Celebrity Chefs: It All Began with Bocuse

Forty years ago, Paul Bocuse was the chef des chefs, a cook who had still learned his trade from the legendary Mère Eugénie Brazier, France's first woman to be awarded three Michelin stars (and the first chef ever to earn three stars in two restaurants simultaneously). At the time, French cuisine was still seen as the pinnacle of everything a gourmet could aspire to and Bocuse embodied it like no other. His Potage aux Truffes, conceived on the occasion of his elevation to the rank of Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest order of merit, is emblematic of this classic cuisine, yet carried by the spirit of nouvelle cuisine.