Gisele Mardon Cookery Collection
Details
Type of record: Book
Title: Gisele Mardon Cookery Collection
Classmark: Mardon Collection
Date(s): 1650 - 2015
Size and medium: c.4000 books
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/706184
Collection group(s): Cookery Collection
Description
The Gisele Mardon Cookery Collection consists of over 4000 cookery books collected by Gisele Mardon throughout her lifetime and gifted to Leeds University Libraries in 2019 by her husband John.
Over 60 countries are represented, with a significant number of books on the cookery, chefs and restaurants of France, the United States of America and the United Kingdom. A small selection of books were published in the 17th and 18th century. The collection contains a large number of books relating to French provincial cooking and French chefs and restaurants. It includes 19 bound issues of the French journal Pot au Feu (1898-1910).
Books on American cookery include a large number relating to state and regional cookery, as well as books regarding notable restaurants.
In addition, the Gisele Mardon Cookery Collection Manuscripts includes 6 boxes of large menu scrapbooks collected from distinguished chefs and restaurants and recipe notebooks, chiefly written and compiled by Mardon herself.
The print collection is currently being processed and catalogued as of 2025.
Biography or history
Gisele Antoinette Mardon (née Bertrand) was born in 1930 in Paris. Following the Second World War she studied English, Old English, and English and American Literature at the Sorbonne. While studying she dined weekly at Laperouse, a three star Michelin restaurant in Paris, of which her godfather, Roger Topolinski, was the proprietor.
In 1983 Gisele Mardon won second and fifth place in the France-wide 'Cuisine et Vins' competition held at La Varenne, a pre-eminent cookery school in Paris. After working as a French teacher and interpreter, she taught cookery for adults for London City Council, and taught at the independent London cookery school La Cuisine.
Provenance
The Gisele Mardon Collection was gifted to Leeds University Libraries in 2019 by her husband John.
Access and usage
Access
Access to this material is unrestricted.
On our website
Collection guide: Cookery Collection
The Cookery collection dates from 1487 to the 21st century. It is made up of nearly 10,000 printed volumes and contains over 140 manuscript recipe and household books.