French chef and restaurateur Paul Bocuse: best recipes, life story and career

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

One of the most legendary chefs of the century - Paul Bocuse. Despite the fact that all his recipes are extremely simple and accessible even to people who are not too creative in the field of cooking, and the dishes are somewhat peasant-style, all this certainly belongs to haute cuisine. The best recipes of Paul Bocuse, his biography and career are in our article.

Dynasty

Paul Bocuse is a fifth-generation chef who has continued the restaurant business since his great-great-great-grandmother, who was not only beautiful, but also extremely good at cooking. The family had a mill, and that's where she opened a tavern in the middle of the eighteenth century. Guests loved visiting this establishment, the food offered to boatmen, peasants who came to the mill with their grain, and residents of the surrounding villages was hearty, simple and extremely tasty.

The tavern during the first hundred years turned into a restaurant, which suddenly appeared on the railroad route from Paris to Marseille. The building was destroyed. But the family business is already so strong that it could be continued forSaon River, where the monks of Il-Barba used to live. So the year 1921 came - the time of cardinal changes. Paul Bocuse was not yet born when his grandfather decided to sell not only the establishment, but also the name.

Legend

It was said that jealousy spurred grandfather to this step. Grandmother, like almost all women of the family, was a beauty, many visitors tried to look after her. Grandpa didn't like it very much. It is not known for certain what event took place in the restaurant, but the establishment was sold along with the family name. If the dynasty was interrupted, we would hardly have known such a wonderful chef as Paul Bocuse.

However, the culinary roots have penetrated too deeply into the souls of this family, so Georges - the next generation - chose the same field. Gained cooking experience in the best restaurants in Lyon and opened his own. He knew how to do a lot, but for some reason his son did not learn from him. He chose another excellent culinary specialist as a teacher - Claude Marais, whose roots in this profession were no less deep.

Training

To the stove and actually cooking, Mare did not allow the student at all right away. At first, he bought food for a long time and checked their freshness very carefully. Subsequently, this became a hallmark of the activity that Paul Bocuse led: his dishes are always prepared from absolutely fresh ingredients. The war began, the novice cook signed up as a volunteer and went to the front. During the battle of Alsace, he was seriously wounded. Fought well, received a cross in 1944"For Military Merit", and in 1945 he was waiting for the famous Paris Victory Parade.

With the return home, the work had to be changed. The famous Fernand Point became Paul's teacher, but even here he cooked dishes much less often than he looked after the garden, washed the dishes, washed clothes, ironed them and milked the cows. However, he still took out some subtleties from the Point. And now Paul Bocuse's golden collection of recipes features tiny vegetables and very light sauces.

Return

Until the age of thirty-five, the legendary chef gained experience. But then, when he returned to his father's restaurant, he developed the business so well that a year later the institution received a Michelin star. In 1965, there were already three Michelin stars. It was the pinnacle of glory. And financial affairs improved so much that Paul Bocuse bought out his grandfather's restaurant along with the family name. Now there is a banquet hall where they treat the same way as in the days of the distant ancestors of the family: the food is very simple, but extraordinarily tasty.

Paul Bocuse was happy to bring the family name back to the business as it is more than just a brand name. This is the pinnacle of what is called perfection, a kind of perfectionism. Naturally, the restaurant that returned the name, and even decorated with Michelin stars, is intended for the most successful, richest and most famous people that Paul Bocuse gathered at his place. Reviews of dishes made from exclusively fresh and purely local products, which, moreover, do not lose their naturalness during cookingtaste, have global geography.

New kitchen

In 1975, the master was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, and his gratitude was so great that a new culinary masterpiece was born. Paul Bocuse, whose recipes are as simple as they are ingenious, delighted the world with a black truffle soup named after the President of France.

It's really hard to be simple! Soupe aux truffles, which has become the hallmark of Paul Bocuse's haute cuisine, consists of the freshest black truffles, chicken fillet, celery and carrots, mushroom caps, white vermouth and foie gras. And for some reason, chicken bouillon cubes … Served in a branded refractory cup with a high cap of puff pastry, which is used to cover the broth before going into the oven. Paul Bocuse treated the president to nothing at the Elysee Palace!

Professional and social activities

No less famous is another recipe, the one that was invented by the culinary expert Brioche, and his followers improved it in every possible way. Just like other famous dishes of French cuisine, Paul Bocuse's recipe for brioche dough differs significantly from the classic one. And in 1987, the culinary specialist received an officer rank in the Legion of Honor and treated another president. At the same time, the Golden Bocuse competition was established, the award of which for the chef now means the same as the Oscar for the artist.

The life of the master from year to year became more and more eventful. He opened restaurantswrote books, participated in shows and television programs, even created the Institute of Culinary Arts. Travel is becoming more and more important. In 2003, he even visited Moscow, where he presented the Paul Bocuse brand. A person knows how to work and have fun.

Cravings

Paul Bocuse loves antique kitchen utensils, especially cast iron cookware. Prefers a gas stove, but that the oven in it is electric. It is clear that this is due to better control: heating and temperature are regulated much more precisely in an electric oven. Credo during the life of Paul Bocuse never changed. From the field or from the sea - immediately to the table. Everything is fresh. None of his dishes are prepared for a long time or laboriously. That is why tastes do not mix. Dishes are flavored only with lemon, herbs, vinegar and butter. Ingredients are preferred not imported, but local. The menu in his restaurant is always very short.

His books have been translated into many languages. "My Best Recipes" and "Bible of French Cuisine" were published in Russian. Paul Bocuse would not advise downloading them if he understood at least a little in Russian. Translators and proofreaders treated their work, to put it mildly, negligently. In his books, not only are one or the other ingredients missing in many recipes, but, worst of all, the numbers indicating the number of products are completely confused. Paul Bocuse would never recommend his books to Russian culinary specialists, who from time to time even win a gold prize named after him. Moreover, it is impossible for beginners to learn from these books. What a pity!

Several recipes translated to perfection

The dishes invented by the master are tasty and quick to prepare, they rarely contain ingredients that are difficult to get. Pumpkin puree soup (for sure, many have grandmothers who make it in Russian, without stuffed eggs), clafoutis - the simplest pie with berries, which in a rare house is not on the table almost every day in the summer season, catfish or other baked fish in dough or fried in flour - can these dishes be foreign in our country? They are international.

But baked pâté is a dish that looks more like a French one. In a special form lined with dough, the thinnest slices of ham, veal, lard and pork are skillfully placed, which are filled with minced meat, diluted with cognac, supplied with aromatic herbs. It would be interesting not only to try, but also to cook. It should be noted that Paul Bocuse has his own vineyards in the famous Beaujolais. Therefore, wines and cognacs quite often accompany his culinary masterpieces. And the obligatory components of almost each of his dishes are cream and butter. This is veal with mushrooms, and baked carp. Wine, cream, butter.

Potato with egg

And yet how close Paul Bocuse's gastronomy is to Russian cuisine! Most of the dishes are prepared from those ingredients that never leave our kitchen. Omelet with potatoes - a summer village breakfast in any Russian outback, before mowing, for example. Delicious, he althy, nutritious. Where's the French sophistication?Cooled potatoes in their skins, eggs not from the refrigerator, but from a basket or directly from a chicken nest, pork fat melted in a frying pan. There will be an omelette with cracklings.

Only our grandmothers and mothers will not drain pork fat from a frying pan, so that later they can fry potatoes in it. And Paul Bocuse will return the cracklings to the pan, fill it all with eggs loosened with water, bring it to readiness and serve it with white bread fried in butter. Perhaps not all Russians eat bread and potatoes, but otherwise this dish, as a representative of haute French cuisine, will be quite to the taste in our cities and villages.