Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch, first female cook at the Élysée, has died

Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch, former personal cook of President François Mitterrand and first female cook at the Élysée, died Monday morning at the age of 81, according to the town hall of Coteaux-Périgourdins (Dordogne), where she resided, confirming a log information South West.

The life of this cordon-bleu attached to the Périgord region inspired the film by Christian Vincent The flavors of the Palace (2012) with Catherine Frot in the title role. She also recounted her journey in Cooking notebooks, from Périgord to the Élysée (1997). A young mother of four children, she began her career by organizing the very first introductory courses in foie gras on the family farm La Borderie, in Chavagnac, in 1973, before traveling around the world and serving two years at the Élysée (1988-1990).

“A country woman”

It was chef Joël Robuchon who suggested his name to President Mitterrand when the latter was looking for “a country woman for her cooking”which he liked bourgeois. Despite “the climate of manipulation which reigned at the Élysée” – banana peels being numerous – she confided that she had “got along very well with the president”.

A truffle menu that she created for François Mitterrand and Mikhail Gorbachev has notably entered the Elysian taste memory. Despite her good understanding with the president, Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch left the Élysée following a misunderstanding with Danièle Mitterrand, before going to support a scientific expedition to Antarctica.