Daniele mazet delpeuch biography
As you watch actress Catherine Frot remove and slice the salmon-stuffed cabbage in the film Haute Cuisine, it seems like an impossibly gorgeous and complicated dish -- steaming and gorgeously layered with the pinkish-orange fish and the warm green of the cabbage leaves.
Beautiful? Perhaps. Difficult? Not really, says Daniele Mazet-Delpeuch, upon whose life the French import, opening today in limited release (9/20/13), is based.
"Stuffed cabbage is very simple -- but instead of stuffing, you use salmon and seasoning," she says, sipping a glass of water in the lobby of New York's Algonquin Hotel. "I gave them a list of recipes for the film and this one is so simple: a layer of salmon, then a layer of cabbage and so on. You tie it up and you poach it -- so simple. You cook it in a broth, because salmon cannot go long being cooked in an oven."
The petite, compact Mazet-Delpeuch, in her early 70s, is in town to talk about Haute Cuisine, a film loosely based on two of her experiences: as personal chef for French president Francois Mitterrand from , and her year-long-plus tenure as cook for a research lab on an island off Antarctica. Asked why the character based on her (played by Frot) doesn't have her name, Mazet-Delpeuch chuckles and waves it off.
"It's not a biography -- it's a film, about simple cooking," she says. "It's the kind of woman's cooking that everybody knows about but nobody knows how to do. It's nice dining-room cooking. It can be very simple or it can be more sophisticated in terms of traditional food -- but lighter, with nothing heavy. It's a kind of poem."
Mazet-Delpeuch was living in her native Perigord region of France, where she raised geese (for foie gras) and sheep and cooked the recipes passed down to her by her mother and grandmother. She's been teaching cooking since the mids, which is how she came to the attention of noted chef Joel Robuchon. Robuchon recommended her to Mitterrand, who complained to the master chef t Nocturnal cravings? Do you have them too? There I was plopped beside my husband in our ultra California King sized bed with covers drawn up to our necks. He, with his eyelids at half mast and mine wide open with flailing arms searching in darkness for pen and paper. What a blessing to have witnessed this memorable film, Haute Cuisine and to have learned about the life of Daniele Mazet-Delpeuch, who was a personal chef for French president Francois Mitterrand from , and what followed and eventually brought more meaning to her life, her year-long-plus tenure as cook for a research lab on an island off Antarctica. I came across this review by Marshall Fine who was also very moved by the film but more so by the person from which the film is based. And I have not been able to get that recipe for the salmon embedded in cabbage leaves out of my head. Nor have I exactly figured out how to make it. But I will share some secrets that may help you feel less daunted and fearful in trying to execute this recipe. Before you try it meet Daniele Mazet-Delpeuch in person. By Marshall Fine. Posted: Updated: Beautiful? Perhaps. Difficult? Not really, says Daniele Mazet-Delpeuch, upon whose life the French import, opening today in limited release (9/20/13), is based. &#;Stuffed cabbage is very simple &#; but instead of stuffing, you use salmon and seasoning,&#; she says, sipping a glass of water in the lobby of New York&#;s Algonquin Hotel. &#;I gave them a list of recipes for the film and this one is so simple: a layer of salmon, then a layer of cabbage and so on. You tie it up and you poach it &#; so simple. You cook it in a broth, because salmon cannot go long being cooked in an oven.&#; The petite, compact Mazet-Delpeuch, in her early 70s, is in town to talk about Haute Cuisine, a film loosely based on two of her experiences: as personal chef for French president Francois Mitterrand from , and her year-long-plus tenure as cook for a research lab on an island off Ant Only a hand-painted wooden sign nailed to a tree points the way off the main road toward a cluster of unembellished stone and pitch-roofed cottages down a gravel drive, the simplicity of which catches me off guard. Maybe the flamboyance of TV star chefs have tainted my imagination, but I expect more flash from the home of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch. People in the region refer to her as a local legend: not only had she started the region’s first cooking school, but in had been hand-plucked from her simple surrounds to spend two years at the presidential palace in Paris as the personal chef to then President of France, François Mitterrand. “We are not going to talk about that now,” she says when I jump to questions just moments after she opens the weathered door of her moss- and ivy-covered stone cottage. Danièle is smiling, and her small stature looks miniature framed by the wooden threshold. She extends her right hand and introduces herself, which makes me smile. As if I don&#;t know exactly who she is. “Please,” she says, sweeping her arm toward her home’s interior. I duck an inch to avoid banging my head on the top of the short doorway, and step in. There is something delicate about Danièle, but she’s far from frail. Her silver hair is smoothed into a bun pinned at the back of her head, revealing clear ivory skin that belies her age, which I don’t dare ask. In a black collarless Chinese-style jacket worn ove French chef (–) Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch ( – 30 September ) was a French chef perhaps best known for her stint as the first female chef for the President of France. From the s, Mazet-Delpeuch was a culinary teacher, and was noted as a pioneer of culinary tourism in France. She eventually got the attention of Joël Robuchon, who recommended her to then French President François Mitterrand. She served as Mitterrand's personal chef from to In that role, she cooked dinners for Mitterrand's family, as well as guests such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher. Ten years after her stint as Mitterrand's chef, Mazet-Delpeuch worked as a cook for a French research base in the Crozet islands for over a year. She applied for the job after seeing an advertisement online, and despite being told they were not looking for a woman or someone over the age of 50 (Mazet-Delpeuch was 60 at the time), she got the job. Mazet-Delpeuch was a native of the Périgord region of France. She died on 30 September , at the age of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch
Culinary career
Personal life and death
Cultural depiction
Books
References