With thanks for Florence Fabricant, Pittsburgh Bailli Peter Hanowich and Auguste Escoffier

Gioacchino Rossini
Born in 1792, Gioacchino Rossini was most famous for his operas including William Tell, the Barber of Seville, An Italian in Algeria and Cinderella. Although his work was controversial, his prolific writing cannot be disputed. At the age of 16, he wrote his first opera and by 37, after composing William Tell, he retired. Rossini was quintessentially theatrical and everything he did had a "larger than life" characteristic to it. Rossini lived for 39 more years and he lived very well indeed. Unlike many starving artistic individuals who died in poverty and became popular after death, Rossini had the status of a rock star. He developed refined tastes, and was paid well enough to indulge himself in them. He traveled extensively and had a passion for French foods and wines, particularly three ingredients, foie gras, truffles and rich reduction sauces. If Rossini created a dish, it was sure to have at least one, but more likely all three of his favorite ingredients. An invitation to Rossini's Saturday evening Parisian dinner parties was highly prized and placed the attendees at the top of the social "A" list in Paris. Restaurants named dishes after Rossini and banquets were held in his honor, including one for 3,500 people in Vienna. A New York Times article called Rossini a "notorious Gastronome and bon vivant".

An anecdote connects the naming of Tournedos Rossini with its decadence. Supposedly the Matre'd at the restaurant Cafe Anglais, where Rossini developed the dish would prepare it at tableside with his back to the rest of the room so that other customers would not see the decadence of the excessively rich ingredients. The French phrase "tourner le dos" or "to turn ones back" became contracted in the hushed discussions throughout the room to become the name of this famed dish.

Rossini seems to have adopted "Laissez le bon temps roulet" as his motto, and then did a very good job of living up to it!

Another Rossini Specialty...
Rossini loved a certain delicate Neapolitan pasta which he would fill with foie gras. The pasta was so delicate that Rossini needed a small syringe to fill it. One day Rossini and his Belgian friend Edmond Michotte traveled to a Parisian shop that supposedly had the pasta. The story, as related in the New York Times, states that Rossini stormed out of the shop complaining that the pasta's origin was Genoa, not Naples. The shopkeeper commented that if Rossini knows as much about music as he does about pasta, he must write beautiful music!