Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de La Reynière (20 November [or September?] 1758[1] inParis – 25 December 1837) was a lawyer by qualification who acquired fame during the reign ofNapoleon for his sensual and public gastronomic lifestyle. Son ofLaurent Grimod de La Reynière, he inherited the family fortune on the death of his father, afermier général, in 1793. He was a member of theSociété du Caveau.
Though his father built a stylish house in Paris with a garden that looked onto thebosquets of theChamps-Élysées[2] and kept a great table,[3] the younger Grimod had been born with deformed hands[4] and was kept out of sight, a circumstance that developed his biting wit and dark sense of humour.[5] The younger Grimod de La Reynière began his public career on his return from studies inLausanne by collaborating in the reviewJournal des théâtres in 1777–78, continuing to write reviews of theatre,[6] some of which he published himself, asLe Censeur Dramatique.
During his parents' absence he gave grand dinner parties in theHôtel Grimod de La Reynière, at one of which his father returned suddenly to find a pig dressed up and presiding at the table. The story made the rounds in Paris, and a breach with the family ensued, which culminated in alettre de cachet that disinherited him and confined him to an abbey close toNancy, where at the table of the father abbot he began to learn theart of good eating. He was a correspondent to the scandal chronicle,Correspondence secrète, politique et littéraire (1790)[7] relating to Paris during the reign of Louis XVI, and formed a liaison with the actressAdèle Feuchère, who bore their child in 1790.[citation needed]
Supported with a little money from his family, he had the idea of buying food directly from the producer, and selling it in a shop at a set price; to make a living, he opened a shop inLyon selling groceries, tools and other exotic commodities. When he regained his liberty upon the death of his father in 1792, he returned to Paris and spread the activities of his "société Grimod et Cie", opening shops in other French cities. He reconciled with his mother, who was saved from the guillotine through his connections, and began a series of mock-funeral dinners.[8]
As the first public critic of cooking, the first reviewer of the ambitious restaurants that cropped up in Paris in the later eighteenth century and flowered under the Napoleonic regime,[9] his name is a by-word on a par withBrillat-Savarin and an equally rich source of quotations in French gastronomic literature through the eight volumes of his annualL'Almanach des gourmands, which he edited and published from 1803 to 1812.Gourmand still retained its sense of "gluttony", one of theSeven Deadly Sins,[10] and Grimod's choice of the word, when "friand" more usually connoted a connoisseur of fine food and wine, was a conscious one and wholly in character;gourmand andgourmet first achieved their pleasant modern connotations in Grimod'sAlmanachs, which, among other innovations, were the firstrestaurant guides. The success of theAlmanachs encouraged Grimod and his publishers to bring out the monthlyJournal des Gourmandes et des Belles, which appeared for the first time in January 1806.
Its editorial board consisted of the friends who met weekly for dinner at theHôtel Grimod de La Reynière, those"Dîners du Vaudeville", composed of dishes sent round by the premier restaurants of Paris for judgment, and Grimod as host and presiding genius. HisManuel des amphitryons (Hosts)[11] appeared in 1808.Sainte-Beuve called him the "Father of the table".[citation needed]
He inherited the family fortune at the death of his mother in 1812, married his devoted mistress, gave his own funeral to see who would come, then retired to the Château de Villiers-sur-Orge,[12] near Paris. Grimodde La Reynière died on Christmas Day 1837, aged 79.
Pascal Ory considers Alexandre Grimod to be "one of the founders of the modern French culture," grouping him with theComte de Saint-Simon andAlexis de Tocqueville. He "reestablished order, hierarchy, and distinctions in the realm of good taste" through the publication of texts that helped to define the French food scene.[13]
While others at the time were focused more on art, literature and drama, Grimod opened the door to criticism of food and cookery, inventing the gastronomic guidebook (Almanach des Gourmands), the gastronomic treatise (Manuel des Amphitryons), and the gourmet periodical (Journal des Gourmands et des Belles). There was literature about food and eating before Grimod, but it was concerned only with technical aspects and recipes, while Grimod introduced the idea of epicurean criticism.[13]
