Fernand Point

Fernand Point
Born	(1897-02-25)25 February 1897 Louhans, Saône-et-Loire, France
Died	4 March 1955(1955-03-04) (aged 58) Vienne, France
Culinary career
Cooking style	French
Previous restaurant(s) "La Pyramide" in Vienne

Stela on rue Fernand Point, for which the restaurant is named

Fernand Point (French pronunciation: [fɛʁnɑ̃ pwɛ̃], 25 February 1897 – 4 March 1955) was a French chef and restaurateur who is considered the father of modern French cuisine. He founded the restaurant La Pyramide in Vienne near Lyon.

Early life

Point was born in Louhans, Saône-et-Loire, France. His family kept an inn where he started cooking when he was ten. He moved to Paris and worked at some of its best restaurants before working with Paul Bocuse's father at the Hôtel Royal (Évian-les-Bains) [fr] in Évian-les-Bains.^[1][2]

Career

He had received his training with Foyot in Paris, the Bristol Hotel, Paris, the Majestic in Cannes, and the Royal Hotel in Évian-les-Bains. In 1922, he and his family moved to Vienne, a city in southeast France near Lyon, and opened a restaurant. Two years later his father left the restaurant to Fernand, who renamed it La Pyramide.^[3]

Point opened Restaurant de la Pyramide when he was 24, about 20 miles (32 km) south of Lyon in the town of Vienne. The restaurant was awarded three Michelin stars.^{[citation needed]}

Ma Gastronomie

Main article: Ma Gastronomie

His book Ma Gastronomie was first published in French in 1969. The book includes 200 recipes based on Point's notes. The chef Charlie Trotter described Point's Ma Gastronomie as the most important cookbook.^[4]

Publications

• Point, Fernand (2008) Ma Gastronomie, Rookery Press. ISBN 978-1-58567-961-4

References

1. "Fernard Point (1897-1955)". Chef Simon (in French).
2. "The great History of Fernand Point and la Pyramide". vienne-condrieu.com (in French).
3. "On Cooking, Sarah Labensky, 2011
4. An Interview with Chef Charlie Trotter Archived 28 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine Jennifer Iannolo - 15 Dec 2003