Octave Desneux opened his new venture, Paris House, ‘a business to be carried on to correspond with the best houses in England and on the Continent’, on Tuesday, 16 November 1886.
This new restaurant was housed in a building at 173 Phillip Street formerly known as Victoria Chambers. Close to the theatres, on the corner of King Street opposite the Insolvent Court and within a stone’s throw of the Supreme and District Courts, Paris House was ideally positioned to attract the patronage of the men of the law. The newspaper reports do not throw any light on what happened to the tenants of Victoria Chambers or on how the necessary renovations, which ‘converted a suite of barrister’s chambers from … dark and dingy darkness … into a bright and airy cluster of dining rooms’, were financed, but Desneux had spared no expense. His establishment boasted nineteen attractively decorated, handsomely furnished and carpeted rooms, the most modern cooking appliances (the kitchen range alone was said to have cost £200), and linen, silver plate, and glassware personally selected and imported from Paris. The ‘culinary department’ was in the hands of the highly accomplished and experienced 'Mons. Calixte'. Desneux brought style, glamour, comfort, and luxury to the Sydney dining scene (see Daily Telegraph, 16 November 1886, p. 3; Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 16 November 1886, p. 6; Illustrated Sydney News, 7 January 1887, p. 24). Advertising emphasised that at Paris House parties of gentlemen and ladies could be served meals in a series of rooms where they might dine privately ‘without being exposed to the gaze of strangers’, suggesting this was one of the main attractions of a properly run restaurant and was one of Paris House’s distinguishing features.*
Paris House was not the first establishment in Sydney to be called a French restaurant, but it was hailed as ‘a boon to epicures and all people of epicurean tastes’ (Bulletin, 1 January 1887, p. 15). More ambitious than previous restaurateurs, Desneux was also more successful. His tenure at Paris House lasted for nine and a half years.
Front page of the Bulletin, 14 January 1888.
Just when and how Octave Desneux came to Australia is unclear. According to the Bulletin he had ‘continental as well as American experience’ including time as chef at ‘the Monopole in New York and the Palace Hotel in San Francisco’. On his own admission he had 20 years’ experience, working aboard yachts and steamers, and in hotels and restaurants, including ‘the largest houses’ in France, England, and America’. Of his time in Australia, there is evidence that Desneux had worked in Melbourne before he was engaged at the South Australian Club Hotel in Adelaide in 1883 (Bulletin, 1 January 1887, p. 15; South Australian Register, 15 August 1883 p. 3; SMH, 16 November 1886, p. 6. Later advertising in Le Courrier Australien claims Desneux had ’60 ans d’expérience dans l’art culinaire’ but this must have been a misprint, for example Le Courrier Australien, 21 May 1892, p. 3). It is possible that he had spent time on Messageries Maritimes ships travelling between Marseilles and Noumea via Australian ports and this may be how he came to Australia in the first place (See Public Records Office Victoria outwards passenger lists, on board the Sydney, December 1885, destination Sydney and Noumea. Messageries Maritime began operating to Noumea in 1882).
Paris House was welcomed by Sydney gourmets and by 1892 Desneux had expanded his interests. In that year he opened a shop devoted to charcuterie (in conjunction with ‘le célebre charcutier ALLARD‘ who claimed extensive experience (Le Courrier Australien, 3 September 1892, p. 1). This establishment was in addition to ‘la rôtisserie select’ he already operated in King Street and supplied with poultry from his Eden Farm in Way Street, Marrickville.**
But the 1890s were difficult times even for ‘The Sydney Delmonico’. Patrons no longer flocked to Paris House to pay 2s 6d for the table d’hote at lunch time or 4s for dinner. Early in 1895 Desneux resorted to advertising that he had ‘fitted up some special rooms’ where a first-class luncheon (three courses, sweets, and a small bottle of wine) could be enjoyed for the outlay of only 1 shilling, in the hope that he would be ‘favoured in the future with the same patronage as the past’ (Daily Telegraph, 12 January 1895, p. 2). His hopes were not realized, instead he was declared bankrupt, and Paris House came under new management in June (Daily Telegraph, 6 June 1895, p. 1).
Meanwhile Octave Desneux had married Alice M. Ferrier. The evidence from his court appearances indicates that Desneux continued to work at Paris House until he was finally discharged in 1898 (Evening News, 24 March 1896, p. 5; Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, Bankruptcy Index 1888-1929, NRS-13658-1-[10/23045]-9976). He then took up a colonial wine license and transferred his attentions to the Café Riche at 90 King Street (SMH, 15 September 1898, p. 7).
At some point Mr and Mrs Desneux moved to New Zealand. In September of 1899 Octave formed a short-lived partnership with fellow Frenchman, Ernest Béguely, to open the Café Victoria, Restaurant des Gourmets, in Brandon Street, Wellington (New Zealand Evening Post, 15 September 1899, p. 6).*** Desneux had left the business before the end of the year and Béguely was declared bankrupt in February 1900 (Evening Post (NZ), 8 February 1900, p. 5; New Zealand Mail, 15 February 1900, p. 9).
The next definite sighting of Desneux is in September 1908 when he opens a new restaurant, called Paris House, in the Wairarapa Farmer’s Buildings on Lambton Quay in Wellington (advertising for this venture has Desneux as ‘late of the Wellington Club’, Evening Post (NZ), 26 September 1908, p. 1; Dominion, 6 October 1908, p. 3). An ‘exorbitant rent’ and a tendency to give his clients ‘too much for the prices he charged’ meant that this was another short-lived enterprise and Desneux was bankrupt again by March 1909 (Evening Post, 9 March 1909, p. 7; Dominion, 31 March 1909, p. 11).The following year he took over the license of the Grand National Hotel in Petone but again this venture only lasted twelve months (Evening Post, 21 January 1910, p. 1; Evening Post, 7 March 1910, p. 8; New Zealand Truth, 26 March, 1910, p. 6.; New Zealand Times, 8 February 1911, p. 9).
Perhaps after all these ups and downs Desneux finally decided to give up on the idea of his own business. There is some evidence that, despite his several failures, Desneux was a better manager of his finances than his bankruptcies might suggest. For example, he appears to have had investments in land in New Zealand (Evening Post, 22 April 1911, p. 2; NZ Herald, 19 November 1912, p. 12; NZ Herald, 19 March 1921, p. 10).
Octave Desneux died, aged 68, at Herne Bay (a suburb of Auckland) on 27 July 1922 (Auckland Star, 27 July 1922, p. 1).
The trials of Octave Desneux demonstrate the difficulty of attracting customers interested in good food and developing restaurants which offered not just excellent cuisine but also a suitably sophisticated atmosphere. Paris House was properly recognised as the premier Sydney restaurant under new management in the twentieth century, but Desneux should be remembered for establishing the standard for sophisticated dining on a grand scale - ‘la maison sans rivale, la seule oú l’on mange la veritable cuisine Parisienne, préparée par la cuisinier du jour’ (Le Courrier Australien, 3 September 1892, p. 1).
Cartoon which appeared in the Bulletin, April 9 1892, p. 20.
'He who knows how to eat knows how to live, and he who knows how to live knows how to eat'.
Mention should also be made of the highly accomplished chef, 'Mons Calixte', who started at Paris House in 1886. With such a distinctive name, ‘Mons Calixte’ is no doubt Calixte Denat. Denat was born in Lyon around 1858 and probably first arrived in Sydney in 1884 before heading to Noumea. He returned to Sydney in 1886 just in time to team up with Desneux. The timing of this arrival with the opening of Paris House strongly suggests that Denat and Desneux were known to one another before this date.****
How long Denat remained at Paris House is not recorded. On 9 July 1888 he married Mary Watson in Melbourne (The Argus, 12 July 1913 p. 13). Later that year he was employed at the French Club, and in 1890 he and a Mr. Halasy opened the Café Anglais, advertised as ‘the most handsomely appointed restaurant in Australia’. It was reported that the two gentlemen had visited Paris the previous year to ‘provide themselves with all the requisites’, and here Denat provided a ‘happy combination of an English dinner and French cookery’ in opulent surroundings (Table Talk, 7 February 1890, p. 12-13). Octave Denat went on to have a successful career in Melbourne, opening his own Café Denat in 1893. He also died in 1922 after falling from a tram (Herald (Melb.) 21 November 1922, p. 14).
* For more on the private versus public nature of early restaurants see Rebecca Spang, The Invention of the Restaurant (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 79. The restaurant offered ‘a model of sociability and service’ which set it apart from the café. A café held large numbers of patrons eating together in the same space, served light lunches and beverages, and provided newspapers, while a restaurant consisted of small rooms with no communication between the groups of diners.
** See Sands Directory for 1892; Evening News, 19 September 1892, p. 5 and 1 September 1892, p. 3. The rôtisserie business was at 140 King Street, the charcuterie at 111 King Street. The shop at 140 King Street supplied, in addition to ‘les meilleurs rôtis’, ‘les meilleurs fromages, les meilleurs pâtés’ and ‘les fines conserves’. How long either of these additional businesses operated is not clear. The charcuterie is listed in the Sands Directory for 1892 and 1893, the poultry shop/rôtisserie in 1892, 1893 and 1894. Allard remains a mystery. Desneux’s advertising claims that Allard was ‘ex-fournisseur [supplier] de la maison Chevet, des premiers restaurants de Paris, et depuis trente ans fournisseur de la Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes’ (Le Courrier Australien, 3 September 1892, p. 1). While it is clear Desneux raised his own poultry at Eden Farm the extent of the activities carried on there is not specified.
*** It is possible, but by no means certain, that Desneux and Béguely met in Sydney. See NSW Police Gazette, 10 August 1904, p. 322.
**** For arrivals in Sydney see Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters https://marinersandships.com.au. Denat is listed as ‘Denst’, head cook, arrived in Sydney 1 May 1884, on Shannon ex London; also arrived in Sydney 8 November 1886, ‘first cuisinier’, on Dupleix from Noumea. Denat’s naturalisation papers (15 December 1900), available at National Archives of Australia, confirm that he first arrived via Shannon, ex London.