A fanatic about locally sourced ingredients, Guy Bertrand of Le Singe Amoureux prized ortolan above all other delicacies. He was not alone; devotees of the elusive songbird paid handsomely for his multi-course tasting menus.

Yet Bertrand's legacy was ultimately determined not by a menu, but by a newspaper: the April 6, 1962 edition of Le Monde, which carried a front-page review alleging that Bertrand had been passing off ordinary yellowhammers as ortolan. Reaction was swift; reservations were cancelled, Relais and Chateaux launched a formal inquiry, and ortolan mongers cut off his supply.

The chef denied the charges, but the scorn was unrelenting. Finally, he came to believe the accusations, and on August 14, 1962, Guy Bertrand took his own life with an ortolan boning knife.

Four years later, correspondence was discovered revealing the reviewer's vendetta---born of a failed attempt to woo Mme. Bertrand. Subsequent testing of a confiscated ortolan terrine and fricassee revealed the integrity of their ingredients.

In 1966, Bertrand was posthumously awarded the Legion d'Honneur and today the ortolan is more revered than ever.

---swiped, again, from the local French joint.

{Ed. That must have been a painful way to go. Owie.}

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