Colette Rossant

Colette Rossant
Born 1932
Paris
Residence France, USA
Nationality French-American
Alma mater Sorbonne
Occupation writer, cookbook author, translator, restaurateur, teacher
Notable credit(s) author of three food memoirs, seven cookbooks, and four translations
Spouse(s) James Rossant
Children Marianne, Juliette, Cecile, Tomas
Relatives Eddy Palacci
Website coletterossant.com

Colette Rossant (born 1932) is a French-American cookbook author, journalist, translator, and restaurateur.

Life

Background

Chapel of Sainte Ursule at the Sorbonne.

Born in Paris, Rossant traveled with her mother to Cairo to live with her father and her father's family during World War II. Her mother spent much of the war in Beirut (part of the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon), while her brother Eddy Palacci remained in Paris with their mother's parents.[1]

After World War II, Rossant returned to Paris and lived with her grandmother and brother, joined occasionally by her mother. In Paris, she studied at the Lycée La Fontaine. She spent a year learning English at Roedean School near Brighton, UK. She earned a B.A. in Comparative Literature at the Sorbonne in 1954. She married American architect James Rossant in 1955.[2]

Career

View of Lower Manhattan at sunset, from Jersey City, New Jersey. One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere.

Moving to New York with her husband, Rossant pursued several careers, often simultaneously: teaching, writing, translating, restaurant business, and raising a family.[3]

Rossant spent many years teaching French. She was first a language instructor at the Browning School (1957–1961). She then taught French at Hofstra University (1961–1970). She became head of the French department at St. Anne's School (1970–1983). Her last position was as Liaison Officer at the New York branch of Crédit Lyonnais (1985–2000).

Exploring New York, Rossant became very interested in bettering the food she found there. She published her first of seven cookbooks in 1975 (and last to date in 1991). Her third cookbook, A Mostly French Food Processor Cookbook (1980) sold more than 50,000 copies and made a name for her in the Food industry. She became "underground gourmet" for New York Magazine in the 1980s. She served as food and design editor for McCalls Magazine (1983–1990). She then became a columnist for the New York Daily News, where she wrote a popular Wednesday column called "Ask Colette." Currently, she contributes to Food Arts and Super Chef magazines.

Rossant helped launch two restaurants in New York. Buddha Green[4] (1998–1999) opened in Mid-Town Manhattan and featured original, vegetarian "Buddhist" cuisine. Dim Sum Go Go[5] (2000–2003) opened in Chinatown and featured original Imperial Cantonese cuisine, although Rossant has stopped consulting there. Her husband James Rossant helped design both, while son Tomas Rossant helped on the interior at Buddha Green.

Rossant has traveled abroad (often with her husband, whose architectural design work took him to countries like Bhutan, Tanzania, and Turkey). Her lifelong interest in Asian cuisines took her to China and Japan, reflected in her cookbooks and restaurants.

Recently

Dorceau in Orne, France.

With children grown and married, Rossant's most recent books have been memoirs: Apricots on the Nile (2004, originally published as Memories of a Lost Egypt in 1999), Return to Paris (2003), and The World in My Kitchen (2006).

In 2002, Rossant moved from New York back to France, but rather than return to Paris again (as she had as a teenager), she went to live in the department of Orne, two hours west of Paris. In 2009, Rossant's husband of 55 years died.[6] She continues to live in their home near Condeau, France, on whose town council she has served.[7] She continues to contribute to Super Chef,[8] Food Arts,[9] and Pays du Perche magazines and is writing a twelfth book.

In November 2010, Rossant received the Prix Eugenie Brazier for the French translation of her first memoir, Memoire d'une Egypt perdue (Editions Les Deux Terres 2010).[10]

Rossant appears during an interview in Rebekah Wingert-Jabi's 2015 documentary Another Way of Living: The Story of Reston, VA, along with excerpt of an interview with late husband James.[11][12]

Personal

Rossant's parents met in Paris at a wedding. Her father, who was ill for much of his life, returned with his family to Egypt for warmer weather.[1]

She comes from both Sephardic and Ashkenazi families:

Works

Memoirs

Cookbooks

Translations

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rossant, Colette (2004). Apricots on the Nile. Atria. pp. 32 (family origin). ISBN 0-609-60150-4.
  2. ↑ Rossant, Colette (2003). Return to Paris. Atria. ISBN 0-7434-3967-8.
  3. ↑ Rossant, Colette (2006). The World in My Kitchen. Atria. ISBN 0-7434-9028-2.
  4. ↑ Fabricant, Florence (August 9, 1995). "Food Notes". New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  5. ↑ Grimes, William (January 3, 2001). "It's Chinese, Baby, but Not So Squaresville". New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  6. ↑ Grimes, William (December 18, 2009). "James Rossant, Architect and Planner, Dies at 81". New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Municipales 2008 Condeau Orne (61): resultats au 13/03/08". OuestFrance.fr. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Colette Rossant author archive". Super Chef. Retrieved January 18, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Colette Rossant author archive". Food Arts. Retrieved January 18, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Prix Eugenie Brazier to Colette Rossant". Super Chef. November 29, 2010. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Another Way of Living: The Story of Reston, VA". IMDB. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  12. ↑ "Another Way of Living: The Story of Reston, VA" (PDF). Another Way of Living: official site. 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  13. ↑ Palacci, Eddy (2012). Des étoiles par cœur. Elzevir. p. 29. Retrieved 13 September 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.