GRIMOD DE LA REYNIÈRE, Alexandre Balthazar Laurent.

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Almanach des gourmands. An attractively bound mixed edition of the celebrated restaurant and food guide, offering the "first-ever restaurant reviews" (Willan, p. 259) by one of the founding fathers of gastronomy. The itinéraires, promenades, and revues within the Almanach anticipate Baedeker, Michelin, Gault-Millau and other modern guides. This set comprises first editions of volumes 4 through 8, second editions of volumes 2 and 3, and a fourth edition of volume 1.Though published anonymously, the author was well known. An eccentric theatre critic and lawyer, Grimod de la Reynière (1758-1838) established himself as "the arbiter of taste under the First French Empire" (Notaker, p. 8), creating a role for himself as Paris' self-appointed food critic, an "intermediary between a public hungry for culinary luxury, and a fine food industry eager to please" (Garval, p. 68).Food culture historian Henry Notaker describes Grimod de la Reynière as one of the "two founding fathers of gastronomy" alongside Brillat-Savarin (Notaker, p. 172), and Michael Garval draws attention to the debt that the latter owes, arguing that "Grimod's manic energy, his discoverer's exuberance, lay the foundation for Brillat's greater sobriety, maturity of judgement, and stylistic sophistication" (p. 61). Jean-Claude Bonnet goes further, judging Grimod de la Reynière "the sole founding father of gastronomy in whom all the gastronomes and chroniclers of gastronomy of the 19th and 20th century recognize themselv

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