Curnonsky: Prince des Gastronomes

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Maurice Edmond Sailland (1872-1956), who wrote under the pen name Curnonsky (a playful Latin-Russian hybrid meaning 'why not?'), was born in Angers and became the most influential French food critic of the 20th century, crowned 'Prince des Gastronomes' by a public vote in 1927 — a title he held for nearly 30 years until his death. Curnonsky's philosophical contribution to French gastronomy was the elevation of regional cuisine to parity with Parisian haute cuisine. His masterwork, the 28-volume La France Gastronomique (written with Marcel Rouff, 1921-1928), was the first systematic tour of every French region's culinary traditions, documenting recipes, restaurants, producers, and techniques that would otherwise have been lost to urbanization and industrialization. Curnonsky's famous dictum — 'La cuisine, c'est quand les choses ont le goût de ce qu'elles sont' (Cooking is when things taste of what they are) — became the philosophical foundation for the farm-to-table movement decades before the term existed. He advocated simplicity, respect for ingredients, and the primacy of terroir over technique — positions that were radical in an era dominated by Escoffier's elaborate sauce-based gastronomy. For Loire cuisine specifically, Curnonsky championed the region's fresh, garden-driven character: its river fish, its goat cheeses, its fruit, its wines. He declared crémets d'Anjou the greatest dessert in France and rillettes de Tours the greatest charcuterie — provocative claims from a man who had eaten at every table in France. He founded the Académie des Gastronomes (1928), which continues to promote regional French cuisine. His legacy is that every food writer who celebrates ingredient quality over culinary complexity, every chef who lets the product speak, every movement from Nouvelle Cuisine to farm-to-table, operates within the intellectual framework Curnonsky established.

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