Paris, Jan. 20 (TNS): France’s most-celebrated chef Paul Bocuse died at the age of 91, after suffering from Parkinson’s disease for several years, French media reported on Saturday.
He died in his famous restaurant near Lyon, a local chef close to the family said.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute, describing him as the “incarnation of French cuisine”.
Bocuse rose to fame in the 1970s as a proponent of “nouvelle cuisine”, a healthier form of cooking.
The movement “profoundly changed” French cooking, Mr Macron said.
“His name alone summed up French gastronomy in its generosity and respect for tradition but also its inventiveness,” the French president said.
Chefs across the country would be “crying in their kitchens”, he added.
Bocuse’s restaurant, L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges, has had three Michelin stars since 1965 and he was named “chef of the century” by Michelin’s rival guide, the Gault-Millau, in 1989, and again by the Culinary Institute of America in 2011.
He was also a larger-than-life character who reportedly referred to himself in the third person, told People magazine in 1976 that women were “good cooks, but they are not good chefs” and maintained two long-term extramarital relationships while also having a series of shorter affairs.
