Paul Bocuse, Celebrated French Chef, Dies at 91 | Hacker News Reader

Paul Bocuse, Celebrated French Chef, Dies at 91

nytimes.com

163 pointsNaOH43 comments

I very clearly remember eating there for my twelfth birthday. Absolutely mind-blowing in every possible way. I still remember the cheese cart as if it was yesterday. The food was excellent and the service was... I don't know how to put it. An anecdote may be clearer: at one point I dropped my fork on the floor, as sometimes happens where you're a kid. Well I didn't have time to bend down to pick it up because a waiter had run over and grabbed it before me. About 5 or 10 seconds later he returned with a clean fork, set on a cushion, itself carried on a large silver plate. So there you go, as far as I'm concerned a well deserved reputation and a sad day for french cuisine.

Edit: just to clarify, that this was 27 years ago and I haven't returned since.

I had the pleasure of dining at a 3-star Michelin restaurant last year. My co-workers and I summed it up as: 2-star, you get excellent food but things could be pointed at as better, at a 3-star, you can't possibly think of anything that could have been better after (apart from a lower bill)

>Well I didn't have time to bend down to pick it up because a waiter had run over and grabbed it before me. About 5 or 10 seconds later he returned with a clean fork, set on a cushion, itself carried on a large silver plate.

JFYI, service in a Restaurant is "coded".

A bad/slow service is when the ratio waiters/customers is 1/25 or even higher, such as 1/30.

An excellent/fast service is when the ratio is 1/8 to 1/12.

Michelin starred restaurant can often go as high as 1/6 or even 1/4.

Basically you have the waiter being dedicated to your table for all the time you are there.

Personally I find it even a little disturbing as you have the waiter constantly focused to each of your movements, ready to fill your glass or intervene for whatever may seem as looking for something.

Not to take away from your story, but every single restaurant I have ever been in my life does this - if a waiter sees something drop on the floor, they'll bring you a new set. This is an expectation and not the exception when you go to any sit down restaurant.

I don’t believe the point of the antedote was that they brought him a replacement piece of silverware.

Not trying to be a dick, but I think the word you meant to type was "anecdote."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anecdote

I understood the point that the service was excellent. All I am saying is that bringing a new set of silverware is very common.

I really dont know how someone could read that story and think the point he was trying to make was "i'm impressed that this restaurant brought me new silverware".

At most restaurants they do not manage to pick your fork off the floor before you can take 1-2 seconds to do it yourself. (The silver plate and cushion thing is a bit unusual also.)

>> At most restaurants they do not manage to pick your fork off the floor before you can take 1-2 seconds to do it yourself

Where I live, local KFC can do it in 0.68 seconds. I saw it when I was 9, 25 years ago, so it is legit.

The GP did not mention that they picked up the fork. They just simply brought a new set. Silver plate / cushion - perhaps this was a fine dining restaurant.

There are of course times when a waiter is busy and they don't see/hear you drop something. In that case, if you simply ask, they'll bring you a new set of silverware.

> Well I didn't have time to bend down to pick it up because a waiter had run over and grabbed it before me.

> perhaps this was a fine dining restaurant.

Actually many would consider Bocuse's to be THE fine dining restaurant.

According to HN, their claim to fame is.. they can get forks off the floor super fast. We are talking seconds here.

>> for my twelfth birthday.

Not sure if serious or trolling.

What a strange reply. Assuming it's in good faith, what makes you think his reply was trolling?

Paul Bocuse is considered a God among the chefs.

What we have here is someone telling us they had a great meal there, 27 years ago, at the age of 12, and the most impressive thing was: some waiter picked up forks from the floor super-quickly!

So that looked like some (inappropriate) joke to me.

Well it was Bocuse so I assumed that the food being exquisite was a given. No need to add to the praise he received along the years.

Fair enough. Thanks for clarifying.

What I like about him is that he was upset about this this super small dish that you pay at a really expensive price. He used to say "La nouvelle cuisine, c'était rien dans l'assiette, tout dans l'addition". What means: the new cooking, it's nothing in your plate, everything in the check.

If you like great food, you should come try it traditional french food in Lyon, in the kind of restaurants we call "Bouchons" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonnaise_cuisine)

Some restaurants I recommend for not crazy price: Le musée, Leon de lyon

That's a very sad & true fact. I had a family dinner at a one Michelin star restaurant, and while everything was really good, I have a hard time recognising what I ate as a meal because of the quantity. The basic point of a meal is to be satiated, so I don't see the point of eating (very) good stuff for that price if I need to eat something else two hours after.

It probably depends on the restaurant and the person. I’m nearly two hundred pounds and active and I’ve eaten at a half dozen Michelin 3-stars, with meals usually lasting 3-4 hours. Never left feeling hungry.

For me it's not about leaving hungry, but more about having an actual taste of the food you're eating. For example I've eaten at 42 grams which was a fantastic 2-star in Chicago but I can't really remember any dish as they were just a few bites each. On the other hand Anglo in London is still a tasting menu but each dish is larger which let you appreciate what you're eating more.

In stark contrast with all you can eat restaurants

Actually, that is quoted in the article itself: "The term Nouvelle Cuisine as it came to be known was nothing to do with what was on the plate, but what was on the bill."

Le musée is amazing. But I think foreigners would have a hard time with it. It's a traditional canteen. No fancy food. And at some point the chef takes you to a tour of the building while giving you a 20min one man show in good ol' french. I'd recommend Prairial or Victoire et Thomas for a stranger or something at les halles de bocuse

Anecdotally, it seems to me that restaurants that want to serve these small plates that I think he's referring to, have moved to tasting menus where a number of of these small things are combined with one or two more substantial dishes.

Remarkable: Bocuse died in the same room above his restaurant in which he was born.

Last September, I scored a table at the Restaurant Saisons of the Institut Paul Bocuse. The meal blew my mind. It was an explosion of tastes (and colors!). Without question it was the best meal I ever had -- and I had the luck to eat in various Michelin star restaurants before. They can't hold a candle.

Bon appetit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WYb-UDN22w&t=7m50s

There's a good Parts Unknown episode (with Anthony Bourdain) that introduced me to Bocuse. Recommended watching..

Here he's interviewed about that episode. Bourdain calls that meal his favorite and likens Bocuse to Mohammad Ali for the impact he had.

https://www.youtube.com/v/hV6h8tvDgTg?start=0&end=80

Incidentally Gualtiero Marchesi, which is the Italian symmetrical, also died a few weeks ago.

“God is already famous, but that doesn’t stop the preacher from ringing the church bells every morning.”

Great quote.

I have to admit that the 6 months I spent living in Lyon were not all that enjoyable for me, for a myriad of reasons. But the food... no complaints there. I never stumped up the money to go for a starred establishment, but the various Bouchons I did go to were fantastic. Also, lots of sushi. Not sure why.

One thing I learned about the city from quite early on was just how huge a figure this man was. I spent the first month there in an AirBnB across the road from the marketplace that bore his name. A Mexican friend of mine, also a chef, would not stop raving about the time he had spent living there and what this man could do. A huge loss for Lyon, but what he's left them with will be of benefit for years to come.

Nice series of videos about him cooking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AR5Oviezvg

This is #1 on HackerNews? Why?

Because being a hacker is about obsessively working to know all there is about a given subject and become better in a chosen craft. Bocuse was cooking hacker.

I forgot to mention - he was also a teacher of his craft and that counts too.

Because he was one of the most renowned chefs. Cooking can be quite nerdy, scientific and of course entrepreneurial. Modernist Cuisine is from a former Microsoft [1] guy, for example.

[1] http://modernistcuisine.com/

It fits the criterion for being on topic: it gratifies intellectual curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Because if any of us weren't foodies before Ratatouille, we sure became so after.

Why not?

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