Michel Guérard

Early life and education

Michel Guérard was born in 1933 in the Paris suburb of Vétheuil. At age six, World War II broke out, and he was raised just outside Rouen with his grandmother and then his mother.

In town, his mother ran the family butcher shop after his father was drafted. He had the 'kind of French country childhood that involved wading into streams barefoot to catch slippery trout with his hands, but also Nazi interrogations regarding the location of his family’s cows.' After liberation in 1944, he had an 'Escoffier-style feast' at a family friend's home, helping inspire him to stop studying science in favor of apprenticing as a cook. He also learned cooking from his mother and grandmother.

Career

At age 14, Guérard became an apprentice at Kléber Alix's patisserie in Mantes-La-Jolie, inspired by watching his grandmother bake pastry. He then learned 'palace cuisine' at Paris's Hôtel de Crillon, later becoming head pastry chef there at age 25. He also cooked at Le Lido and Maxim's, and in 1958 won the Meilleur Ouvrier de France Patisserie while working as a pastry chef at the Hôtel de Crillon. In the late 1960s, working at a small restaurant in Asnières-sur-Seine in Paris, the New York Times says he 'almost single-handedly invented no[u]velle cuisine.' Along with Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, and Jean and Pierre Troisgros, 'Guérard was a nouvelle cuisine pioneer who... disrupted restaurant culture... Breaking away from the long-established rules of French haute cuisine, the group pushed for food to look and taste more like the stuff it’s actually made from, to be leaner and lighter and brighter.' In 1965 he opened his first restaurant Le Pot au Feu in the Paris suburbs.

Spa resort and cuisine minceur

It earned its first Michelin star in 1967 and a second in 1971, and was successful until it was compulsorily acquired for road-widening. He also operated a restaurant Hélène Darroze at the Connaught hotel in Mayfair. In 1972 he met Christine Barthelemy, daughter of the founder of the Biotherm range and owner of a chain of spas and hotels; they married, and in 1974 he moved with her to Eugénie-les-Bains, where she was running one of her family's smaller, less successful spas. There he invented cuisine minceur, a form of healthy cooking low in extra fat, sugar, and salt, to cater to health-conscious Parisians and overweight patients using the hot springs.

He owned a 16-hectare farm along with his wife, located on the spa where Empress Eugenie spent her summers. His restaurant Les Prés d'Eugénie is located in the original hotel opened in 1862. On 9 February 1976, he was featured on the cover of TIME with a cartoon and the line 'The new gourmet law: hold the butter.' After first winning three Michelin stars for Les Prés d'Eugénie in 1974, 1975, and 1977, he began receiving steady three Michelin stars around 1980.

At one point, his restaurant was awarded three Michelin stars for forty years consecutively, starting in 1977. In 1983 Christine and Michel purchased the Château de Bachen, replanting the vineyards and producing their first harvest in 1988. In 1992, his other two new hotels included The Couvent des Herbes. By 2016, Guerard and his family ran 21 spas and employed around 2000 people.

Spa resort and cuisine minceur

In the village of Eugenie-les-Bains, Guérard owned a 16-hectare farm along with his wife Christine, located on the spa where Empress Eugenie spent her summers. At the location, Les Pres D'Eugenie is his restaurant, located in the original Les Pres D'Eugenie Hotel opened in 1862. Guerard stated that he created 'great slimming cuisine' when he moved to Eugénie in 1974, an area where patients with metabolic diseases used its hot springs. Guerard wanted cuisine that was more appealing than diet food but low in extra fat, sugar, and salt, saying he 'realized the extent of despair towards food' that overweight patients at the spa were facing.

SF Moma says 'a vanguard of nouvelle cuisine, Michel Guérard was part of the radical shift towards lighter, delicate French cooking– a break from traditional techniques and reliance on heavy, rich sauces.' His book Eat Well And Stay Slim, published by Frances Lincoln, included cuisine minceur. In 1992, he also ran a vineyard, newly formed, which produced 37,000 bottles of his Baron de Bachen label annually. At the location, the couple has a cooking school for hobby chefs. They also in 2013 opened a training center for professional cooks.

Personal life and death

Guerard and his wife had two daughters. They lived at Château de Bachen, where they had a large collection of original French paintings. The house has a mile of grapevines. On 19 August 2024, it was announced that Guérard had died overnight at his home, aged 91.

Restaurants

At the time of his death he and Christine Guérard owned three restaurants in Eugénie-les-Bains: Les Prés d'Eugénie. Part of the main spa hotel, this restaurant serves cuisine gourmande, and has since 1977 received three stars in the Michelin Guide.

Bibliography

La grande cuisine minceur, with Alain Coumont, Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris, 1976. La cuisine gourmande, Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris, 1978. Petit almanach des inventeurs improbables et méconnus, with Jean-Paul Plantive, Ginkgo éditeur, 2003.

L'almanach des petits mestiers improbables, with Jean-Paul Plantive, Ginkgo éditeur, 2004. Petit almanach des plantes improbables et merveilleuses, with Jean-Paul Plantive, Ginkgo éditeur, 2005. La Cuisine très facile, Recettes pour débutants ou maladroits, Ginkgo éditeur, 2006.

Honours

Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite. Chevalier of the Ordre du Mérite agricole. Prix Eckart-Witzigmann. Chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes académiques.