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Bernard Loiseau (January 13, 1951 – February 24, 2003) was a French chef.
He was born in Chamalières. He decided to become a chef as a teenager, apprenticing at the famous restaurant Troisgros run by the brothers Jean and Pierre Troisgros in Roanne between 1968 and 1971. In 1972, he began working for Claude Verger at La Barrière de Clichy, and was soon hailed as a prodigy by the Gault Millau guide, a proponent of the nouvelle cuisine style that emphasized lightness and freshness in contrast to the cuisine classique of traditional French gastronomy. When Verger bought the formerly prestigious La Côte d'Or of Saulieu in 1975, he installed Loiseau as chef and soon stood aside to allow him to develop a highly personal style of cuisine. Loiseau bought La Côte d'Or from Verger in 1982, and the well known Michelin Guide bestowed the coveted 3-star rating on his establishment in 1991. His fanatic attention to detail, frenetic work ethic and discerning palate propelled him to the top of his profession and earned him a knowledgable and loyal but unforgiving and demanding clientèle.
Bernard Loiseau established Bernard Loiseau SA in 1998, and was the first star restaurateur to establish the concept of having one's restaurant incorporated and traded. The French government awarded him the decorations of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, Officier de l'ordre national du Mérite and Chevalier du Mérite agricole.
In the late 1990s a new form of Asian-inspired "fusion cuisine" swept France, catering to an international corporate class and pleasing trend-driven "foodies" (a neologism of the movement), which Loiseau resisted. The prevailing notion, however, was that the pre-eminent Loiseau's grip was slipping — that his cuisine and philosophy were being superseded by newer trends.
Bernard Loiseau committed suicide on February 24, 2003, shooting himself in the mouth with his hunting rifle. The Gault Millau guide had recently downgraded his restaurant from 19/20 to 17/20, and there were also rumors that Michelin were planning to remove one of La Côte d'Or's three stars. It later emerged that Michelin had not been planning to do so. As of 2007 the restaurant, now in the hands of Patrick Bertron, is still a three-star establishment.
Further reading
- Rudolph Chelminski, 2005. The Perfectionist : Life and Death in Haute Cuisine (Gotham/Penguin). Biography
- William Echikson, 1995. "Burgundy Stars: A Year in the Life of a Great French Restaurant" (Little, Brown).
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