Eugénie Brazier: The legendary 'mother of French cuisine' | Hacker News Reader

Eugénie Brazier: The legendary 'mother of French cuisine'

bbc.com

13 pointsrntn8 comments

The voluptuous chef also known for the famous Brazier curves.

Every time I go to Lyon I spend some times at Bocuse Market (LES HALLES DE LYON PAUL BOCUSE) where you can see some photos of "La mère Brazier" and other Mère. The market itself is outstanding for what you cand find.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xygAhrjfJ9ibQZZ3A

It's rather silly to start the article blaming sexism for her relative obscurity, when the real reason is revealed later and contradicts it: "She was even offered the Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit, but again declined, saying that the award should be "reserved for more important things than cooking well".

No one cares about the Legion d’honneur. The real reason she is not famous is given at the beginning of the article: she is actually famous for people who know cuisine history and was extremely famous while alive but as she died fifty years ago in 1977 she is now unknown by the general public. The article attempts to contradict that by bringing up Bocuse - but he died 2018 - Escoffier - famous for his book - and a third person I had never heard of - is extremely unconvincing. Clearly the whole gender thing is only there because it sells.

Saying gender have a role on perception of the person and his craft isn't sexism.

And definitely her gender and her body type have a role on the perception I had. And the fact she was from Lyon did not help I think.

The question never was the perception you had - which is strange by the way and makes me question if you are French because she looks a lot like Maïté - a really famous TV culinary personality in France and embodies a fairly typical idea of what a female chef looks like in France. The question was why is she not more broadly known.

The answer of which clearly is: actually she is extremely well known by people familiar with her domain and less well known by the rest of us because she died 50 years ago and nearly nobody knows the name of any chefs from that long ago - something which has absolutely nothing to do with sexism.

> first person to receive six stars

I thought the max was three so was confused.

This means three in each of two restaurants.

Well, could mean two for each of three restaurants, or six one-starred restaurants, or some other combination.

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