Sunday 13 June 2010

Egon Ronay RIP

Food critic Egon Ronay dies
The 94-year-old was best known for his Egon Ronay guides
Amy Fallon and agencies

guardian.co.uk
Saturday 12 June 2010 15.59

Egon Ronay, the Hungarian who transformed British eating habits and became the doyen of food critics with his restaurant reviews, has died aged 94.

The former restaurateur died at 8.15am at his home near the village of Yattendon, in Berkshire. His wife Barbara and daughters, Edina and Esther, were by his side, longtime friend and broadcaster Nick Ross said. Ronay had been ill for several weeks.

Ross today paid tribute to Ronay, best known for setting restaurant standards throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s with his Egon Ronay guides.

"He was, in the most literal sense, incredible, right up until the last few weeks of his life," Ross said.

"He was sharp as a button. We went for a tasting with him four months ago and he had this remarkable ability to taste flavours in anything."

He added: "Right up until his death, even young chefs regarded him as the monarch.

"He was a tiny man but had no airs and graces about him and yet he was almost fawned upon by restaurateurs, right up until his last illness."

The son of Budapest's then highest taxpayer, Ronay was born on 24 July, 1915. His grandfather Nicholas inherited a restaurant around 1910, and his father Miklos, a captain in the Austro-Hungarian army, owned five.

During the siege of Budapest, which started when the Russians tried to force occupying Germans out of the city in December 1944, Ronay spent three weeks living in a cellar with his young wife and two small daughters.

When he emerged, he began selling coffee in an attempt to revitalise the city.

He was seized by Russians and taken to a barracks along with other Hungarian men bound for Siberia, but was eventually released as he was a waiter and working class – and because a Russian soldier remembered buying coffee from him.

"It was a chance in a million – a miracle," Ronay later said.

He escaped to England alone as a refugee in October 1946, marking a change in fortune which later saw him take over the Marquee tea room, on Hans Road in Knightsbridge, in 1952.

Although he had to be persuaded, Ronay next began writing a Daily Telegraph food column.

In 1957 he finished the first Egon Ronay Guide after "genuine anger" about mass catering standards.

It sold 30,000 copies and ran for the next three decades, with the help of anonymous inspectors.

In 1985 he sold the rights to his books to the AA, but when the association sold them on, the company that purchased them went into bankruptcy and Ronay went to court to claim back the guides.

He was known for being discreet about his age, but once said, "It is not vanity ... I simply don't want people to think that I have one foot in the grave."

Ronay also monitored food for airport authority BAA and was founding president of the British Academy of Gastronomes and founder of the International Academy of Gastronomy.

He is survived by second wife Barbara, daughter Edina, a well-known fashion designer, daughter Esther, who works in television production, and adopted son Gerard, a prominent chocolate maker.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/12/food-critic-egon-ronay-dies

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