{"id":9566,"date":"2009-01-12T07:39:41","date_gmt":"2009-01-12T12:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=9566"},"modified":"2013-02-24T12:43:26","modified_gmt":"2013-02-24T17:43:26","slug":"gaston-lentre-1920-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2009\/01\/12\/gaston-lentre-1920-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaston Lenôtre 1920-2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading of the death of French pastry genius Gaston Lenôtre in the pages of The New York Times<\/i><\/a> brought me immediately back to mid-’70s Manhattan, when I first met the woman who was to become my wife and love was in bloom. I need no madeleine to bring back my past; give me an inspired Lenôtre creation any day.<\/p>\n

\"GastonLeNotreChef\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The obituary refers to Chateau France, an 80-seat restaurant and pâtisserie, which he opened on East 59th Street in April 1974, the same month Irene began work at Marvel Comics, and two months before my start date. I don’t remember ever eating in the restaurant, but the pâtisserie, which in my memory was simply called Lenôtre’s, was immediately next to the restaurant, and once Irene and I discovered each other it became somewhat of a hangout for us.<\/p>\n

I can close my eyes and remember specific pastries, Irene and I holding hands across the table as we ate. There was a swan encased in spun-sugar. A large orange filled with cream. Irene and I would walk there during our lunch hours, or after work, and enjoy Lenôtre’s amazing confections, and our budding relationship. Lenôtre was a culinary god, and his pastries were so sensual that eating them was almost a form of foreplay.<\/p>\n

Lenôtre apprentice Michel Richards is quoted as saying about the restaurant, \u201cIt closed a year later. Americans weren’t ready for his pastries.” Irene and I surely were. You may remember what music was playing when you fell in love. I remember what I was eating. And often, what I was eating was the brainchild of Gaston Lenôtre.<\/p>\n

Continued Richard, \u201cWhen you’ve been at Lenôtre, it’s like a drug. You’ve been injected with his recipes that you have to carry your whole life.\u201d <\/p>\n

I have. I do. And almost 35 years later, I’m still high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading of the death of French pastry genius Gaston Lenôtre in the pages of The New York Times brought me immediately back to mid-’70s Manhattan, when I first met the woman who was to become my wife and love was in bloom. I need no madeleine to bring back my past; give me an inspired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[49,73,85],"class_list":["post-9566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-food","tag-irene-vartanoff","tag-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}