National Post (National Edition)
Pioneer of France's nouvelle cuisine
Restaurateur Pierre Troisgros, who has died aged 92, was one of the last of the generation of young French chefs whose names became associated with “nouvelle cuisine.”
His cookbook of the same name, co-authored with his brother, Jean (who died in 1983), encouraged cooks to try everything from partridge with green lentils to salmon escalopes with sorrel (saumon a l'oseille).
The Troisgros brothers (Pierre, the chef, roly-poly, mustachioed and outgoing, and Jean, the master saucier, skinny, bearded and solemn), were mainly concerned with making traditional Lyonnais cuisine better, rather than changing it for change's sake. The exception was saumon a l'oseille, a clear precursor of nouvelle cuisine.
In recounting his invention of the dish in the 1970s, Troisgros credited the Teflon frying pan; before that, oil would have been used in an iron pan, which would have affected the dish's clean flavour.
In 1974, wanting a new way to cook foie gras, which shed 30 to 50 per cent of its weight in cooking, Troisgros enlisted chef Georges Pralus, who came up with “sousvide” cooking; the foie gras lost only five per cent of its weight.
Troisgros resisted the temptations of celebrity. When Restaurant Troisgros won its third Michelin star in 1968, Troisgros, aware of how much more stressful it would be retaining the stars than winning them, observed grimly: “C'est une catastrophe.” (In fact it has retained its three-star billing.)
Under his down-to-earth stewardship, Restaurant Troisgros was notable as the only three-star restaurant in France where one could walk in off the street and have a drink.
Troisgros was born on Sept. 3, 1928 in Burgundy.
His parents, restaurateurs Jean-Baptiste and Marie, were self-taught. Their cooking emphasized the flavour of good local produce.
“Our father always said cooking should be a carefully balanced reflection of all the good things of the Earth,” the brothers recalled.
To relieve the pressures of kitchen discipline, the brothers developed a reputation as practical jokers. But with Pierre and Jean in the kitchen and their father as butler and sommelier, the Restaurant Troisgros began notching up awards.
In 1955 Troisgros married Olympe Forte. She died in 2008. He is survived by their two sons and a daughter, all of whom became successful restaurateurs.