Ildéfonse-Léon Brisse (20 September 1807 â 1 June 1876), known as Baron Brisse, was a French gourmet and journalist. He has been described in a biographical sketch as one of the founders of culinary journalism, being to the Second French Empire what Grimod de La Reynière was to the First.
Ildéfonse-Léon Brisse was born in Gémenos, near Marseille, on 20 September 1803. He entered the public service in the Department of Water and Forestry under Louis-Philippe I but left after the 1848 revolution. He turned to journalism, specialising in articles on gastronomy. He was initially a freelancer at the for a small salary that forced him to eat in the cheap restaurants of the Boulevard des Batignolles. In 1864 he founded a gastronomic journal, , but it was a not a success and quickly folded.
Success came with the collaboration with ÃÂmile de Girardin who offered him a daily column in his newspaper , which he had bought in 1866. Brisse wrote a daily gastronomic chronicle that included a suggested seasonal menu per day. The column was a great success, increased the circulation of the paper and was imitated by many newspapers. Brisse incorporated his daily columns into a book published in 1867, . He published in 1868, in 1870 and in 1872 (a leap year).
According to one food historian, Brisse had neither the erudition of Grimod de La Reynière nor the philosophy of Brillat-Savarin, but he was "a master in the Art of the Table". In a biographical sketch published in 2013 Jean Vitaux described Brisse as "one of the founders of culinary journalism, [who] was to the Second Empire what Grimod de La Reynière was to the First ... a caricature, pleasant, whimsical, Rabelaisian character".
In 1872 Brisse moved from Paris to Fontenay-aux-Roses, living at the famous auberge Gigout, where he entertained his friends. He died there on 1 June 1876, aged 62.
Several dishes have been named in Baron Brisse's honour: