DES OMBIAUX (Maurice). - MANUSCRIT. - Cheeses. Large in-8, b - Lot 481

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  3. DES OMBIAUX (Maurice). - MANUSCRIT. - Cheeses. Large in-8, b - Lot 481
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Lot n° 481
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DES OMBIAUX (Maurice). - MANUSCRIT. - Cheeses. Large in-8, b - Lot 481
DES OMBIAUX (Maurice). - MANUSCRIT. - Cheeses. Large in-8, brown half-maroquin with corners, spine ribbed (Lobstein-Laurenchet). 97 ff. numbered, in two series with missing parts : I) 43 ff. - II) 54 ff. Precious reunion of two fragments of manuscripts concerning cheeses, having served for the edition of the famous treatise Les Fromages de Des Ombiaux (or Desombiaux), published in 1926 (Paris, Jean Budry et Cie, printed in 400 copies). A few leaves seem nevertheless to be notes for other gastronomic essays (I, ff. 58 et seq.) The first draft of the manuscript consists of notes, with a few corrections and rectifications, mostly written on the back of newspaper clippings, mounted on tabs. Some considerations are sometimes taken up again in other sheets (perhaps badly ordered). The tone is quickly set: "Let us not confuse agronomy with gastronomy. We are not writing this little treatise for those who make cheese, but for those who eat it" (f. 16). Following are classifications, the definition of cheese, the origins of Brie, goat's cheese, soft, firm and pressed cheeses... In the middle of these descriptions, some anecdotes are mixed in, like the one about the discovery of blue-veined Roquefort by Charlemagne (ff.21-22). From folio 58, the subject concerns Burgundy and its wines, and the cheeses worthy of accompanying them (Des Ombiaux returns to Roquefort, which he advises to taste roasted - f. 62). Then the author honors his origins by evoking "the white cheese pie that one eats while hot in the North, after having lifted the golden crust to introduce a piece of butter" (f. 83). He quotes M. Rouff, who presents at length the Gruyère cheese, until its introduction in the onion soup, then Maurice Rollinat, Fulbert-Dumontheil who recalls that he was served a cheese made of woman's milk. The author recommends to the gastronome to bear the smells and bad aspects that are part of the tasting, and not to refuse a local cheese! The second series of notes, handwritten on sheets of paper that may have been used for accounting purposes, is more elaborate; it is the revised and expanded text, a new version of the notes bound at the beginning of the volume: the same guideline, the same anecdote about Charlemagne (f. 14), and the history of cheeses, their evocation in literature, Italian cheeses, the care to be taken with cheeses, the alliance with wines... The gourmand lingers on Roquefort, known as "the drunkard's cookie", Brie, Bondon de Neufchâtel, Stiton d'Angleterre, Brillat-Savarin's fondue and its various recipes, Dauphinoise potatoes, Gruyère cheese... and the way to serve cheeses. The style is fluent and there are few erasures: these fragments reveal the ease with which the master gastronome wrote. Desombiaux had a spontaneous pen, which facilitated a prolific production, multiplying novels and epicurean publications. Maurice Desombiaux (1868-1943), the great singer of Wallonia, moved to Paris in 1921; a famous gastronomic chronicler, he received two prizes in 1930: the first one awarded by a French jury, the "Prix de la Treille" - in the same way as the one received by Curnonsky, the "Prince of Gastronomes"; the second one awarded by the Belgian government, for the whole of his work: the "Grand prix quinquennal de la littérature française". Some lined and restored leaves, some traces of folds.
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