Paul Bocuse, a master of French cuisine, at 91
Paul Bocuse, the master chef who defined French cuisine for nearly half a century and put it on tables around the world, a man who raised the profile of top chefs from invisible kitchen artists to international celebrities, has died at 91, France’s interior minister announced yesterday.
Minister Gerard Collomb tweeted that “Mister Paul was France. Simplicity and generosity. Excellence and art de vivre.”
Mr. Bocuse’s temple to French gastronomy, L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges, outside the city of Lyon in central France, has held three stars — without interruption — since 1965 in the Michelin guide, the bible of gastronomes. He also parlayed his business and cooking skills into a globe-spanning gastronomic empire.
Mr. Bocuse, who underwent a triple heart bypass in 2005, had also been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Often referred to as the “pope of French cuisine,” Mr. Bocuse was a tireless pioneer, the first chef to blend the art of cooking with savvy business tactics — branding his cuisine and his image to create an empire of restaurants around the globe.
As early as 1982, Mr. Bocuse opened a restaurant in the France Pavilion in Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla., headed by his son, Jerome, also a chef. In recent years, Mr. Bocuse even dabbled in fast food with two outlets in his home base of Lyon.
“He has been a leader. He took the cook out of the kitchen,” said celebrity French chef Alain Ducasse, speaking at a January 2013 gathering to honor Mr. Bocuse — then just shy of his 87th birthday. More than 100 chefs from around the world traveled to Lyon for the occasion — one of a string of such honors bestowed on Mr. Bocuse in recent years.
Mr. Bocuse’s imposing physical stature and his larger-thanlife personality matched his bold dreams and his far-flung accomplishments.
“Monsieur Paul,” as he was known, was placed right in the center of an August 2013 cover of the newsweekly Le Point that exemplified “The French Genius.” Shown in his trademark pose — arms folded over his crisp white apron, tall chef ’s hat, or “toque,” atop his head — he was winged by Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur and Coco Chanel, among a handful of other luminaries.
While excelling in the business of cooking, Mr. Bocuse never flagged in his devotion to his first love, creating a top class, quintessentially French meal. He eschewed the fads and experiments that have captivated many other top chefs.
“In cooking, there are those who are rap and those who are concerto,” he told the French newsmagazine L’Express before the publication of his 2005 biography. He added that he tended toward the concerto.
In traditional cooking, like his, there is no room for guess work. “One must be immutable, unattackable, monumental,” he declared.
Born of a family of cooks that he dates to the 1700s, Mr. Bocuse stood guard over the kitchen of his world-famous restaurant even in retirement when he was not traveling, keeping an eye on guests, sometimes greeting them at their table.
The red and green Auberge by the Saone River, his name boldly set atop the roof, is a temple to Mr. Bocuse — who was born there — and to other great chefs. Mr. Bocuse waves to arriving guests in a “tromp l’oeuil” painting on an outside wall and peers at them from a large portrait inside the cozy Auberge that once belonged to his parents and remained his home. Renowned chefs, some of whom he worked with, are portrayed in a giant mural.
In a 2011 interview with The Associated Press, Mr. Bocuse said he slept in the room where he was born above the dining rooms.
“But I changed the sheets,” he added with his characteristic wry humor.
Born on Feb. 11, 1926, Mr. Bocuse entered his first apprenticeship at 16. He worked at the famed La Mere Brazier in Lyon, then spent eight years with one of his culinary idols, Fernand Point, whose cooking was a precursor to France’s nouvelle cuisine movement with his lighter sauces and lightly cooked fresh vegetables.
Mr. Bocuse’s career in the kitchen traversed the ages. He went from apprenticeships and cooking “brigades,” as kitchen teams are known, when stoves were coal-fired and chefs also served as scullery maids, to the ultra-modern kitchen of his Auberge.