Marthe Distel () was a French journalist.
Career
Marthe Distel started the culinary magazine ''
La Cuisinière Cordon Bleu
''La cuisinière Cordon Bleu'', also spelled as ''La cuisinière cordon-bleu'', was a culinary magazine started in the late 1890s by French journalist Marthe Distel. The magazine offered recipes and tips on entertaining. To prompt readership, the m ...
''. To prompt readership, Distel offered subscribers cooking lessons with professional chefs. The first class was held in January 1895 in the kitchens of the
Palais Royal
The Palais-Royal () is a former royal palace located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Cardinal, it was built for Cardinal R ...
. The classes led to the development of a more formal school, now known as
Le Cordon Bleu
Le Cordon Bleu (French for " The Blue Ribbon") is an international network of hospitality and culinary schools teaching French ''haute cuisine''. Its educational focuses are hospitality management, culinary arts, and gastronomy. The instituti ...
.
Heritage
On her death in the 1930s, Distel left the school to an orphanage, which struggled to manage it. The school closed during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and was later bought by another French woman,
Élisabeth Brassart
Élisabeth Brassart (1897–1992) was the proprietor of the Le Cordon Bleu school in Paris from 1945 to 1984. Le Cordon Bleu had been founded in 1895 by Marthe Distel and Henri-Paul Pellaprat. In 1945, after the end of WWII, she purchased what ...
.
![Le cordon bleu Marthe Distel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Le_cordon_bleu_Marthe_Distel.jpg)
The magazine ceased publication in the 1960s, but the school has evolved from its single location in Paris to more than 27 schools in 17 countries.
Le Cordon Bleu FAQ
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References
External links
Cordon Bleu Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Distel, Marthe
19th-century births
1930s deaths
French chefs
French magazine founders
French journalists
French women company founders
Women chefs
Founders of educational institutions