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dwwae has looked into this and discovered an 18th century account of a raccoon from France, known as 'Le petit chef' who worked in the court of Louis XIV at the palace of Versailles. Louis was known for his love of eggs and although there is no direct evidence it seems likely that 'Le petit chef' would have made him omelette's - one of his favourite dishes. His culinary renown spread amongst the aristocracy during the reign of 'Le roi solieil' (the sun king) and he was very much a minor celebrity in his day. Sadly his reputation was tarnished when he offended the King with a poor choice of desserts during an important banquet with Jean-Baptiste Colbert resulting in King ejecting him from the court. He lived for a year or two in abject poverty, disgraced, distressed and depressed. His career was however resurrected after a chance meeting with the writer Moliere who took him under his wing and allowed him to cook in exchange for board.
During his time spent in service of Moliere, he was credited with the invention of onion rings.
This is a fascinating tale indeed. Readers may be interested to learn that the story of "Le petit chef" was produced as a cartoon in 1932, although controversially the rise of fall of the plucky raccoon was used as an allegory for Communism, and certain key story element were completely altered. The cartoon also contained a sub plot involving smoked brie, although this was later edited from the film for unknown reasons.
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