Maïté is dead: the iconic and media-friendly cook was 86 years old

Maïté, an emblematic cook, died on the night of Friday 20 to Saturday 21 December. As indicated News Landes, she was 86 years old.

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The famous cook and host, Maïté died at the age of 86 on December 21, 2024 in her retirement home in Landes from a neurodegenerative disease.

IN BRIEF

• Maïté, icon of French cuisine, died at the age of 86 in the Landes, after having left her mark on television from 1983 to 1999 with her cult show 'La Cuisine des Mousquetaires'.
• She offered emblematic recipes daily, accompanied by Micheline, and created memorable TV moments, such as the eel incident in 1992.
• Discover how Maïté, after a career at the SNCF, became a key figure in French TV cooking.

She is an icon who passed away on the night of Friday 20 to Saturday 21 December. For more than fifteen years, from 1983 to 1999, Maïté Ordonnez accompanied millions of French people at lunchtime. The latter, who was known only by her first name, died at at the age of 86, in the retirement home of her village of Rion-des-Landes, following a neurodegenerative disease. Her show La Cuisine des Mousquetaires became a cult classic and she could count on the presence of Micheline, her faithful assistant, throughout all these years.

Maïté has become an emblematic figure in cooking. Every day, she offered tempting recipes, different every lunchtime and always in a good mood. Dishes that have become emblematic and that viewers had fun reproducing. In this show, there were also cult moments, including in 1992 when Maïté knocked out an eel with a mortar pestle. The archives of this program were often rebroadcast, to the great delight of those who grew up in her sides. 

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Maïté: but who was she ?

Before becoming an icon of French cuisine and television, Maïté was an announcer for the SNCF. She would alert the railway workers of the arrival of a train… before radically changing careers. In 1983, she participated in a report on the Rion-des-Landes rugby team and she prepared their meals. Director Patrice Bellot immediately saw the potential in Maïté and wanted to give her a chance. Her career in television then began with this show alongside Micheline, which became cult.  

Until 1997, Maïté was on the bill of the cooking program, offering iconic recipes to viewers. The same year, she became a host at Sud Radio with a show called Les recettes de Maïté . On the personal side, Maïté was very close to the town of Rion-des-Landes, which she was particularly fond of. With her husband, they both had only one child, named Serge, who died at the age of 52. “I didn't have time to take care of my son. It's easier to be a grandmother, we are freer”, she had explained in particular.

Maïté: a life at two hundred an hour… that didn't suit her

Maïté wasn't the kind of personality who wanted to live in a big city. If she was in the media, she preferred her little cocoon and didn't hesitate to let it be known. “Life in Paris was very hard. It was both inhuman and hellish. How horrible! “, she said in an interview. A restaurateur at heart, she opened her first restaurant in Rion in 1988. She also recorded her shows there. A place where she felt safe and where she could express herself freely. 

Maïté has kept a low profile in recent years. She had two little girls, Perrine and Camille. The latter took part in the Objectif Top Chef program in 2018. A few months ago, Camille had given news from her grandmother, indicating that she had a neurodegenerative disease. However, she had specified that the latter was enjoying her retirement to the fullest: “She is doing well, she is enjoying her retirement and her family. She no longer wants to answer interviews or do television, it is no longer her thing” , she had revealed.