Gaston Lenôtre died today

[cmling]

Another titan has left us.

[John Talbott]

Another titan has left us.

←

The tributes to him in Le Figaro by chef/patisseurs Bocuse, Robuchon, Ducasse, Mulot, Krenzer and Herme are wonderful as is the obit by Jacques Pessis and essay by Francois Simon (still only on the pdf version). The IHT's, however, is spare and tucked in after that of Didier Aaron.

Edited 12 Jan to update link.

Edited January 12, 2009 by John Talbott (log)

[kerriar]

This untimely loss (they are always untimely but even at 88 Gaston Lenôtre was still going to the bakery regularly) and the distinguished career which went before was the third or forth item on the radio news in Belgium, which says something about sensible national priorities in these grim times.

I thought I had misheard something when the journalist spoke of the Lenôtre headquarters in Plaisir - but that is indeed the name of the district outside Paris which was the source of so much pleasure for so many over the years.

There seem to have been some financial up and downs over the years but the gentle man who gave us the financier ended his days serenely with his wife and his dogs at his place in the country.