Menon was the most prolific cookbook author in 18th-century France.
The National Library of France (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) lists his name as Joseph Menon.
The best-known of his books is probably La Cuisinière bourgeoise, which was first published in 1746 and every year after for the next century, even during the French Revolution.
[3] Before the publication of La Cuisinière bourgeoise, French cookbooks claimed to make a royal and elite cuisine available to all budgets.
Menon's book took the opposite approach, presenting a cuisine with "modest origins" that would be sought after by elites.