Paul Bocuse
(born February 11, 1926, Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or, France?died January 20, 2018, Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or) was a French chef and restaurateur known for introducing and championing a lighter style of
cooking
.
Scion
of a long line of restaurateurs, Bocuse apprenticed under several prominent chefs before taking over the family’s failing hotel-restaurant in Collonges, near
Lyon
, in 1959. Before long he had attracted much attention with his innovative
nouvelle cuisine
, a style of cooking that emphasized lightly cooked
vegetables
, sparing use of dressings and sauces made from materials low in
fats
, and artfully simple presentation. Bocuse’s abandonment of many conventions of traditional
grande cuisine
won many followers among younger chefs, and
nouvelle cuisine
soon appeared in many variants, especially in
France
and the
United States
. Bocuse’s own
restaurant
was rated three stars by the influential
Guide Michelin
.
Bocuse’s style of cooking was carried on by his many students, including renowned Austrian chef Eckart Witzigmann. Bocuse wrote various books about his
nouvelle cuisine
, among them
La Cuisine du marche
(1976; “The
Cuisine
of the Market”; Eng. trans.
Paul Bocuse’s French Cooking
),
La Journee du cuisinier
(1980; “The Day of a Chef”), and
Toute la cuisine de Paul Bocuse
(2011;
The Complete Bocuse
).