Magazine: He started a new era

In January legendary chef and restaurant owner Paul Bocuse, the man who changed French cuisine and how chefs work, died at the age of 91 in his home in Collonges-au-Mont d’Or. Monsieur Paul was France himself: simplicity and generousness, excellence and art. Paul Bocuse took over his father’s restaurant in Lyon in 1958 and this was also the year when he earned his first Michelin star (which was followed by two more, in 1962 and 1965; he kept them until the present day – this is a world record). He became famous at the end of the 1960s and in the early 1970s, as a leading figure of the Nouvelle Cuisine movement. This was the movement that laid the groundwork for modern French cuisine.

Monsieur Paul believed in simplicity but his creations were sophisticated and unique. As a person, he loved life, he was generous, witty and always happy, a great person to be around. He cooked for every French president after World War II, from de Gaulle to Nicolas Sarkozy. In 1987 he launched the Bocuse d’Or chef competition, the most prestigious competition of its kind in the world. In 1990 he established his institute where students from 37 countries are studying. Paul Bocuse was laid to rest on 26 January in the Saint Jean Cathedral in Lyon, in the presence of 1,500 chefs dressed in uniform. //

_{Gábor Gancer (CEO, Hungexpo) and Bocuse, 2010. Budapest}