Paul Bocuse, one of the greatest French chefs of all time, has died aged 91, the country’s interior minister said on Saturday.
Dubbed the ‘pope’ of French cuisine, Bocuse helped shake up the food world in the 1970s with the Nouvelle Cuisine revolution and created the idea of the celebrity chef.
‘Monsieur Paul was France. The pope of gourmets has left us,’ tweeted Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, announcing the chef’s death after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
‘He was one of the greatest figures of French gastronomy, the General Charles de Gaulle of cuisine,’ said French food critic Francois Simon, comparing him to France’s wartime saviour and dominant postwar leader.
Paul Bocuse, one of the greatest French chefs of all time, has died aged 91, the country’s interior minister said on Saturday (pictured in 1987)
Bocuse died on Saturday at Collonges-au-Mont-d’or, the place where he was born and had his restaurant, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.
A giant in a nation that prides itself as the beating heart of gastronomy, Bocuse was France’s only chef to keep the Michelin food bible’s coveted three-star rating through more than four decades.
He slept in the same room where he was born, and managed to maintain a relationship with his wife Raymonde and at least two lovers.
‘I love women and we live too long these days to spend one’s entire life with just one,’ Bocuse said in 2005.
The heart of his empire, L’Auberge de Collonges au Mont D’Or, his father’s village inn near Lyon in food-obsessed southeastern France, earned three stars in 1965, and never lost a single one.
Dubbed the ‘pope’ of French cuisine, Bocuse helped shake up the food world in the 1970s with the Nouvelle Cuisine revolution and created the idea of the celebrity chef
Bocuse (pictured in 1976) was France’s only chef to keep the Michelin food bible’s coveted three-star rating through more than four decades
In a statement, President Macron underlined Bocuse’s ‘generosity, his respect for traditions as well as his inventiveness’, and praised his ‘fidelity’ to his home town.
Bocuse helped train French and foreign chefs up to his last few days, said Mr Macron, who was not yet born when Bocuse earned his three-star rating.
The French president said: ‘French gastronomy loses a mythical figure … The chefs cry in their kitchens, at the Elysee and everywhere in France.’
‘Monsieur Paul,’ as he was known, was named ‘chef of the century’ by Michelin’s rival guide, the Gault-Millau in 1989, and again by The Culinary Institute of America in 2011.
Born in 1926 to a family of cooks since 1765, Bocuse began his apprenticeship at the age of 16 and came to epitomise a certain type of French epicurean – a lover of fine wine, food and women.
Bocuse died on Saturday at Collonges-au-Mont-d’or (pictured), the place where he was born and had his restaurant, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement
Paul Bocuse is celebrated with the Legion d’Honneur by then-French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing (right) at a ceremony in 1975
Bocuse, born in 1926 to family who had been cooks since 1765, poses with a waxwork of himself at the Grevin museum in Paris
While Bocuse’s kitchens were meticulously in order, his personal life was on the unorthodox side.
He acknowledged in a 2005 biography that he had been quietly sharing his life with three women – simultaneously – each with a pivotal role in his life.
‘I think cuisine and sex have lots of common points,’ Bocuse said in an interview before publication of ‘Paul Bocuse: The Sacred Fire.’
‘Even if it seems a bit macho, I love women.’
‘The Sacred Fire’ was written by Eve-Marie Zizza-Lalu – daughter of the most recent woman in his life, Patricia, whom he met in 1972.
Yet it is his wife Raymonde, with whom Bocuse had a daughter, Francoise, who helps watch over his restaurant.
In a book published in 2006 shortly after yet another heart operation, Bocuse was quoted as summing up: “I have three stars. I have had three bypasses. And I still have three women.”
A mural of Paul Bocuse outside his restaurant L’Auberge de Collonges au Mont D’Or which earned three Michelin stars in 1965 and has never lost them
Bocuse became a driving force behind the Nouvelle Cuisine, sweeping away the rich and heavy sauces of yesteryear in favour of super-fresh ingredients and sleek aesthetics
As a young man he worked at the famed La Mere Brazier in Lyon, then spent eight years with one of his culinary idols, Fernand Point, a forerunner of the Nouvelle Cuisine movement.
A great upholder of tradition as well as an innovator, several of his trademark dishes at the Auberge remained unchanged for decades, such as the bass in a pastry crust or the black truffle soup he created for French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing in 1975, who named him a commander in the Legion of Honour.
Together with the Gault-Millau guide, Bocuse became a driving force behind the Nouvelle Cuisine, sweeping away the rich and heavy sauces of yesteryear in favour of super-fresh ingredients and sleek aesthetics.
In 1982, Bocuse opened a restaurant in the France Pavilion in Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida, headed by his son Jerome, also a chef, whom he had with his first mistress Raymone.
In recent years, Bocuse even dabbled in fast food with two outlets in his home base of Lyon.
His Bocuse d’Or, or gold award – an international competition for young chefs – has grown into a major culinary showcase since 1987.
‘Monsieur Paul,’ as he was known, was named ‘chef of the century’ by Michelin’s rival guide, the Gault-Millau in 1989, and again by The Culinary Institute of America in 2011
A great upholder of tradition as well as an innovator, several of his trademark dishes at the Auberge remained unchanged for decades
Bocuse claimed the term Nouvelle Cuisine was invented by Gault-Millau to describe food he helped prepare for the maiden flight of the Concorde airliner in 1969.
Slashing cooking times, paring down menus and paying new attention to health, Nouvelle Cuisine was a craze that fizzled out but left a lasting legacy.
‘It was a real revolution,’ said Simon. ‘They coined a concept that came at exactly the right moment – at a time when gastronomy was a bit dull and heavy, with thick sauces, not sexy at all.’
In 2007, more than 80 top chefs flew to France from around the world to celebrate his 81st birthday and his legacy.
Despite accolades from the world of gastronomy, Bocuse saw a restaurant’s reservation book as the real measure of any chef’s talent.
‘If the restaurant works, if it’s full of clients … whatever the cuisine, he (the chef) is right,’ he said.
He is survived by his wife Raymonde, their daughter Francoise and a son, Jerome.
President Macron praised Bocuse’s ‘fidelity’ to his village of Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or, near Lyon, where he was born, created his world-famous restaurant (pictured) and died
A painting depicting Paul Bocuse adorns the wall near the dining room in his three-star Michelin restaurant L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges
In 2007, more than 80 top chefs flew to France from around the world to celebrate his 81st birthday and his legacy (pictured)