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Édouard de Pomiane
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==Life and career== ===Early years=== Pomiane, whose real name was Édouard Alexandre Pozerski, was born in [[Montmartre]], in the [[18th arrondissement]] of Paris, on 20 April 1875.<ref name=an>''Paris, Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1555–1929'', Entry number 1394, via [https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ Ancestry.co.uk] {{subscription}}</ref> His parents were Édouard Pozerski and his wife Olympe {{nee}} Bielaiew.<ref name=an/> They were [[Polish nationalism|Polish nationalists]] who had fled to France after taking part in the [[January Uprising|1863 Polish uprising]] against Russia. Olympe, the daughter of a Russian general, had escaped to France under sentence of death and Édouard had served a sentence in a penal colony in Siberia.<ref name=pack>Pack, pp. 294–296</ref><ref name=bro1>Brosselet, p. 45</ref> In Paris their son grew up within the Polish exile community, attending the [[Szkoła Narodowa Polska w Paryżu|École polonaise]] – an establishment described by another Franco-Polish cookery writer, [[Henri Babinski|Ali-Bab]], as one of ferocious austerity – and then the [[Lycée Condorcet]].<ref name=ed1>David (1986), p. 175</ref> After graduating in natural sciences, Pozerski joined [[Albert Dastre]]'s laboratory at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] as an unpaid volunteer. He supported himself by teaching mathematics, and wrote a doctoral thesis on digestive fermentation. In 1901, at the [[French Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]], [[Émile Duclaux|Emile Duclaux]], director of the [[Institut Pasteur|Pasteur Institute]], consulted his colleague Dastre about creating a post of {{lang|fr| préparateur}} (staff member who prepares students for forthcoming examinations) in the newly created physiology department of the institute. Dastre recommended Pozerski, who joined Duclaux's staff in May 1901.<ref name=bro1/> Pozerski developed a new category of his subject, naming it Gastrotechnology – the scientific explanation of established principles of cookery.<ref name=ed1/> The food writer [[Elizabeth David]], an admirer of Pomiane's books, wrote in 1967, "Many before him had attempted to explain cookery in scientific terms and had succeeded only in turning both science and cookery into the deadliest of bores".<ref name=ed1/> Pozerski was twice married. In July 1906 he married Marie Tourtchine.<ref>''Paris, Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1555–1929'', Entry number 1403, via [https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ Ancestry.co.uk] {{subscription}}</ref> His second wife was Charlotte Raymonde Watier, a fellow scientist with whom he collaborated on a couple of scientific papers. They had one daughter, Wanda.<ref name=pack/> ===First World War and 1920s=== During the [[First World War]] Pozerski served as a medical [[adjutant]] and, after various front-line postings, ended the war serving in an advanced mobile surgical unit, and receiving the [[Croix de Guerre]].<ref name=obit816>J-C. L., p. 816</ref> During the war he began the writing of {{lang|fr|Bien manger pour bien vivre}} (Eating Well to Live Well). After the war he resumed his research at the Pasteur Institute in his small laboratory there, but post-war inflation left him in need of extra income, and for a while he had second jobs, playing the violin in the orchestra of a local cinema and working as an examiner for a large pharmacy on the [[Rive Droite|Right Bank]]. He was able to give up these activities with the success of his teaching of gastrotechnology, and he returned to his research work.<ref name=obit816/> [[File:Ecole supérieure de cuisine, professeur Pozerski - (photographie de presse) - (Agence Rol).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|alt=Middle-aged white man with large moustache, white coat and skull-cap, surrounded by young men and women, at a cookery workbench|Teaching at the École supérieure de cuisine in 1925]] His academic work did not distract Pozerski – in his capacity as Édouard de Pomiane – from his hobby and second profession of writing and talking about food. {{lang|fr|Bien manger pour bien vivre}} was published in 1922 by the [[Académie Française]] with a preface by a fellow gastronome, [[Henri Babinski|Ali-Bab]], (also of Polish family and from a medical background).<ref name=obit816/> He published articles and gave lectures, and from 1923 to 1929, starred in weekly programmes on [[Radio Paris]], in which he recounted stories about his culinary experiences and provided recipes illustrating his precepts. In a biographical sketch, M. M. Pack writes "Despite the fact that he was neither French nor a trained chef, these broadcasts contributed to his reputation as one of the most popular and widely respected cooks in France at the time, and made him, arguably, the food world’s first media personality".<ref name=pack/> ===Later years=== In 1940 Pozerski reached the age of retirement from the Pasteur Institute, but he continued his work in a small laboratory set up for him in the attic.<ref>J-C. L., p. 817</ref> During the German occupation of France during the [[Second World War]] he organised public lectures and cooking demonstrations at the Institute to help people with cooking and eating under the severe rationing then in force. He demonstrated how to make the most of what food was available, how to derive the most nutritional value from it, how to make the best use of unrationed foods, and energy-efficient cooking techniques. Pack comments that titles of the books Pomiane published during the war reflect his concerns, such as {{lang|fr|Cuisine et restrictions}} (Cooking and Restrictions) and {{lang|fr|Manger quand-méme}} (Eating Anyway).<ref name=pack/> After his official retirement from the Pasteur Institute Pozerski continued his lectures for the Institute of Food Hygiene and acted as guide for visitors to the Pasteur Institute. An obituarist wrote: {{blockindent|None of the familiars of the house will be able to forget his white silhouette: blouse, apron, skullcap, white moustache (so as not to turn it yellow, he had stopped smoking), nor his smile, nor the kindness of his gaze, when he preceded the heterogeneous group of visitors, sometimes reduced to a class of little girls of the 8th grade whose soul a teacher wanted to elevate by a great example.<ref>J-C. L., p. 818</ref>}} Pozersky died in Paris on 26 January 1964 at the age of 88.<ref name=pack/>
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