French television icon, Maïté died on the night of Friday to Saturday December 21, at the age of 86. From the President of the Republic to the inhabitants of the southwest where she was from, many people pay tribute to her outspokenness and her local cuisine.
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More than an icon, Maïté was an ambassador of traditional southwest cuisine. Real name Marie-Thérèse Ordonez, Maïté left her family on the night of Friday to Saturday, December 21, in Rions-des-Landes, where she had lived for several years.
The one who made herself known on FR3 Aquitaine with her culinary show “La cuisine des mousquetaires” has, for fourteen years, transmitted her passion for generous and local cuisine. A life always one foot in his native Landes to which many elected officials and residents have paid tribute, even the President of the Republic.
Maïté was good family dishes from popular, family cuisine whose recipes were scattered throughout her shows, where she shared the spotlight with Micheline Banzet-Lawton. On the menu, porcini mushrooms, foie gras, Landes duck and even Armagnac. “Source of inspiration for so many families, Maïté who so well embodied the art of being French is no longersoberly pays homage to Emmanuel Macron, in a post on social networks. I send my condolences to his family, his loved ones and all those who enjoyed listening to him.”
A “endearing and generous personality”, “figure of Landes culture and rural gastronomy”describes for his part the deputy of Landes, Boris Vallaud who sends his condolences to “all those who, like me, loved her”.
A cuisine that wanted to be from elsewhere “the antithesis of the nouvelle cuisine of the time”. “We wanted to do something that exudes southwestern cuisine. Maïté said that you had to be greedy to love cooking and that you needed a lot of love. She had a lot of it,” remembers Jean-Claude Sire, former director of the France 3 Aquitaine branch.
She loved to eat. And when you like to eat, you make something that other people will like.
Jean-Claude Sire,Former branch director
It was he who, forty years ago, introduced France to Maïté. “We discovered her by chance in a report where she was brilliantly cooking for the third half of a rugby club,” remembers Jean-Claude Sire. Of the five “La cuisine des mousquetaires” shows initially planned, the channel will ultimately make 1,000, with a duo becoming as iconic as it is fusional. “They made the viewers be with her,” remembers the former director of the antenna.
He also remembers a moment, on the other side of the Atlantic, in Canada. “She was overwhelmed because when we arrived at the Montreal airport, everyone recognized her, smiles Jean-Claude Sire. She was a woman of great generosity, innate know-how and great culture.”
At the announcement of his death, astonishment marks the faces. “It is part of the life of certain French people”, slips Christèle, a Girondine, still moved by the news. In the lands of her cuisine, the name of Maïté and especially her voice and her outspokenness have rocked an entire generation. “We know his extracts from videos circulating on the networks. She reminds us of our grandmother. slip two young people from Bordeaux. “I liked his accent, his way of speaking. She said what she thought”remembers another.
In the village where she opened two restaurants, emotion is omnipresent. “This is distressing news that we received today“, recognizes Laurent Civel, the mayor of Rions-des-Landes. A local figure, she was for him the best ambassador for her village. “When you are in Paris and you say that you are the mayor of Rions-des-landes, people are not interested. If you say that it is the commune of Maïté, everyone stops you.”s’amuse Laurent Civel.
Like many tributes, the councilor salutes a kitchen “without half measures”. “It was a cuisine in his image, generous, earthy and very French.”
More than Rions, she embodied French good living and eating well.
Laurent CivelMayor of Rions-des-Landes
Suffering from an illness, Marie-Thérèse Ordonez died at the Rions-des-Landes nursing home where she had retired. Despite her absence from the media, Maïté gave her “stentorian voice” until the end. “She was the first to sing when we cooked meals. She always had this way of bringing people together”whispers the mayor of Rions-des-landes, as a farewell and a last tribute.
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