Marie-Thérèse Ordonez, known as Maïté, born on June 2, 1938, in
Rion-des-Landes
Rion-des-Landes (; oc, Arrion) is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. On 1 January 2017, the former commune of Boos was merged into Rion-des-Landes.Landes
''Landes'', or ''Lanas'' in Gascon, means moorland or heath.
''Landes'' and ''Lanas'' come from the Latin ''plānus'' meaning “‘flat, even, level, plain’”. They are therefore cognate with the English plain (and plane), the Spanish word '' ...
), is a French
restaurateur
A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspec ...
, actress and TV presenter. She is mostly famous for hosting long-running cookery shows on French television, including ''La Cuisine des Mousquetaires'' with Micheline Banzet-Lawton, from 1983 to 1997, and ''À table'', from 1997 to 1999.
Career
At the beginning of her career, Maïté worked as an announcer for the SNCF, France's national railway company: she was in charge of alerting railway workers with a trumpet before a train arrived, so that they could let it pass.
In 1983, Maïté was spotted by director Patrice Bellot during a news report about the Rion-des-Landes rugby team: she was the owner a nearby restaurant where the players would go after the games. Soon after, she began hosting the cooking show La Cuisine des Mousquetaires with Micheline Banzet-Lawton (1923-2020).
In 1988, Maïté opened her first restaurant in
Sud Radio
Sud Radio is a French privately owned radio station, founded in 1958. Until 2017, it was headquartered in Labège, Haute-Garonne near Toulouse, before it moved to Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine. This relocation to the Parisian region allows for the ...
and appeared regularly in other programs, documentaries and fictions. In particular, she can be seen in two episodes of the program C'est pas sorcier, both entitled Le cèpe à sorcier and broadcast in 1997 and 2005.
She has released a number of books, VHS and DVDs about cooking.
Personal life
She was married to Pierrot from 1958 until his death in 2020. Her only son, Serge, died in 2008 from cancer.