Alexandre Étienne Choron
Encyclopedia
Alexandre Étienne Choron (1837, Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....

, Calvados – 1924) was a French chef.

As chef de cuisine of the celebrated restaurant Voisin on the rue Saint Honoré, Choron is best known for his invention of Choron sauce, a sauce béarnaise enriched with tomato concentrate before reduction.

Choron is also remembered for his dishes served during the Siege of Paris
Siege of Paris
The Siege of Paris, lasting from September 19, 1870 – January 28, 1871, and the consequent capture of the city by Prussian forces led to French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German Empire as well as the Paris Commune....

 by the Prussians in which began on 19 September 1870. During the siege, Parisians were reduced to eating cats, dogs, and rats. The bourgeois were not content to eat on such low animals, and demand at the de luxe restaurants remained high. As food reserves dwindled, these restaurants, including Voisin, improvised. Choron eyed the animals kept at the local zoo, and served exotic animal dishes at Voisin. For the midnight Christmas meal of 1870, Choron proposed a menu principally composed of the best parts of the animals kept in the Jardin d'acclimatation
Jardin d'Acclimatation
The Jardin d'Acclimatation is a children's amusement park with a menagerie, the Exploradôme museum, and other attractions located in the northern part of the Bois de Boulogne, in Paris.-History:...

 (one of Paris' zoos) – stuffed head of donkey, elephant consommé
Consommé
In cooking, a consommé is a type of clear soup made from richly flavored stock or bouillon that has been clarified usually through a fining process involving egg protein. It usually requires an advanced knowledge of cooking and past experience to create a high quality consommé...

, roasted camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...

, kangaroo
Kangaroo
A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...

 stew, bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...

 shanks roasted in pepper sauce, wolf in deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

 sauce, cat with rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...

, and antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...

 in truffle sauce – has become legendary. The menu's wines were Mouton-Rothschild 1846, Romanée-Conti
Romanée-Conti
Romanée-Conti is an Appellation d'origine contrôlée and Grand Cru vineyard for red wine in the Côte de Nuits subregion of Burgundy, with Pinot Noir as the sole grape variety. It is situated within the commune of Vosne-Romanée and is a monopole of the winery Société Civile du Domaine de la...

 1858 and Château Palmer
Château Palmer
Château Palmer is a winery in the Margaux appellation of the Bordeaux region of France. The wine produced here was classified as one of fourteen Troisièmes Crus in the historic Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855...

 1864.

Choron also garnered fame for his dishes containing elephant : Trompe d’éléphant in sauce chasseur and Éléphant bourguignon. After the elephant at the Jardin d'acclimatation graced the Christmas table, the two elephants (Castor and Pollux) at the Paris' jardin zoologique were consumed on 31 December 1870 at Voisin. In early January, it was the elephant at the Jardin des Plantes
Jardin des Plantes
The Jardin des Plantes is the main botanical garden in France. It is one of seven departments of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. It is situated in the 5ème arrondissement, Paris, on the left bank of the river Seine and covers 28 hectares .- Garden plan :The grounds of the Jardin des...

(Paris' botanical garden) which was sent to the abbatoir. It was bought by Choron for his restaurant at the price of 15 francs per pound. By 13 January, Voisin was out of elephant meat and substituted horse. The siege was lifted two weeks later.
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