Paul Bocuse, Renowned French Chef, Dies

Tributes have poured in fol­low­ing the death of Paul Bocuse one of the world’s most influ­en­tial chefs. The ​“Pope of French Cuisine” died Saturday at the age of 91. He had suf­fered from Parkinson’s dis­ease and under­went a triple heart bypass in 2005.

French President Emmanuel Macron led the trib­utes hail­ing Bocuse as the ​“Epitome of French cui­sine.” In a state­ment released by the Elysée Palace Macron said, ​“His name alone summed up French gas­tron­omy in its gen­eros­ity, its respect for tra­di­tion but also its inven­tive­ness. Today French gas­tron­omy is los­ing a myth­i­cal fig­ure that pro­foundly trans­formed it.” He added, ​“The chefs cry in their kitchens, at the Elysée and every­where in France. But they will con­tinue his work.”

In 2004, Bocuse received one of France’s high­est civil­ian awards when he was made a Commander of the Legion of Honor. He was given the acco­lade ​“chef of the cen­tury” by the Gault Millau restau­rant guide in 1987 and also the Culinary Institute of America in 2011.

Bocuse’s Lyon restau­rant ​“Auberge du Pont de Collonges” with its sig­na­ture dish of black truf­fle soup topped with puff pas­try won three Michelin Stars. The chef went on to open eater­ies in France, Switzerland and Japan as well as a culi­nary school near Lyon. In 1987 Bocuse launched the pres­ti­gious inter­na­tional gas­tron­omy con­test, the Bocuse d’Or in which chefs from around the world com­pete in front of a live audi­ence.

The renowned chef who became a cul­tural super­star wasn’t adverse to self-pro­mo­tion and, in 1976, told People mag­a­zine, ​“You’ve got to beat the drum in life, God is already famous, but that doesn’t stop the preacher from ring­ing the church bells every morn­ing.”

Bocuse’s mem­oir, Paul Bocuse: The Sacred Fire, which was pub­lished in 2005 was far steamier than his cook­books and raised more than a few eye­brows with its rev­e­la­tion that for over 30 years Bocuse had enjoyed rela­tion­ships with 2 mis­tresses, as well as his wife with whom he had a daugh­ter. One of his mis­tresses was the mother of his son Jérôme.

The Pope of French Cuisine pub­lished sev­eral cook­books includ­ing Paul Bocuse’s French Cooking; Paul Bocuse in Your Kitchen: An Introduction to Classic French Cooking; Bocuse à la Carte; and Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes.

The culi­nary genius was a leader of the nou­velle cui­sine move­ment and was com­mit­ted to pleas­ing the eye and piquing the imag­i­na­tion as much as pleas­ing the palette. He was one of the first chefs to inno­vate clas­sic French cook­ing in the 1960s and 70s and shaped his own style of cook­ing by using fresh ingre­di­ents, lighter sauces and fus­ing new fla­vors with clas­sic tech­niques.

Paul Bocuse was born on 11^th February 1926, to a fam­ily of cooks in Collonges-au-Mont‑d’Or. His career began with an appren­tice­ship at a local restau­rant and although this was inter­rupted by the onset of war, he later resumed his train­ing at the La Mère Brazier; a Lyon restau­rant with three Michelin stars owned by Eugénie Brazier.

In 1956, Bocuse returned to his family’s restau­rant, the Auberge du Pont de Collonges. Two years later it was awarded its first Michelin star. The restaurant’s paper table­cloths and stain­less-steel cut­lery did not stand in the way of it get­ting its sec­ond star in 1960.

Despite inter­na­tional fame, Bocuse’s roots remained firmly in Lyon where he was pas­sion­ate about the local dishes and con­tin­ued to sleep in the bed­room he was born in.

The news of Bocuse’s death was bro­ken by his fam­ily in a state­ment. He is sur­vived by his wife Raymonde, their daugh­ter Francoise and his son, Jerome.

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