wednesday, november 14th, 2007

Born on this day in 1865, in Carcassonne, France, Prosper Montagne never envisioned himself as a chef. He wanted to be an architect. Thankfully for all of us who feel a cookbook collection is not complete without the weight of his masterpiece Larousse Gastronomique buckling the center shelf of our bookcase, his father forced him to train as a cook. He did so by purchasing the tumble-down wreck L'Hotel de Quatre Saiasson, today the Four Seasons Hotel, in Toulouse with the intention of securing his son a position in the kitchen. Ever the rebel, Montagne was not having it and focused all his attention on the renovation work taking place at the hotel.

Determined that his son travel down the road he intended for him, the senior Montagne transferred the boy to L'hotel d'Angleterre in Cauterets where he served as an apprentice to Chef Alphonse Meillon. It took the training and inspiration of a great Master chef like Meillon to finally convince the stubborn youth to focus his attention on cooking and our future author at last succumbed to the spell of the kitchen.

The next chapter of his cooking career led him to Paris where he worked in a large kitchen brigade at "The Ambassadors" under the tutelage of Chef Pierre Philippe. Later in his life he would return to the hotel as Chef de Cuisine but not before a stint at the Hotel of Paris of Assembles-Carlo and forced military service in the French Army. Montagne also made an appearance as Chef de Cuisine of Le Casino de Luchon where he met his lifelong friend and faithful sous chef, Prosper Sallas. Before meeting Montagne, Sallas apprenticed with Phileas Gilbert, a contemporary of Escoffier.

Montagne also spent time cooking at a hotel in Brussels and at the Parisian House of Ermenonville at Ledoyden before hanging up his apron and retiring from the kitchen in 1907. We should all be so fortunate to live out a retirement as dynamic and fulfilling as Montagne, for what follows in his life is an era of extraordinary productivity.

Montagne begins his writing career in earnest following his departure form the kitchen and his articles are published in numerous dailies along with the most influential reviews of France. When he is not writing, he fulfills his duties as a public hospital food inspector, the commissioner for the Culinary Exposition in Paris and as professor at the School of Commerce and Women's Hotel School.

During World War I he establishes the 'Ecole de Cuistots' (Cooks School) and in a path similar to Alexis Soyer, he organizes the kitchens of the French Army. In his spare time, he is enthusiastically received by audiences in his travels throughout France as a lecturer.

In 1920, the chef decides to return to the kitchen, but this time as both a cook and owner of the establishment. He opens 'Montagne, delicatessen' at the intersection of Rue de 'Echelle and Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris. His restaurant is well received but unfortunately, it seems that businessman was the one role Montagne did not excel at and he is forced to close his place shortly after it opens as a result of mismanagement.

Montagne is not deterred by the failure and his second retirement from the kitchen is again a busy and illustrious one. He moves to Sevres, France and collaborates with his old friend Pierre Salles to produce "La Grande Livre de Cuisine", published in 1929. As with all his writing, the work is warmly received by his audience.

Larousse Gastronomique was first published in 1938 and included a preface by Chef Phileas Gilbert and Chef Auguste Escoffier. It was viewed as the definitive culinary encyclopedia of its time. The extraordinary work has been revised and published many times throughout the decades but in all its incarnations and with the ever mounting volume of competition, it has always maintained unrivaled claim to its title as "The World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia".

Chef Prosper Montagne died in Sevres on April 22nd, 1948 at the age of 83. I suppose we have his father to thank for pushing his young boy into a career that was clearly an ideal match. One has to wonder, however, how magnificent the buildings would have been had this brilliant man fulfilled his dream to become an architect.