Death of Maïté: the star of the cult show “La Cuisine des mousquetaires” and icon of French gastronomy on TV has died at 86

Maïté, the famous small screen cook, died at the age of 86 on the night of Friday December 20 to Saturday December 21, according to information fromNews Landes, confirmed by RTL, France 3 New Aquitaine et South West. Her real name Marie-Thérèse Ordonez, she highlighted southwestern cuisine through her recipes on the small screen. This is notably thanks to his show entitled The kitchen of the musketeersbroadcast on FR3, from 1983 to 1997 with Micheline Banzet-Lawton, who made herself known for her generous gastronomy and her memorable accent.

Born in Rion-des-Landes on June 2, 1938, it was however far from the kitchens where she started since she worked as an announcer for the SNCF. She sounded the bugle when the trains arrived, in particular to warn the workers and railway workers working on the railway tracks.

Passionate about cooking, she started by making meals for the rugby players in her village, before catching the eye of director Patrice Bellot during a sports report in 1983.

Suffering from a neurodegenerative disease

In parallel with her cooking show, she opened two restaurants in Rion-des-Landes, “Le Relais des Landes” in 1988, then “Chez Maïté”. The latter establishment has since closed its doors. Then from 1995 to 1999, she presented another cult culinary show called At the table.

His notoriety also led him to host shows on South Radio. In 1995, the host even got the title role in the film The Fabulous Destiny of Madame Petlet. She also participated in the reality TV game Celebrity Farm on TF1. Wanting to pass on her knowledge of cooking, she had also written several books, such as Maïté sits down at the table, before retiring in the 2000s.