French chef and restaurateur Paul Bocuse: the best recipes, life and career history

One of the most legendary culinary experts of the century is Paul Bocuse. Despite the fact that all his recipes are extremely simple and are accessible even to people who are not too creative in the field of cooking, but the dishes differ somewhat in their peasant's satiety, all this undoubtedly belongs to a high kitchen. The best recipes of Paul Bocuse, his biography and career - in our article.

Dynasty

Paul Bocuse is a chef in the fifth generation, continues his restaurant business since the days of his great-great-grandmother, who was not only beautiful, but also extremely well cooked. The family had a mill, that's where she opened a tavern in the middle of the eighteenth century. Guests liked to visit this institution, the food offered to boatmen, peasants who came with their grain to the mill, to the inhabitants of the surrounding villages was nutritious, simple and unusually tasty.

Tavern in the first hundred years turned into a restaurant, which suddenly found itself on the road from Paris to Marseilles. The building was destroyed. But the family business is already so strong that it was able to continue on the Saon River, where the monks of Ile-Barba used to live. So came the year 1921 - the time of cardinal changes. Paul Bocuse was not born yet when his grandfather decided to sell not only the institution, but also the name.

Legend

It was said that grandfather encouraged this step by jealousy. Grandmother, like almost all women of the family, was a beauty, many visitors tried to look after her. Grandpa did not like it very much. It is not known for certain that the event occurred in the restaurant, but the institution was sold along with the family name. If the dynasty was interrupted, it is unlikely that we would have known such a wonderful cook as Paul Bocuse.

However, the culinary roots penetrated too deeply into the souls of this family, so George - the next generation - chose this same field. He gained his cooking experience in the best restaurants in Lyon and opened his own. He knew very, very much, but his son did not study for some reason. He chose another excellent culinary teacher - Claude Mare, whose roots in this profession were no less profound.

Training

To the stove and the actual cooking, Mare admitted the student not at once. At first he bought food for a long time and very carefully checked their freshness. Later it became a distinctive feature of the activity that Paul Bocuse led: his dishes are always prepared from absolutely fresh ingredients. The war began, the beginning culinary enrolled himself as a volunteer and went to the front. During the battle of Alsace was pretty badly wounded. He fought well, received a cross in 1944 "For military service," and in 1945 he was waiting for the famous Paris Victory Parade.

I had to change my job when I got home. Paul's teacher was the most famous Fernand Point, but here he cooked dishes much less often than he took care of the garden, washed dishes, washed clothes, ironed it and milked cows. However, some points he took from Point. And now the golden collection of recipes Paul Bocuse is distinguished by the presence of tiny vegetables and very light sauces.

Return

Up to thirty-five years the legendary culinary expert was gaining experience. But then, when he returned to his father's restaurant, he developed the business so well that a year later the institution received a Michelin star. In 1965, Michelin stars were already three. It was the height of glory. And financial matters have recovered so much that Paul Bocuse bought the grandfather's restaurant together with the family name. Now there is a banquet hall, where people are treated like in the times of the ancestors of the family: the food is very simple, but it is delicious.

Paul Bocuse was happy to return the family name to business, because it is even more than just a well-known brand. This is the peak of what is called perfection, a kind of perfectionism. Naturally, the restaurant, which returned the name, and even decorated with Michelin stars, is intended for the most successful, richest and most famous people that Paul Bocuse collected. Reviews of dishes from extremely fresh and purely local products, which, moreover, do not lose their natural flavor during cooking, have a world geography.

New kitchen

In 1975, the master was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, and his gratitude was so great that a new culinary masterpiece appeared. Paul Bocuse, recipes of which are as simple as they are genius, pleased the world with a soup of black truffles, named after the French president.

Truly it is very difficult to be simple! Becoming a visiting card of the high cuisine of Paul Bocuse, soupe aux truffles consists of fresh black truffles, chicken fillets, celery and carrots, hats of mushroom mushrooms, white vermouth and foie gras. And for some reason, chicken bouillon cubes ... It is served in a brand-name refractory cup with a high layer of puff pastry, which is filled with broth before going to the oven. Not something in the Elysee Palace Paul Bocuse treated the president!

Professional and public activities

No less famous is another recipe, one that was invented by culinary Briosh, and his followers improved it in every possible way. Just like other famous dishes of French cuisine, it differs significantly from the classical and the recipe of the brioche test by Paul Bocuse. And in 1987, the cook was awarded an officer rank in the Honorary Legion and treated another president. At the same time, the "Golden Bokyuz" contest was established, the reward of which for the chef now means the same as "Oscar" for the artist.

The life of the master from year to year became more and more eventful. He opened restaurants, wrote books, participated in shows and TV programs, even the Culinary Institute created. Travel takes an ever increasing place. In 2003 he visited Moscow, where he presented the brand Paul Bocuse. A person can work and have fun.

Predilections

Paul Bocuse loves old kitchen utensils, especially likes cast-iron dishes. He prefers a gas stove, but that the oven in it is electric. Clearly, this is because of better control: heating and temperature are regulated in the electro oven much more accurately. Credo during the life of Paul Bocuse never changed. From the field or from the sea - immediately on the table. All the freshest. None of his dishes are prepared long or laboriously. That's why tastes do not mix. Dishes are served only with lemon, herbs, vinegar and butter. Ingredients are not imported, but local. The menu in his restaurant is always very short.

His books have been translated into many languages. In Russian came "My best recipes" and "Bible of French cuisine". Paul Bocuse download them would not advise, if at least a little understood in Russian. Translators and proofreaders reacted to their work, to put it mildly, negligently. In his books, not only do not exist in many recipes, one or other ingredients, but, worst of all, the numbers that denote the number of products are completely confused. Paul Bocuse would never recommend his books to Russian culinary specialists who occasionally even win a gold prize from his name. And the more it is impossible to learn from these books for beginners. What a pity!

Several recipes, translated thoroughly

Dishes invented by the master are delicious and quickly prepared, they rarely contain ingredients that are difficult to obtain. Pumpkin soup (for sure, many have grandmothers who make it in Russian, without stuffed eggs), klafuti - the simplest pie with berries, which in a rare house does not happen on the table almost daily in the summer season, wolffish or other fish baked In a dough or roasted in flour, can these dishes be foreign to our country? They are international.

But the pastry baked is a dish more like French. In a special form, laid out by the test, delicately slices of ham, veal, lard and pork that are filled with minced meat, diluted with cognac, supplied with aromatic herbs, are artfully placed. It would be interesting not only to try it, but also to cook it. It should be noted that Paul Bocuse has its own vineyards in the famous Beaujolais. Therefore, guilt and cognacs often accompany his culinary masterpieces. And the compulsory components of almost every one of his dishes are cream and butter. This is veal with champignons, and baked carp. Wine, cream, butter.

Potato with egg

And yet, how close is Paul Bocuse's gastronomy to Russian cuisine! Most dishes are prepared from those ingredients that never leave our kitchen. Omelette with potatoes - summer village breakfast in any Russian outback, before mowing, for example. Tasty, healthy, nutritious. What is the French elegance? Cooled potatoes in a uniform, eggs not from a refrigerator, but from a basket or directly from a chicken nest, pork fat, melted in a frying pan. With cracklings there will be an omelet.

Only our grandmothers and mothers do not salt the fat of the pig from the frying pan, so that they can then fry the potatoes in it. And Paul Bokyuz will bring back the cracklings, pour all this with eggs, diluted with water, bring it to the ready and serve with white bread, fried in butter. Perhaps not all Russians eat bread and potatoes, but otherwise this dish as a representative of high French cuisine will have to taste in our cities and villages.