2023-05-06 18:00:05
In the heyday of analogue television was “La Cuisine des mousquetaires”. A cooking show presented every day on FR3 (ex-France 3) between 1983 and 1997, by a duo that is as complementary as it is endearing. On the one hand, the earthy Maïté (Marie-Thérèse Ordonez, her real name): her Gascon banter, her outspokenness and her good local recipes. On the other, Micheline Banzet-Lawton: the former radio producer with bourgeois airs, discreet accomplice and peerless passer of dishes – literally and figuratively.
From their encounter in front of the camera will be born several hundred episodes (about 25 minutes long) spread over 14 seasons. From their many recipes filmed in the studio emanate a familiar atmosphere, an old-fashioned charm and this communicative way of transmitting greediness. Behind them, Maïté and Micheline Banzet-Lawton also left plenty of dialogue and commentary – sometimes laconic or colorful; often funny and completely convoluted. A gold mine.
Fascinated by the two characters, the Franco-Belgian artist and artistic director Gala Colette has selected twelve episodes of The kitchen of the musketeers, and endeavored to transcribe the exchanges. Which come to us like a succession of short stories in prose. The author thus revives the (so strange) recipe for nutria terrine or those (just as folkloric) for ostrich steak and snail fricassee.
We revel in the flowery exchanges between Maïté and Micheline (“You’re not going to ask me to lay these beautiful roses on fish? ») ; of their flights bordering on lyricism (“We are going to make cold soups, for the hot days”) ; and all those hilarious little pokes they throw at each other between two turns of the pepper mill (“Maïté, so I’m surprised here. The purse was flat, or you had no imagination? »). The word of the end, equivocal, goes to Micheline: “Good luck doing the same. »
It doesn’t hurt anything, of Gala ColetteEditions de l’Epure, 128 p., €24.
The graphic key
The central notebook and its twenty visuals, all taken from “La Cuisine des mousquetaires”.
The cult phrase
“Maïté, with all these beautiful things, what are we doing today? A clambake? Do you speak English now? Yes, I’m making progress, I’m learning. »
The star recipe
That of salmon trout fillets, with lemon rose butter.
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#Kitchen #Musketeers