Paul Bocuse, the culinary innovator and restaurateur known as the pope of French cooking, was a founding father of the nouvelle cuisine movement that revolutionised eating in the 1960s and 1970s.
The gastronomic pioneer died on Saturday aged 91 in a room above L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges, his three-Michelin star restaurant near Lyon, eastern France. He had been born in the same room on February 11 1926, before turning his family home into one of France’s most venerable eateries. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Tributes poured in from the world of gastronomy and those who had sampled his cuisine. “French gastronomy has lost a mythical figure,” Emmanuel Macron, French president, said on Saturday. “The chefs cry in their kitchens, at the Elysée and everywhere in France. But they will continue his work.” Speaking to French media, Lyon-based restaurateur Christophe Marguin said simply: “For me, God has died.”
“Monsieur Paul”, as he was affectionately known, through his cooking sought to emphasise the natural flavours of foods. Like others in the nouvelle cuisine tradition, his dishes were characterised by a lightness and simplicity that was a reaction to the extravagances of the classic French “grande cuisine” that preceded it.
Often photographed in his kitchen wearing his chef’s hat, white jacket embroidered with his name and tricolour collar, he was comfortable on television. By coming out of the shadows of the kitchen and greeting guests, Bocuse helped create the phenomenon of celebrity chefs, paving the way for the likes of Alain Ducasse and Joël Robuchon.
Bocuse’s expertise in the kitchen was combined with a business nous that he used to build an international personal brand and empire that ranged from cafés to haute cuisine. He opened nine restaurants in and around Lyon as well as international outposts in Japan, New York and Switzerland. He even signed a partnership with Disney in 1980 to install restaurants in his name in Orlando, Florida. L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges has held three Michelin stars since 1965.
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Born into a family of chefs dating back to the 1700s, Bocuse’s father taught him to cook veal kidneys at the age of nine and he began his kitchen apprenticeship at the age of 16. He went on to be twice named chef of the century — first in 1989 by the Gault-Millau restaurant guide, and again by the Culinary Institute of America in 2011.
Bocuse also expanded his personal brand through cooking schools and competitions. In 1987 he created the Bocuse d’Or, a biennial championship that is frequently referred to as the culinary equivalent of the Olympic Games.
His favourite ingredient was butter, which he described during a visit to the Culinary Institute of America as a “magical product”.
One of Bocuse’s most renowned dishes was the truffle soup he created in 1975 for a dinner at the Elysée Palace in honour of then president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The soup was served in individual tureens, covered by a layer of puff pastry. Unsure of what to do with the dish before him or whether it was a soup, Mr Giscard d’Estaing turned to Mr Bocuse for assistance. The chef answered emphatically: “We break the crust.” The dish, known as Soupe V.G.E., is still served to this day.
Outside of the kitchen Bocuse maintained two long-term extramarital relationships alongside his marriage to Raymonde, which he acknowledged in a 2005 biography.
“If I calculate the number of years I’ve been faithful to the three women who count in my life, I get 145 years,” Bocuse is quoted as saying in the book. He is survived by Raymonde, their daughter Françoise and a son Jérôme, who is also a chef.
In the end, Bocuse’s cooking defied categorisation and he refused to be ambassador for any single cuisine. As he was fond of saying: “For me, there is only one kitchen: the good!”