Plaque Curnonsky, 14 place Henri-Bergson, Paris 8

Maurice Edmond Sailland (October 12, 1872,

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

– July 22, 1956,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

), better known by his pen-name Curnonsky (nicknamed 'Cur'), and dubbed the Prince of Gastronomy, was one of the most celebrated writers on

gastronomy Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between food and culture, the art of preparing and serving rich or delicate and appetizing food, the cooking styles of particular regions, and the science of good eating. One who is well versed in gastr ...

in France in the 20th century. He wrote or ghost-wrote many books in diverse genres and many newspaper columns. He is often considered the inventor of gastronomic motor-

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

as popularized by

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...

, though he himself could not drive. He was a student of

Henri-Paul Pellaprat Henri-Paul Pellaprat (; Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, 1869–1954) was a French chef, founder with the journalist Marthe Distel of Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. He was the author of ''La cuisine familiale et pratique'' and other classic Fre ...

Biography

Maurice Edmond Sailland was born in Angers (Maine-et-Loire) on October 12, 1872 to Edmond-Georges Sailland and his wife Blanche-Alphonsine Mazeran. His mother died within of month of his birth, and his father abandoned him. He was raised by his grandmother in Angers and attended the Collège Saint-Maurille in town. At the age of 18, he moved to Paris to attend the Ecole Normale Supérieure to prepare for a career in journalism. Curnonsky's friend Paul Reboux wrote in 1933: "For 40 years, Curnonsky did almost all of the jobs in the literary profession. He was a novelist, a columnist, a humorist, a publicists, a music hall critic ... and a 'discreet collaborator,' that is to say, a 'ghost writer.' ... But it would be to speak of Curnonsky in a quite incomplete manner to not insist on his merits as a gastronome." His role in promoting French gastronomy is perhaps what he is best known for today. Curnonsky took every occasion to promote his theory of the four cuisines of France: Curnonsky's professional activities were truly wide-ranging. He even created a number of advertising slogans for important companies. According to his biographer Arbellot, he coined the name Bibendum for the

Michelin Man Bibendum (), commonly referred to in English as the Michelin Man or Michelin Tyre Man, is the official mascot of the Michelin tyre company. A humanoid figure consisting of stacked white tire, tyres, it was introduced at the Lyon Exposition inter ...

in 1907—because "Michelin tires drink 'i.e.'' 'soak up' or 'eat up'everything, even obstacles"—, and wrote Michelin's weekly column "Les Lundis de Michelin" in

Le Journal ''Le Journal'' (The Journal) was a Paris daily newspaper published from 1892 to 1944 in a small, four-page format. Background It was founded and edited by Fernand Arthur Pierre Xau until 1899. It was bought and managed by the family of Henri ...

starting on November 25, 1907. It was originally signed "Michelin" but starting on March 2, 1908, it was signed "Bibendum". Michelin had used the phrase "Nunc est bibendum" ("Cheers!" in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

) on a poster in 1898, showing the Michelin Man swallowing a glass full of nails, but it is unclear when the word "Bibendum" became applied to this character. In 1921, he began writing a series of regional travel guides with Marcel Rouff, published under the collective title of ''La France Gastronomique: Guide des merveilles culinaires et des bonnes auberges françaises'' (Gastronomic France: Guide to the culinary marvels and the good inns of France). This was the early days of automobile tourism, which served to highlight the regional foods of France. Curnonsky and Rouff played an important role in the increasing popularity of discovering regional dishes and restaurants. Between 1921 and 1928, Curnonsky and Rouff wrote 28 volumes, which totaled 3,000 pages and included more than 5,000 recipes. The historian Julia Csergo writes that Curnonsky and Rouff "invented the 'gastronomic guide' with the publication of their Gastronomic Tour of France". He was named a knight of the

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

in 1928 and was made an officer in 1938. In 1928, he co-founded the

Académie des gastronomes An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

, modelled on the

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, and served as its first president, until 1949. In 1947, he started the magazine ''Cuisine et Vins de France'' along with Madeleine Decure. In 1950, he was a co-founder of the

Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs () is an international gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1950. The Chaîne is based on the traditions and practices of the old French Royal Guild of Goose Roasters, whose authority gradually expa ...

His other associations included honorary member of the Club des Purs Cent, member of the Association des Gastronomes régionalistes, and member of the Académie de l'Humour. To honor his eightieth birthday, eighty restaurants marked his favorite table with a copper plaque reading: This led to the legend that eighty restaurants reserved a table for him every night in case he should show up, though by that point, he rarely went out at all. Curnonsky died on July 22, 1956, at the age of 89. He fell out of the window of his third floor Paris apartment. He was on a severe diet at the time and was anemic, thus it was speculated that he had fainted while standing on his balcony. A year later a commemorative plaque on nr. 14 of the place Henri-Bergson, Paris 8e was installed and
booklet published on this occasion

Name

The name "Curnonsky" comes from the

''cur'' + ''non'' "why not?" plus the Russian suffix ''-sky'', as all things Russian were in vogue in 1895, when he coined it. He once said that this nickname was "my

tunic of Nessus In Greek mythology, the Shirt of Nessus, Tunic of Nessus, Nessus-robe, or Nessus' shirt was the poisoned shirt that killed Heracles. It was once a popular reference in literature. In folkloristics, it is considered an instance of the "poison dres ...

, as I am neither Russian, nor Polish, nor Jewish, nor Ukrainian, but just an average Frenchman and wine-guy acavin. Sailland wrote, co-wrote, and ghost wrote over 150 books, some under other pseudonyms, including Perdiccas, Sailland-Curnonsky, and Maurice Curnonsky. In 1927, the newspaper ''Paris-Soir'' organized an election, or referendum, among its readers to chose the "prince of the gastronomes." Curnonsky (who signed his articles as "Cur" at this time) beat out the likes of Maurice des Ombiaux, Léon Daudet, and Ali Bab. For the next several years, into early 1930, he edited a weekly full-page feature in ''Paris-Soir'' entitled "Annales of Gastronomy"; on the masthead he was identified as "Cur I, Prince des Gastronomes."

Philosophy

A celebrated aphorism of Curnonsky's was: :La cuisine, c'est quand les choses ont le goût de ce qu'elles sont. :Good cooking is when things taste of what they are. He advocated simple food over complicated, rustic over refined, and often repeated the phrase :Et surtout, faites simple! :And above all, keep it simple! In a 1937 interview, Curnonsky drew a contrast between his philosophy of French cuisine and that of the great chefs of the day. He noted that he was elected "democratic prince f gastronomy... by the cooks and cordon bleus who, every day, make healthy, simple, good food," and the great chefs, "the grand aristocrats of cuisine, the Prosper Montagnés, the Escoffiers, the Philéas Gilberts, ... who, in Paris or in the provinces, maintain the traditions of elaborate and skilled French cuisine." Curnonsky praised women who he believed cooked by instinct, without formal training. It was a cuisine that was "straightforward, clear in taste and never aimed at effect... A tranquil and well-prepared cuisine, a cuisine of ''cordon bleu''."

Partial bibliography

*By Curnonsky **with

Marcel Rouff Marcel Rouff (May 4,1877 in Geneva – February 3, 1936 in Paris) was a prolific novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, historian, and gastronomic writer. With Curnonsky (Maurice Edmond Sailland) he wrote the multi-volume work ''La France gast ...

, ''La France Gastronomique: Guides des merveilles culinaires et des bonnes auberges françaises'' Paris, 1921–29, in 28 volumes. **with Austin de Croze, ''Le Trésor gastronomique de la France'', 1933. **''Cuisine et Vins de France''. Paris, 1953. A collection of recipes collected by Curnonsky from restaurants. New edition, with preface and updates by

Robert Courtine Robert Julien Courtine (16 May 1910 – 14 April 1998) was a French food writer who also wrote under the pen names "La Reynière" and "Savarin". Background Courtine was a member of the far-right Action française during the 1930s, and was close to ...

, Paris: Larousse, 1974 . **''Souvenirs Littéraires et Gastronomiques'', Paris: Albin Michel, 1958. *''Curnonsky: Prince des Gastronomes'', Simon Arbellot, Paris: Les Productions de Paris, 1965. Biography. *''Curnonsky et ses amis'', Association des amis de Curnonsky, Paris: Librairie Edgar Soete, 1979. A collection of reminiscences. * ''Curnonsky – à la carte...'' Munich
Edition Curnonska
2007 * ''Curnonsky – en route...'' Munich: Edition Curnonska, 2007 * ''Curnonsky – souvenirs gastronomiques...'' Munich: Edition Curnonska, 2007 In 2003, German art historian

Inge Huber Inge is a given name in various Germanic language-speaking cultures. In Swedish and Norwegian, it is mostly used as a masculine, but less often also as a feminine name, sometimes as a short form of Ingeborg, while in Danish, Estonian, Frisian, Ge ...

discovered five boxes with letters of Curnonsky, and authored a biography "Curnonsky. Oder das Geheimnis des Maurice-Edmond Sailland" 2010, Rolf Heyne Editor.

Notes

References

External links

Bibliography of French food books, including many by Curnonsky
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curnonsky 1872 births 1956 deaths French food writers French cookbook writers French male non-fiction writers French gastronomes