Roy Andries De Groot
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Roy Andries de Groot (1912 - September 16, 1983), was a British culinary writer.
He was born in London, the son of a Dutch artist and a French noblewoman. He was educated at St Paul's School and at Oxford University.
During the 1930s, De Groot worked as a news and feature writer, film writer, and director. When World War II broke out, he joined the British Ministry of Information and worked for the BBC, where, during the The Blitz of London, he suffered eye injuries that would leave him totally blind within 20 years.
De Groot emigrated to the United States in 1941 and worked for the U.S. State Department.
In 1948, he married the actress Katherine Hynes and they lived in a house on Bleeker Street in New York's Greenwich Village with his seeing-eye dog companion, Nustra. The couple had two daughters.
As his vision failed, he switched careers in the 1960s and took up food writing, something he could do with his remaining senses. He wrote for Esquire, Ladies Home Journal, Playboy, House Beautiful, Vintage, McCall's, Gourmet, Time and The New York Times.
De Groot's "Recipes from The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth" (Auberge de l'Artre Fleuri) published in 1973 is a classic in its field. It is the story of how de Groot went to France to seek out the history of the liqueur Chartreuse. In doing so, he discovered the world of two women who cooked with the seasons, which became the focus of the book. Many American chefs and restarteurs have credited the book with influencing them, including Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, Ron Zimmerman of The Herbfarm, and Jeremiah Tower of Stars.
De Groot died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Ms. Hynes-de Groot died of a stroke at age 88 on March 27, 1993.
[edit] Bibliography
- How I reduced with the new Rockefeller Diet: Part 1. The Rockefeller Diet. Part 2. The Diet for Gourmets (published 1957)
- Esquire's Handbook for Hosts (published 1953 and later revised by de Groot)
- Feasts for All Seasons (published 1966)
- The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth (published 1973)
- Revolutionizing French Cooking (published 1976)
- Cooking with the Cuisinart Food Processor (published 1977)
- Pressure Cookery Perfected (published 1978)
- The Wines of California, The Pacific Northwest & New York (published 1982)
- In Search of the Perfect Meal: A Collection of the Best Food Writing of Roy Andries De Groot (published 1986)
