Paul Corcellet; Grocer Sold Exotic Meats in Paris Shop

Paul Corcellet, gourmet grocer and chef who dealt in elephant trunks, hippopotamus, lion and python, has died. He was 83.

His family, whose ancestors got into the gourmet food business as coffee merchants to King Louis XVI in 1760, said Corcellet died Friday.

Corcellet’s shop on the Rue des Petits Champs, between the Palais Royal and the Opera, was a veritable Ali Baba’s den of taste treats.

The shop, which closed in 1989, sold 42 kinds of mustard, 27 kinds of vinegar and dishes such as smoked boa and bear feet.

Corcellet personally prepared most of the exotic foods he sold--including young lion marinated in red wine with peas, carrots and bacon; pythons soaked in vinegar and water, dusted with flour and sauteed with shallots, tomatoes, white wine and pimientos; leg of hippopotamus drenched in sherry; elephant trunk simmered in bouillon for 16 hours; kangaroo soup; marinated monkey; and braised reindeer tongue.

Who would eat such things?

“Curious people, people who want to escape from the confines of society and to know life on a matter-over-mind basis,” Corcellet explained in an interview in 1971.

As early as 1934, Corcellet was developing the palates of his countrymen, introducing the now-common avocado to France. He followed it with the kiwi, and even Virginia ham.

In 1959, he became one of the first grocers in France to offer the European version of TV dinners, frozen French staples such as bouillabaisse, snails and rabbit that are now one of the country’s major industries.

Among Corcellet’s ancestors was the 18th-Century caterer-grocer Jean-Pierre Corcellet in whose shop Josephine de Beauharnais met the man who was to become Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte.

Gastronomic critic Henri Viard in 1986 wrote a book about Corcellet, “Paul Corcellet or the Spices of Life.”