Page 53 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Chapter 2: Portrait of three founders of the ILL
This culinary skill of Maier-Leibnitz is one of the things which drew him to Louis Néel. I think the latter cooked a little for himself, but he had a special liking for good food. The guesthouse of the CENG, a little above Grenoble, was run by Monsieur Foiche, who presented an excellent Bressane cuisine (the best according to Néel in his memoirs) which Louis Néel liked
to show off to his guests. Cooking
full of taste. Such was also the case
of meals prepared by M.L. After
his Nobel Prize Néel was invited to
a meal at Bocuse44, then the most
famous chef in France (he was even
filmed in the kitchens). I asked
him afterwards what he thought;
“it was disgraceful cooking”, he
replied, “because it didn’t taste of
the ingredients any more”. After the
first trip M.L. made to East Germany
I asked him for his impressions. He
told me there was much to criticise,
but he found apples there with the
same taste as those he had eaten
before the war.
44 Editor’s note: This is probably a typo in the original text and one should read instead “After his Nobel Prize Néel invited M.L. to a meal at Bocuse.”
44
Fig. 2.3: Hermann Heinrich MAIER-LIEBNITZ in his kitchen showing a physicochemistry instrument which played an important role in the social life of the ILL in the early years.