29 June 1 ...

, a

sauce béarnaise In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French word ta ...

enriched with tomato concentrate before reduction. Choron is also remembered for his dishes served during the Siege of Paris by the Prussians, which began on 19 September 1870. During the siege, Parisians were reduced to eating cats, dogs, and rats. The bourgeois were not content to eat such ''low'' animals, and demand at the ''de luxe'' restaurants remained high. As food reserves dwindled, these restaurants, including Voisin, improvised. Choron eyed the animals kept at the local zoo, and served exotic animal dishes at Voisin. For the midnight Christmas meal of 1870, Choron proposed a menu principally composed of the best parts of the animals kept in the

Jardin d'acclimatation The Jardin d'Acclimatation () is a children's amusement park located in the northern part of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, alongside other attractions. History Opened on 6 October 1860 by Napoleon III of France, Napoléon III and Eugénie de M ...

(one of Paris' zoos) – stuffed head of donkey, elephant

consommé In cooking, a consommé is a type of clear soup made from richly flavoured stock or broth that has been clarified, a process that uses egg whites to remove fat and sediment. Consommé has three English pronunciations: traditionally in the UK, t ...

, roasted

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

stew,

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

shanks roasted in pepper sauce,

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

sauce, cat with

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

, and

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...

truffle A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus ''Tuber''. In addition to ''Tuber'', many other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including ''Geopora'', ''Peziz ...

sauce – has become legendary. The menu's wines were Mouton-Rothschild 1846,

Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti is an ''Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) and Grand Cru vineyard for red wine in the Côte de Nuits subregion of Burgundy, France, with Pinot noir as the primary grape variety. It is situated within the commune of Vosne-Ro ...

1858 and

Château Palmer Château Palmer is a winery in the Margaux AOC, Margaux appellation d'origine contrôlée of the Bordeaux region of France. The wine produced here was classified as one of fourteen ''Troisièmes Crus'' (Third Growths) in the historic Bordeaux Wine ...

1864. Choron also garnered fame for his dishes containing elephant: ''Trompe d'éléphant in sauce chasseur'' and ''Éléphant bourguignon''. After the elephant at the ''Jardin d'acclimatation'' graced the Christmas table, the two elephants (Castor and Pollux) at the Paris' ''jardin zoologique'' were consumed on 31 December 1870 at Voisin. In early January, it was the elephant at the '' Jardin des Plantes'' (Paris' botanical garden) which was sent to the abattoir. It was bought by Choron for his restaurant at the price of 15 francs per pound. By 13 January, Voisin was out of

elephant meat Elephant meat is the flesh and other edible parts of elephants. History Elephant meat has likely been a source of food for humans during the entire time of the species' coexistence. By the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic, around 120,000 BCE, ...

and substituted horse. The siege was lifted two weeks later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choron, Alexandre 1837 births 1924 deaths Businesspeople from Caen French chefs