{"id":70,"date":"2018-08-14T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/2018-8-14-chef-guy-gateau-recalls-jol-robuchon\/"},"modified":"2024-03-03T15:49:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T15:49:38","slug":"2018-8-14-chef-guy-gateau-recalls-jol-robuchon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/2018-8-14-chef-guy-gateau-recalls-jol-robuchon\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Guy Gateau Recalls Jo\u00ebl Robuchon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is no wonder that I revere Guy Gateau. In a remarkable twist of fate or coincidence he prepared the cuisine at both my all-time favorite bistro and formal restaurant: Le Petit Coin de la Bourse in the Paris IVth and Restaurant Alain Chapel in the outskirts of Lyon. About 15 years ago, I tracked Guy down when I was doing some research into Alain Chapel after I saw Guy’s name in a photo caption in the magnificent and detailed book from 1978 \u201cGreat Chefs of France\u201d. We have had several get-togethers and have always kept in touch. Guy has now written this personal tribute to\u00a0Jo\u00ebl Robuchon which I share below.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>Robert Brown<\/strong><\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I knew of Jo\u00ebl Robuchon<\/strong> when he was head chef in the early 1970s for Les Bateaux de Paris<\/strong>, the sightseeing dinner boats that plied the Seine. I had arrived in Paris from my town in the Loire Valley to work as a commis (chef\u2019s helper) at Chez Laurent<\/strong>, a Michelin two-star restaurant. I was also a member of the Association Cuisiniers de Paris a couple doors down, which was for the young cook the beacon, the ultimate goal of my trade, and L\u2019Acad\u00e9mie Culinaire, both inspired by the traditional guilds of long-ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robuchon, my elder by a few years and whom I had never met, was already rather celebrated and respected in the culinary milieu. He was a Compagon du Tour de France, which signified that he had completed a run of apprenticeships in various areas of France, collecting the knowledge of established professionnals. He particularly impressed me with a dish me made in a culinary competition. It was a dish of Coquille St. Jacques with a lid of pastry dough fashioned to look like the top half of a scallop shell. It demonstrated Robuchon\u2019s great finesse as a chef. In those days and in culinary competitions the flavor of the dish was almost secondary to the creation itself, as this was still a period when presentation was very important (such as food presented on sterling silver trays) at the threshold of the Nouvelle Cuisine, influenced by the arrival of the Lyonnaise style with the Fernand Point<\/strong>-formed Paul Bocuse<\/strong> and the Troisgros<\/strong> brothers Jean and Pierre representing the new school. His reputation at the time was one of a great technician, but was still considered a young rising star working strenuously to join the pack of the leaders of the new generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he was always considered a classicist, he was an early user of sous-vide<\/em> which he adapted in his role of being in charge of the food service on the Paris-Strasbourg trains. This led him to deconstruct and analyze sous-vide<\/em> cooking, which he referred to La Cuisine a juste temperature<\/em>. I am sure that Robuchon compagnonique<\/em> background was behind his choice for a name like L’Atelier <\/strong>Jo\u00ebl Robuchon<\/strong> for its reference of the search of knowledge and perfection, a place where everyone works together with the same goal. As a good craftsman in the present days of culinary evolution, Robuchon left a mark that will never be forgotten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is nbsp no wonder that I revere Guy Gateau. In a remarkable twist of fate or coincidence he prepared the cuisine at both my all-time favorite bistro and formal restaurant: Le Petit Coin de la Bourse in the Paris IVth and Restaurant Alain Chapel in the outskirts of Lyon. About 15 years ago, I tracked Guy down when I was doing some research into Alain Chapel after I saw Guy’s name in a photo caption in the magnificent and detailed book from 1978 \u201cGreat Chefs of France\u201d. We have had several get-togethers and have always kept in touch. Guy has now written this personal tribute to Jo\u00ebl Robuchon which I share here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":71,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[90,91],"ppma_author":[279],"authors":[{"term_id":279,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"robertbrown","display_name":"Robert Brown","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2_Gastromondiale_3_A4.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2_Gastromondiale_3_A4.jpg"},"first_name":"Robert","last_name":"Brown","user_url":"","description":"

When I was born, I was destined to dine. When I was a child, my parents began collecting fine wine, ate the food in France of Fernand Point and Raymond Oliver, and often took my brother and me to New York from our house in Western Massachusetts to New York to eat in the best restaurants. When I started my rare books and posters business in 1970, I made (and still make) frequent trips to Europe with my wife where we traveled the length and breadth of France and Italy (and often Japan) to visit and revisit the great and interesting restaurants. While obtaining a Master\u2019s degree at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, I did my research in mass communication and mass and popular culture. It shaped my unique way in writing about and conceptualizing gastronomy.<\/p>\r\n<\/br>\r\n

I look at, and keep a constant eye on, how restaurant gastronomy in particular has evolved over the past 50 years in terms of innovation and change; the ways in which it is portrayed in mass and social media and their effects on dining preferences and tastes; the influence of new technology on creativity; the role that access to capital and restaurants as economic entities in influencing the state of dining; how people make decisions of where and how to spend their time and money on dining; the result of gastronomy moving from an elite to a mass phenomenon; and the myriad of real and conceptual matters that come into my mind on an almost-daily basis. This experience has made me vigorously represent the autonomy and well-being of my fellow diners, an aspect that is inexorably being diminished and thus taking its toll on integrity and connoisseurship. How all of this affects my gastronomic opinions and decision-making is apparent in what I have contributed, and will further contribute, to Gastromondiale.<\/p>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7963,"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/7963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gastromondiale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}