Almanach des Gourmands
19th-century French restaurant guide
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Almanach des gourmands was a guide to the restaurants, pastry shops, and specialty food stores of Paris,[1] edited and published by the French gastronome Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de La Reynière, known as Grimod, annually from 1803 to 1812.[a] It was written by a group of restaurant critics and Grimod himself.[2][3] Grimod is thus often considered the first restaurant critic.[3][1]
The Almanach was written for Parisians rather than travelers, and for the first time, wrote for consumers who sought taste rather than cheap prices or convenience.[4][5] When it was published, restaurants were gaining prominence in Paris, the first having opened in the 1770s.[4] Its reviews of food and establishments were sometimes strongly critical.[6] Roy Strong argues that the Almanach opened up the culture around food to anyone who was literate, and increased competition between restaurants.[3]
The title was revived several times:
- Nouvel almanach des gourmands, A.B. de Périgord (pseudonym for Horace-Napoléon Raisson and Léon Thiessé[7]), from 1825-1827, continued the volume numbering although it was editorially distinct.[8]
- Le Nouvel Almanach des gourmands, Charles Monselet, 1865, together with Alexandre Dumas (père), Aurélien Scholl, Jean-Camille Fulbert-Dumonteil, Ernest d'Hervilly, Joseph Albert Alexandre Glatigny, Adrien Marx, Timothée Trimm, Eugène Chavette, Victor Cochinat, Vermesch.[9]
- L'Almanach des gourmands, François-Guillaume Dumas,[b] 1904, together with Phileas Gilbert, Auguste Escoffier, and Prosper Montagné.[9]