The host of the cult culinary show “La Cuisine des Mousquetaires” has died at the age of 86.
The host Maïté, famous for her participation in cult culinary shows The Kitchen of the Musketeers (1983-1999) et A Table (1995-1999), died during the night from Friday to Saturday, BFMTV learned from the mayor of Rion-des-Landes, confirming information from Actu Landes. She was 86 years old.
Real name Marie-Thérèse Ordonez, Maïté will be remembered for her frankness and her generous recipes such as ostrich steak, Cragondin terrine or even the XXL hamburger with duck breast.
His career is full of cult moments. Like the 1992 sequence where she knocks out in front of the cameras with a pestle an eel that she intends to cook as a sailor. “Come on, my darling, you won’t get my skin,” she whispers, crushing him.
“It's hot…”
In another notable sequence, this one broadcast in 1984, Maïté shows viewers how to eat ortolans. A particularly suggestive tasting session.
“It’s hot… I start to take him and suck his behind,” the host laughed in this sequence.
Announcer at SNCF for 22 years, Maïté was spotted by Bordeaux director Patrice Bellot in 1983 before hosting with Micheline Banzet-Lawton The Kitchen of the Musketeers.
Building on this success, Maïté opened her restaurant in the Landes, Le Relais des Landes, in 1988. She opened a second, Chez Maïté, closed since 2015. She also participated in the game Celebrity Farm.
A role in the cinema
The French television star also played the lead role in a film in 1995, The Fabulous Destiny of Mrs. Petletdirected by Camille de Casabianca, with Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Michèle Laroque and Gérard Hernandez in the cast.
In this comedy, Maïté plays a woman from the South-West who goes to Paris to work as a nanny for a television screenwriter, who is inspired by her life to write a successful series.
Fallen into oblivion, the film had a certain success around the world and was praised by critics. Even the host had been praised for her interpretation: “Maïté, a generous presence which bursts the screen”, had estimated then Le Figaro.
