Jehane Benoît
{{short description|Canadian chef}}
{{Infobox chef
| name = Jehane Benoît
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1904|03|22}}
| birth_place = Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| birth_name = Jehane Patenaude
| death_date = {{death date and age|1987|11|24|1904|03|21}}
| death_place = Sutton, Quebec, Canada
| style =
| education = Sorbonne and Le Cordon Bleu
| ratings =
| restaurants =
| prevrests =
| television =
| awards = Officer of the Order of Canada
| website =
}}
Jehane Benoît {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|OC}} ({{IPA|fr|ʒan bənwa}}; {{née|Patenaude}} {{IPA|fr|pat(ə)nod|}}; March 21, 1904 – November 24, 1987) was a Canadian culinary author, speaker, commentator, journalist and broadcaster.{{cite web|url=http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=124 |title=Order of Canada citation }}{{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{Cite book|title=Legacy: How French Canadians shaped North America.|publisher=Signal|year=2016|isbn=978-0-7710-7239-0|pages=259–276}}
Benoît was born into a wealthy family in Westmount, Quebec, with a father and grandfather who were food connoisseurs.{{Cite web|last=Bayly|first=Joanne|date=December 22, 2019|title=Tourtiere for the holidays appeal of Madame Benoit|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/tourtiere-for-the-holidays-appeal-of-madame-benoit-1.5405174|url-status=live|access-date=2021-10-10|website=CBC|archive-date=2021-10-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010231757/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/tourtiere-for-the-holidays-appeal-of-madame-benoit-1.5405174}} After studying at the Sorbonne and Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, she started her own cooking school, Fumet de la Vieille France, in Montreal. She also opened one of Canada's first vegetarian restaurants, "The Salad Bar", in 1935.{{cite web|title=Jehane Benoît|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0000686|publisher=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=4 October 2012|archive-date=21 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111221124250/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0000686|url-status=dead}}
Life
Best known as "Madame Benoît," she wrote 30 books during her career, including the Encyclopedia of Canadian Cuisine (currently out of print). She appeared regularly on CBC Television's Take 30{{cite web|title=Jehane Benoit: her life and her kitchen in Sutton|url=http://www.cbc.ca/allinaweekend/food/2012/03/25/jehanne-benoit-her-life-and-her-kitchen-in-sutton/|work=All in a Weekend Montreal|publisher=CBC|access-date=4 October 2012|archive-date=10 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610171611/http://www.cbc.ca/allinaweekend/food/2012/03/25/jehanne-benoit-her-life-and-her-kitchen-in-sutton/|url-status=live}} and later became a proponent of microwave cookery, writing several books on the subject as well as appearing in television commercials for Panasonic microwaves.{{cite book|last=Driver|first=Elizabeth|title=Culinary Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825-1949|year=2008|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9780802047908|pages=248–249}}
Benoît introduced traditional Québécois menu items to English-speaking Canadians, including the meat pie known in French as the Quebec Tourtière, Benoît's "iconic dish". She has been described by CBC's Joanne Bayly as a 1960s phenomenon.
In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Benoît was Canada's cook. In both French and charmingly accented English, she was on radio and television, trying to improve how Canadians ate and how they cooked.In 1973, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for her contribution to this art in Canada".
In 2012, Marguerite Paulin and Marie Desjardins published Jehane Benoît's biography [https://web.archive.org/web/20130905121901/http://www.lesediteursreunis.com/cataloguedetail/150/%C3%80+la+d%C3%A9couverte+de+Jehane+Benoit.html À la découverte de Jehane Benoît, le roman de la grande dame de la cuisine canadienne].
Selected works
- Benoît, J. (1963). Encyclopedia of Canadian Cuisine. Les Messageries du Saint Laurent.
- Benoît, J. (1964). Secrets et recettes du cahier de ma grand'mère. Éditions Beauchemin.
- Benoit, J. (1970).
‘’The Canadiana Cookbook’’.
Pagurian Press Ltd
- Benoit, J. (1987). Microwave Food Fun. Saint-Lambert, Québec: Héritage.
= Television series =
- The Young Chefs (1976)
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- [https://www.gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=14937&t=12&ln=Beno%C3%AEt Order of Canada Citation]
- Chrystine Brouillet: Jehane Benoît. Canadian cuisine's grande dame, in Legacy. How French Canadians shaped North America. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 2016; réimpr. 2019 ({{ISBN|0771072392}}) p 259-278
- (in French) in: Bâtisseurs d'Amérique: Des canadiens français qui ont faite de l'histoire. Dir. André Pratte, Jonathan Kay. Éd. La Presse, Montréal 2016, p 125-146
External links
- [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jehane-benoit Jehane Benoît] at The Canadian Encyclopedia
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benoit, Jehane}}
Category:Canadian cookbook writers
Category:Canadian television chefs
Category:Officers of the Order of Canada
Category:Writers from Montreal
Category:20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century Canadian women writers