The Last Supper

[Sean]

British food critic Egon Ronay dies aged 94

Egon Ronay, the food critic credited with transforming eating habits in Britain with his ground-breaking restaurant and hotel guides, has died aged 94.
The Hungarian emigre published his first guide in 1957 and over the next few decades became a major force in the British food industry, his no-holds-barred reviews having the power to make or break a business.

Ronay's name became a byword for quality and helped raise the notoriously bad catering standards in post-war Britain throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In doing so, he helped transform expectations and eating habits.

He died early yesterday at his home in Berkshire, southeast England, after being ill for several weeks, close friend and broadcaster Nick Ross said. His wife Barbara and daughters Edina and Esther were by his side.

"Right up until his death, even young chefs regarded him as the monarch," said Ross, who had known the critic for about 15 or 20 years.

"He was a tiny man but had no airs and graces about him and yet he was almost fawned upon by restaurateurs right up until his last illness."

Ronay was the son of a prominent restaurateur in Budapest but the business was destroyed in World War II and, after a run-in with occupying Soviet soldiers, he fled Hungary for London, arriving penniless in 1946.

He never saw his father again.

Using his family connections, he found work as a restaurant manager and in 1952 - by this time a British subject - set up a French restaurant in the upmarket London district of Knightsbridge, called The Marquee.

Two years later he became a food critic for The Daily Telegraph newspaper, an opportunity to air his views to a wider audience.

Amid despair over the state of British catering - he regularly cited the horror of finding a communal teaspoon attached to a string in a London train station - he began his mission to change its ways.

Although humble about his impact, he once said: "I think the guides certainly have had the effect, particularly in mass catering, of telling people that they could no longer get away with murder - because I would expose them."

Ronay was never afraid of issuing his views and enraged the French several years ago by suggesting that British "gastropubs" were now at least equal or even better than the finest French bistros.

"Obviously, French bistros and their staff could learn a very great deal from our gastropubs . . . your bill will be much smaller (and) the portions can be huge," he wrote in the foreword to his 2006 guide.

Two years ago he attacked modern celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, saying they "are not chefs any more, they are business people".

For the past decade of his life the Egon Ronay guides continued to carry his name but he was only a consultant.

Anyone who enrages the French is alright by me...

[SisterMaryFellatio]

RIP Mr Ronay you will be greatly missed in the culinary world

[The Hen]

Amid despair over the state of British catering - he regularly cited the horror of finding a communal teaspoon attached to a string in a London train station - he began his mission to change its ways.

I dunno. There is something cheerful, in a "blitz kind of fashion" about a chained communal teaspoon. It flies in the face of OH&S and is potentially hazardous.

Gotta love it these days.

RIP Mr Ronay. I hope they don't overcook the salmon at your wake.

[dales]

Must have had a cast iron stomach if it took him that long to drop dead from English cuisine.

[SisterMaryFellatio]

OIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII....this coming from a country where they love Gordon Ramsay and your culinary gifts to the world are Mcdonalds, Burger King and taco bell to name just 3!!

[Gob]

Eager Ronnie, RIP...

[Gob]

Oi fucking Mary, I fucking love Gordon fucking Ramsey too, he's a fucking guru to me.

I didn't realise he could cook too.

[loCAtek]

OIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII....this coming from a country where they love Gordon Ramsay and your culinary gifts to the world are Mcdonalds, Burger King and taco bell to name just 3!!

Ey! We gave you 'food on a stick' remember those!?

The corndog

Cotton Candy

Popsicle

Caramel, or Candied Apples

Toasted Marshmallows




...you're welcome!

[loCAtek]

It's the End of an Era;

Jimmy Dean dead at 81




...not that I eat sausage.

[SisterMaryFellatio]

Nothing wrong with food on a stick.....I happen to be a hoooj Taco Bell and In and Out Burger fan. I shall always be thankful to the good ole US of A for that........

[dales]

OIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII....this coming from a country where they love Gordon Ramsay and your culinary gifts to the world are Mcdonalds, Burger King and taco bell to name just 3!!

I don't know (or care) who Gordon Ramsay is/was.

Speaking of fast food, The Wimpy has them all beat for gastronomical grotesquesness :twisted:

(are there any Wimpys left in England?)

The first one I ever had the "pleasure to behold" was in London c. 1965, a drunk was passed out sitting at the counter in his pool of vomit.


The latest "California Cusine"

[loCAtek]

OMG I think I saw it move!