Grimod de La Reynière, whose full name was Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière, was a French aristocrat, lawyer, journalist, columnist and writer. It became famous under Napoleon I for its sometimes bitter social criticism, its mystifications, and its love of gastronomy.
Posterity has remembered him mainly for this last aspect of his personality and considers him, along with Brillat-Savarin, as one of the founding fathers of modern Western gastronomy. His writings on gastronomy were highly appreciated in his time, being very popular with the wealthy classes of France.
Biography
Grimod de La Reynière was born in Paris on November 20, 1758. His father Laurent was a banker of bourgeois origin; his mother, Suzanne de Jarente de Senar, was an aristocrat. His grandfather on his father's side, Antoine Gaspard Grimod de la Reynière, was a tax collector.
Grimod was born with deformed hands, so he had to wear prosthetics. Consequently, his writing was very precarious throughout his life.
His parents lived in a luxurious residence on the Champs Elysees; it was a high society family. They were widely seen in intellectual circles and said to have one of the best economic positions in Paris. However, they kept Grimod out of social life due to the deformity of his hands.
Young Grimod grew up in Paris and went to college. He managed to obtain a law degree and then began his career as a lawyer. His first foray into writing was as a theater critic, with an article called "Le Censeur Dramatique".
His youth was quite well off, he never suffered from financial problems and he felt comfortable being surrounded by luxuries. However, he always felt left out by the deformity of his hands, even by his own family. When he was older, he developed a very outgoing personality.
Grimod de la Reynière died on the night of Christmas Day, December 25, 1837, at the age of 80 in Villiers-sur-Orge.
Union of various passions
Grimod was a lover of theater and the classical arts; considered both areas pillars of French culture. Likewise, he was a devoted student, a fan of the natural sciences, a regular reader, an admirer of good music, and a courteous man with good manners and customs.
His family, despite being ashamed of his misshapen hands, never objected to Grimod's love of the arts. It stimulated her studies and supported the desire for knowledge of the young Parisian.
Later, when he already had a certain reputation in the world of journalism, he began with the publication of the Almanac Gourmands; this contains everything that should be known at that time in terms of gastronomy. With this book he achieved great success; This publication is considered the ancestor of current gastronomic guides.
Grimod de La Reynière's death was announced on July 7, 1812, but it turned out to be a hoax: arriving at the sumptuous funeral banquet, the guests were surprised to discover the author in perfect health.
This did not prevent the occasion from becoming a party of magnificent dimensions, and this peculiar anecdote was one of the best known of the gastronomic critic.
Legacy
Grimod de La Reynière was the one who made known what would later be known as gastronomic journalism. He was known for assiduously frequenting various restaurants and organizing large banquets; He was a foodie, to which he devoted a large part of his journalistic columns.
His style was imitated by the food critics who followed him. He managed to create a whole new wave of writers, who were dedicated to analyzing something that was simply taken for granted before: food. This analysis was given not as a simple necessity, but as a remarkable art.
Grimod's work also expanded French gastronomy throughout Europe. She managed to make it better known at the time and, later, one of the most famous and imitated in the world.
He was an open-minded man, loyal to traditional customs, a lover of French history and the culture of the places he visited. He believed in the moralizing role of the theater, very classical in taste.
He regarded Voltaire as a dramatic writer with a romantic tinge. Thanks to his prudence and a certain popular character, he crossed the revolutionary dangers without risk.
In 1793, in one of his columns, he criticized the theater and described it as a political instrument. Later he dedicated himself to denouncing the first abuses of the Republic. His newspaper was prosecuted for being a realist and counterrevolutionary, although Grimod was an outsider in political affairs.
Job change
After that event, he dedicated himself to commerce. He wrote for merchants in various essays on his activity. He was successful on this topic, as he was deeply influenced by his family of bankers and tax collectors.
His best known work, called The Handbook of the Hosts, is a practical little book conceived for the bourgeois society resulting from the French Revolution. This manual is presented as an adventure full of interesting anecdotes.
With this book he introduces the reader to the delicate art of enjoying being at the table. Plus, it provides greedy complimentary items and dream menus for desserts and sweets.
Despite his productive career, Grimod did not emerge unscathed from criticism. His main detractors claimed that his writings were pure frivolity, and that they did not contribute anything to the majority of the French population, at that time still considerably illiterate.
Critics on the left also claimed that Grimod's works went against the values of the French Revolution, and railed against his bourgeois origin.
Despite all the criticism, Grimod's work managed to endure in time: his Manual of the Good Host is still read today. In addition, he has the great privilege of being the first known food journalist in modern history.
References
- Sánchez, F. (2010). The didactic function of Gastronomic journalism. University of the Basque Country. Recovered in: gabinetecomunicacionyeducacion.com
- Grimod de la Reynière, BA (1998). Hosts manual and sweet tooth guide. Tusquets Editors.
- Pomeraniec, H. (2016). Grimod de La Reynière, master of gluttony. The nation. Recovered in: lanacion.com.ar
- Korsmeyer, c. (2002). The sense of taste: food, aesthetics and philosophy. Iberian Paidós.
- Francesc Fusté Forné and Pere Masip (2013). Specialized journalism and the future of journalism: Analysis of the gastronomic column. Recovered at: researchgate.net