Egon Ronay, the dapper Hungarian food critic who stamped his name indelibly on British culinary history, has died at the age of 94.
Ronay died on Saturday morning after being ill for a number of weeks, said his friend Nick Ross, the broadcaster. He had never retired and just a few weeks ago was telling friends about new projects he had in the pipeline with the BBC.
Ross, who had known Ronay for many years, said: “He was, in the most literal sense, incredible, right up until the last few weeks of his life. He was sharp as a button. We went for a tasting with him four months ago and he had this remarkable ability to taste flavors in anything.”
“Right up until his death, even young chefs regarded him as the monarch. He was a tiny man, but had no airs and graces about him, and yet he was almost fawned upon by restaurateurs right up until his last illness,” Ross said.
Simon Hopkinson, the acclaimed writer and cook, said on Saturday: “He was a great gourmet. His knowledge of food was encyclopedic and he had a continuing love for restaurants. He also had great style and generosity. He employed me as an inspector, and twice when I was caught speeding, he paid for my barrister and my fines.”
Ronay was born in Budapest in 1915, and arrived in London in 1946. He was seeking a new life after his father Miklos had lost the family estate and five restaurants he owned to the Russian occupation following World War II.
His father’s friends arranged for the young Egon to take a position managing a restaurant in Piccadilly. He quickly found his feet and soon took on his own 39-seat restaurant near Harrods called the Marquee, putting elegant French dishes on the menu and causing a stir in austere postwar London.
When the TV chef Fanny Cradock and her husband Johnny visited the Marquee, they persuaded others to take an interest in Ronay’s opinions and he began to write a food column for the Daily Telegraph in which he launched fearless attacks on standards, bemoaning school dinners.
In 1957, he completed the first edition of the Egon Ronay Guide. It grew in popularity and restaurants rapidly adopted a mention in the book as a mark of distinction; many of them proudly displayed the blue rosettes awarded by the guide in their window every year they were listed.
Based on the Michelin Guides, they were born out of a “genuine anger” about mass catering standards. Ronay made a point of ensuring their impartiality so that people could no longer get away with “murdering food.”
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