French Biologist-Turned Frog Farmer Retired

choi

Chloé Domat, French Chefs Croak About Losing Frog Farm famous for Tasty Gams; Orders swamp small facility as scientist who bred savory amphibians retires. Wall Street Journal, Sept 4, 2014 (front page).
online.wsj.com/articles/french-chefs-worry-about-losing-farm-famous-for-its-tasty-frog-legs-1409799036

Note:
(a) croak (vi; of imitative origin): 蛙鳴; “GRUMBLE”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/croak
(b) gam (n): “slang :  leg”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gam

(c) “The scientist [André NEVEU] devoted much of his career to changing the feeding habits of Batrachians—a tasty but difficult species to raise in farms given that most of them prefer to eat live prey.
(i) batrachian (n; ultimately from Greek batrachos frog; First Known Use: circa 1828):
“AMPHIBIAN; especially: FROG,TOAD”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/batrachian

Due to its Greek origin, the “ch” is pronounced “k.”
(ii) batrachia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batrachia


(d) “Mr Neveu's desirable legs—or cuisses de grenouilles—gave chefs across the country a kick.“

French English dictionary
* cuisse (noun feminine; from Latin noun feminine coxa hip (joint)): “(anatomy) thigh”
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cuisse
* grenouille (noun feminine; alteration of Old French renoille, ultimately from Latin [noun feminine] rana [frog]): “frog”
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grenouille
* vieux (adjective masculine; ultimately from Latin vetus old): "old"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vieux
* crapaud (noun masculine): “toad”
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crapaud
* poulette (noun feminine; poule (“hen”) +‎ -ette): “pullet [young hen, less than one year old]”
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poulette

choi

(e) "’The best part is that Patrice [François, the farmer who partners with the scientist Neveu] sells frogs that are cut à la lyonnaise, with the back bones and the arms still attached to it,’ says Mr [Thomas] Boutin, chef and owner of Le Vieux Crapaux, or the Old Toad, which opened its doors in Paris's upscale 16th arrondissement in June.”
(i) Patrice
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice
(ii) “à la lyonnaise”
(A) Lyonnaise
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonnaise
("• A person, or, 'in the style of (something),'  from Lyon, France (also: Lyonnais [a historical district around Lyon]).[1]
• An adjective, meaning 'cooked with onions' or 'with caramelized onions,'  as in 'potatoes lyonnaise,'  'sauce lyonnaise,'  or 'cardons à la lyonnaise.'[2]")

The second definition fits the bill. I did a brief research in the Web, The term “à la lyonnaise” is not about the cut, but about ingredients. See (C)  and (D). (Incidentally, WSJ states, “ frogs that are cut à la lyonnaise, with the back bones and the arms still attached to it.” Most likely, the “arms” should be “thighs.”)
(B) pronunciation
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lyonnaise
(C) The term “à la lyonnaise” has been applied to fish (carp, eel, flounder)
www.gutenberg.org/files/18542/18542-h/18542-h.htm

as well as potato and egg (the last two as “lyonnaise”), all of which includes onion.
(D) Richard Olney, Simple French Food 40th Anniversary Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, at 165-166
books.google.com/books?id=Ve1JAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=%22%C3%A0+la+lyonnaise%22+frog&source=bl&ots=qrZc2f1Zhy&sig=1za4fbO1ycu1DkTcs4CkK2ybK4Q&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bKUIVMnMPMWbyATU_oKgCg&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22%C3%A0%20la%20lyonnaise%22%20frog&f=false
("They [frogs' legs] are most often sautéed à la provençale; à la lyonnaise, the persillade is replaced by chopped or finely sliced onions cooked in butter apart [from the legs], parsley is sprinkled over, and a bit of vinegar, heated in the pan, is dribbled over; aux fines herbes, they should be sautéed in butter and finished with chopped parsley, tarragon, chervil, and chives and a bit of lemon, but in practice, it is an alternate application for à la provençale. À la poulette, the frogs' legs are poached in a white-wine court bouillon that is then transformed into a velouté and finished with egg yolks. They may be marinated with chopped fines herbes, a bit of lemon juice, a few drops of olive oil, and salt and pepper, then dipped in batter and deep fried")
* tarragon
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarragon
(The name "tarragon" is believed to have been borrowed from the Persian name for tarragon which is tarkhūn)
* velouté sauce
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velout%C3%A9_sauce
(The term velouté is from the French adjectival form of velour, meaning velvet)
*  For definition of poulette, see (d).
* Creole-Cajun Cooking. Ancestry.com, undated
homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~homespun/ccooking.html
(excerpt from Gene Bourg, Louisianas Grand Old Cuisine Sparkles More Than Ever. Times-Picayune: "Poulet: A chicken. A la Poulette: As a chicken; for instance, a Sauce a la Poulette always has eggs giving the distinctive name a la Poulette")
* Nancy Lake, Menu Made Easy, or how to order dinner and give the dishes their French names. London & New York: Frederick Warne & Co (1903), at 21
books.google.com/books?id=gvgpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=%22a+la+Poulette+stewed+with+broth,%22&source=bl&ots=hTIJLTQ3_A&sig=G3XQ9sgUeSLbIRZubCsh3VCAp4Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SQ4JVLmHC5fhoAT-s4GgDg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22a%20la%20Poulette%20stewed%20with%20broth%2C%22&f=false
(“à la poulette -- stewed with broth, wine, butter, onions, mushrooms, etc.  Served with yolks of eggs and lemon juice added to the sauce")
(E)
* Name of the restaurant “Le Vieux Crapaux, or the Old Toad” must be wrong. French language does not “crapaux,” but does have “Crapaud” (for “toad”) whose plural form is “crapauds.” But it can not be in plural form, because the article “le” indicates singular. For the definitions of the two French words in the restaurant name, see (d) above.
* Indeed Paris has a restaurant “Le Vieux Crapaud.”

choi

(f) “Mr Neveu's Gallic endeavor to tame amphibians began in the late 1970s soon after he joined France's prestigious national agronomy research institute, INRA. * * * he stumbled upon a colony of Rana Ridibunda in a field near the Rennes University. * * * It was a lucky break. The Rana Ridibunda is bigger than other frogs in the area and it reproduces just fine in captivity.* * * And less finicky. Only the Rana Ridibunda could be convinced to consume the dry pellets necessary for raising domesticated frogs. * * * After 15 generations and over 20 years, the animals had fully adapted. At last, dry pellets were on a frog's daily menu. * * * Mr Neveu gained widespread recognition in scientific circles. His publications and lectures have stirred great interest from Brazil to Madagascar to Vietnam, where frogs have been raised according to more empiric methods and frequently suffer from a high death rate.”
(i) For INRA, see Institut national de la recherche agronomique
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_national_de_la_recherche_agronomique
(English: National Institute of Agronomic Research; Formation 1946 Type  governmental organization; Location Paris)
(ii) Rana Ridibunda is the former name of the frog, whose current name is Pelophylax ridibunda (that is, the genus name was changed).
(A) ridibundus (adjective masculine): "laughing"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ridibundus

This species of frog is said to be “laughing.”
(B) Pelophylax
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelophylax
(This genus was erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1843 to accommodate the green frogs of the Old World, which he considered distinct from the brown pond frogs of Carl Linnaeus' genus Rana; Around the year 2000, with molecular phylogenetic studies becoming commonplace, it was discovered that Fitzinger's assessment was correct after all)
(C) Greek English dictionary
* pel- pelo- : “mud, earth, clay”  (Don't confuse this pel- unit with another pel- group meaning "push, beat, strike, knock, drive.")
English-Word Information, undated.
wordinfo.info/unit/1597
* phylax (n; from Ancient Greek phúlaks “watcher, guard, sentinel, guardian, keeper, protector”):
“(historical) A guard in ancient Rome”
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/phylax
(D) Edible Frog. a-z animals, undated
a-z-animals.com/animals/edible-frog/
(“The Edible Frog is a fertile hybrid of two other European Frogs, the Pool Frog and the Marsh Frog, that bred when populations where isolated close to one another during the ice ages. The scientific name [Pelophylax kl. esculentus] of the Edible Frog means both ‘mud' and 'guardian’ as they are known to never stray far from water, almost guarding the muddy banks. It was first described in 1758 and has adopted it's name as the 'edible' Frog due to the fact that they are now seen as a culinary delicacy in France, particularly the legs”)

This explains where the “guard” part of the genus name comes from.
(E) marsh frog
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_frog
(Pelophylax ridibundus; is the largest frog native to Europe; “generally green-colored frog species. It can reach a maximum length of 17 centimetres, but males remain smaller (around 12 cm)”)
(F) University of Rennes
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Rennes
(in the city of Rennes[, capital of the region of Brittany])
(G) “After 15 generations and over 20 years”

marsh frog
a-z-animals.com/animals/marsh-frog/
(“Marsh frogs tend to breed in the early spring”)

It looks like a year for each generation.

choi

(g) “Touring the pools, he wonders whether genetics will one day allow scientists to help an amphibian achieve the aspiration of Jean de La Fontaine's character in the 17th century fable: ‘The frog who wished to be as big as the ox.’"
(i) Jean de La Fontaine
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Fontaine
(1621-1695)
(ii) The Frog and the Ox
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frog_and_the_Ox
(Aesop's Fables; "The folly of trying to keep up with the Jones' is the conclusion drawn by La Fontaine's Fables from the Phaedrus version of the tale, applying it to the artistocratic times in which La Fontaine lived")