I certainly didn’t! A fascinating man with a life that spans many tumultuous events - 1768 - 1848; poet, essayist, philosopher, diplomat, world traveller, gourmet.
I’m currently doing a show based on his ‘Memories from Beyond the Grave’, but before this came along, my only association with Chateaubriand was the cut of meat.
How about the rest of you? I’m curious to find out how well known he is in the present day…
Middle-Aged American and I never heard of him at all. But I probably wouldn’t recognize the name of all the many poets.
Same here. I suppose it’s unrealistic to expect broad recognition of every interesting person from history, at least this one has his name attached to something that continues on.
Please forgive my amusement at your username/post combination - the idea of using a Chateaubriand for a cheese steak would horrify a lot of people! 
I haven’t heard of even this.
The classic cheesesteak uses thinly sliced ribeye, but I suppose if you only HAVE Chateaubriand on hand, one could make do.
I’d heard the name and associated it with some kind of foodstuff, although I couldn’t tell you what, exactly. I also vaguely knew there was a person by that name and assumed it was an Earl of Sandwich-type situation.
So, François-René de Chateaubriand, Vittore Carpaccio, and the 4th Earl of Sandwich walk into a bar…
I had certainly heard of him and was vaguely aware that he was involved in French politics at some point during the nineteenth century. He’s one of those people who crops up for time to time in random different contexts in histories of that period. And I think I knew that he had spent time in England.
As long as the Duke of Cheddar is already there the meeting will go well. And Colonel Mustard.
I’ve read a couple of his books.
He’s still considered an important figure of French literature. Probably not in the top 20, but not too far, I guess.
Don’t keep me waiting too long!
Slight nitpick – Chateaubriand is as much a reference to the method of preparation of center-cut beef tenderloin as to the cut itself, and particularly the shallot and wine sauce it’s served with. The center cut of tenderloin is generally considered the finest and most tender of all beef cuts, but otherwise has no special name in itself.
I knew the word Chateaubriand, and that it had something to do with fine dining, but for a long time, I thought it was some kind of wine. It was only relatively recently that I found out that it was actually some kind of beef dish. I’m still not entirely convinced that this is true. I half suspect that “Chateaubriand is a beef dish” is some kind of elaborate prank that’s being played on me. C’mon, admit it, it sounds like the name of a wine. It does not, by any stretch of the imagination, sound like beef.
I did not know that it was also the name of a person. I figured that the wine (excuse me, the “beef dish”, yeah, right, you’re not fooling anybody!) was named after some chateau called “Briand,” probably somewhere in the Loire valley. You know, where all that wine comes from!
Perhaps being conflated with the Chateauneuf-Du-Pape wine varietal from the Rhône valley?
A rare talent.
Well, most French wines are named for the chateau that makes them, so that’s a natural mistake. Purely a guess on my part, but it’s very common for surnames to be derived from the family’s place of origin, so a name like François-René de Chateaubriand literally means François-René from Chateaubriand. There is indeed a town in western France named Chateaubriant (commonly spelled with a “t”) which was likely named after the chateau of the local nobleman, and it’s likely that the name of the person in question originally would have meant François-René from the chateau Briand.
Can Emperor Norton show up with the sourdough?
Sounds good, but Colonel Mustard can get lost. A proper gathering of such dignitaries must include the Marquis de Dijon, all assembled under the leadership of the eminent Earl of Sandwich, and of course a requisite appearance by the Duke of Burgundy.
After many pints, they were still unable to get Prince Albert out of the can.