EGON RONAY;EGON RONAY, who has died aged 94, was a Hungarian émigré who settled in Britain after the second World War and resolved to improve the country's eating habits. The result was a restaurant guide that bears his name and set the standard for other similar aids to travel and dining.
Short, dapper and trim, Ronay was personally courteous and great fun. He had the sort of alert, bright and optimistic personality that could make things happen by persuasion.
Nonetheless, in any professional discussion as to how eating could be made better he could also be extremely pugnacious, always looking to increase awareness through stimulating controversy. When journalists joined him in the events he organised, exploring all sorts of food, the unworthy thought of a luxurious freebie was always subordinate to the expectation that something potentially newsy, and with plenty of arresting quotes, was in the air.
What made his name a byword for sound culinary judgment was the publication of the Egon Ronay guides, the brand reinforced by the round Egon Ronay signs in hotel and restaurant windows. Selling the titles to the AA in 1985 proved to be the greatest regret of his business life, and after various setbacks he regained control of the publishing rights in 1997. The title wording alone of the 2006 Egon Ronay's Guide to the Best Restaurants and Gastropubs in the UKpoints to the revolution he did so much to promote.
Egon Ronay was born into a Budapest family and was educated from 10 to 18 at the school of the Piarist Order of Catholic priests.
At home, the prevailing culture was that of the restaurant business. After gaining a law degree at Budapest University, he trained in the family firm's kitchens, and abroad, finishing at the Dorchester Hotel in London. He had hoped to further his law studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, but the second World War kept him in Budapest. In December 1944, Russian forces arrived to force the Germans out: the Ronay business proper had been destroyed, but Egon made the most enterprising gesture he could by selling cups of coffee from the shell of the largest restaurant. He was saved from being deported to Siberia only through being recognised by one of his Russian soldier customers.
In October 1946, Ronay was back in London, and managed three restaurants in Piccadilly. He quickly came to appreciate how the British class system served to suppress the discerning palate: "The first thing I discovered was that public school food was abominable and its victims were taught to be uncomplaining. And the product of that system was the British customer. They had no taste for food and the restaurateur had no audience to play to. His customer was an object of contempt. And British food got the reputation it deserved." Ronay realised that his catering mission to London was obvious.
By borrowing £4,000, in 1952 he was able to take over a tearoom at 6 Hans Road, Knightsbridge, refurbish it so that its interior resembled that of a tent, and so open it as The Marquee restaurant. The quality of its French cuisine was recognised by Fanny Cradock, soon to become one of the early television chefs, who at the time was reviewing restaurants for the Daily Telegraph.
It was also noticed by Raymond Postgate's new publication, The Good Food Guide, and Ronay came to realise that catering is work, while business is money. The Michelin guides were doing well in France, The Good Food Guidewas enjoying some success in Britain, and so, in 1957, Ronay researched his first book, published it and sold it - at three shillings (15p) - himself. It sold more than 30,000 copies. He built up his concern through soliciting sponsors and recruiting enough "inspectors" to fill 1,000 pages on hotels and restaurants in Britain.
By 1980, there was a part-time staff of 50. The worst job belonged to six permanent inspectors who were each expected to eat 11 meals, drive, go by train and eventually fly hundreds of miles every week, living out of a suitcase. "It's a great life," remarked Ronay in that amalgam of English, Hungarian and a hint of kitchen French, "for at least a fortnight. After that it gets to be hell."
Every meal was eaten anonymously: he "never even accepted a glass of brandy" without paying, and the integrity of the project was a source of fierce pride. Indeed, where standards of mass catering were concerned, it was also a source of fierce anger: the guides had the effect "of telling people that they could no longer get away with murder".
He downplayed the guide's influence in making consumers more adventurous, acknowledging Elizabeth David's success in raising awareness of French and Italian cooking. In his view, the greatest single change had come through the emergence of a new class in the 1960s - "pop stars, advertising people, photographers and so on" - who found ways of making money without the benefit of a public school education. At Cradock's prompting, Ronay started writing a gastronomic column for the Daily Telegraphin 1954, and continued with various publications including the Sunday Telegraph, London Evening Newsand, from 1986 to 1992, the Sunday Times. He then became editor-in-chief of the magazine Egon Ronay Recommendsfor the British Airports Authority, and until 2002 managed a team keeping tabs on catering standards at its seven airports. He is survived by his second wife, Barbara, whom he married in 1967; their son, Gerard; and his daughters Edina and Esther from his first marriage.
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Egon Ronay: born July 24th 1915; died June 12th 2010