Death of Colette Monsat, gastronomic writer for Le Figaro

She loved Breton oysters and scallops, roast chicken, and the bistro dishes of her Aligre neighborhood in Paris. After delighting readers with her gourmet and mischievous pen for thirty years, Colette Monsat , former food editor-in-chief of Le Figaro and Le Figaroscope , died on Wednesday, October 8, at the age of 72.

Born in Paris, after several experiences in specialized magazines ( Régal , Cuisine and Vins de France ), she joined Le Figaro in 1989, joining the team of Le Figaroscope , a supplement launched two years earlier to recommend Parisian outings. More precisely its flagship column, "Restaurants", where alongside François Simon and then Emmanuel Rubin, she contributed through her reviews to bring a fresh, offbeat and uncompromising perspective on the culinary revolution taking place in the capital, and in particular the rise of these well-priced bistros that would later be called bistronomic. Multiplying the original angles, she coordinates with great seriousness files from all directions, scouring the good and not so good addresses, alone or accompanied, reserving under a false name and always paying her bills, just to live an experience similar to that of any customer.

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Among her discoveries, the orchestration, once a month, of gourmet awards. Paris-brest , flans , croissants , apple tarts : after having anonymously collected, with her teams, around twenty viennoiseries and pastries, choosing addresses with a high street presence as well as confidential ones in the four corners of Paris, Colette tasted them, one by one, blind, with the editorial staff, under the guidance of the former pastry chef of the Crillon, Christophe Felder , before rating them according to a scrupulous grid of criteria. Despite these tests, more trying than they appear, Colette's passion remained intact. " You think I have a grain? I accept it, if it's round and rice," she wrote in the columns of the Figaroscope , echoing her love of rice pudding .

Over the years, Colette took over the gastronomy section not only of Le Figaroscope but also of the national page that appears every Saturday in the daily newspaper, for which she conducted investigations, profiles, and interviews with the main players in gastronomy. "Colette was of great integrity, she loved simple things, and she wasn't fooled by the chefs' game ," recalls François Simon. "I learned from her the regularity and importance of being conscientious and hardworking. She rightly believed that paying attention to details, checking the spelling of names, the accuracy of practical information, was the ABC of a quality press." A true guardian of the temple, Colette was also a good friend, who always treated her interlocutors with respect and kindness and did not hesitate to give young journalists a chance. " She was a formidable journalist for whom the profession neither begins nor ends with the signed article alone." Colette was one of those behind-the-scenes professionals who, with rigor and kindness, led the teams, orchestrated the editorial lines and reminded everyone that a newspaper is first and foremost a collective adventure. She had a taste for memory and transmission, welcoming and supporting new generations," recalls Emmanuel Rubin, who started as an intern in her team.

Readers didn't know her face, which she took care to blur in the newspaper, her blond curls, her laughing gaze, her mischievous kindness. After leaving Le Figaro in 2018, she continued to write about restaurants, notably for the professional journal Trois étoiles , telling the story of the cuisine she loved so much.

All employees of the Figaro group share the grief of his son, Adrien, and all his loved ones.