Master Chef Roger Vergé Dies at
85
Master
Chef Roger Vergé, a founding father of nouvelle
cuisine and owner of restaurant Le Moulin de Mougins near Cannes,
France, who developed a highly influential version of Provençal
cooking, which he called "the cuisine of the sun,"
died on Friday, June 5 at his home in Mougins. He was 85, and
according to his daughter Cordélia the cause of his death
was a complication of diabetes. He is survived by his second
wife, Denise, and, in addition to their daughter Cordélia,
two daughters by his first marriage, Chantal Vergé and
Brigitte Blangéro, and three grandchildren. He retired
in 2003.
Master Chef Roger Vergé
One
of the most memorable experiences of my life was meeting with
Roger Vergé at a private party in the Beverly Hills Bel-Air
Hotel, which was a celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the
"Moulin." Rod Stewart and his model wife Rachel Hunter
were seated next to me as an amazing sit down 'California light'
dinner menu was prepared and presented by renowned LA area chefs
who had studied or worked with Vergé at the "Moulin."
Below is a photo of my hand written invitation, which I had
autographed by Roger Vergé and later included a copy
of the photo I took of him that evening. It has hung in my kitchen
for years, and always brings a smile of remembrance.
Following
the dessert presentation; a chocolate replica of the "Moulin,"
Vergé thanked the chefs and organizers for the event,
and caused uproarious laughter when he asked the chefs "where's
the butter"? He was a charming Frenchman, who sported a
perfectly manicured mustache, and spoke to me with a twinkle
in his eye. He was to the French culinary world what Maurice
Chevalier was to French cinema. He will be missed by many chefs
who enjoyed his friendship and greatly respected his culinary
skill, but more so by 'foodies' who adored his innovative style.
Some of the chefs who studied with him at the "Moulin"
include Emeril Lagasse, Michel Richard, Alian Llorca, Alain
Ducasse, Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, Jacques Maximum, Patrick
Le Notre and Hubert Keller. The Vergé kitchen was considered
by some to be a nursery for upcoming star chefs.
He
visited America in the mid-1970s when he and other leading practitioners
of the new French gastronomy gave classes in Napa Valley in
California. Chef Vergé, along with Paul Bocuse, the Troisgros
brothers and Michel Guérard, helped blaze the trail for
nouvelle cuisine, a pared-down internationalized version of
French cooking that placed a premium on fresh ingredients prepared
in a lighter style and presented artistically on the plate,
that was very well received in California.
Chef
Vergé brought to Provençal cuisine many of the
flavors and ingredients that he had encountered on his extensive
culinary travels, which took him from Africa and Jamaica to
Mougins. While cooking in North Africa, for example, he developed
a fondness for fruit in savory dishes, reflected in one of the
signature appetizers at the Moulin de Mougins: hot oysters on
the half shell with orange sections and orange butter. The Moulin
de Mougins is located across the street from one of Pablo Picasso's
homes, in a converted 16th century olive mill.
The
key to his culinary style, he often liked to say, could be found
in the simple but artfully prepared dishes, the "happy
cuisine," as he put it, dishes served by his mother and
his Aunt Célestine, to whom he dedicated several of his
cookbooks. "The 'cuisine heureuse' is the antithesis of
cooking to impress, rich and pretentious," he wrote in
the preface to his first cookbook, "Cuisine of the Sun."
"It is a lighthearted, healthy and natural way of cooking
which combines the products of the earth like a bouquet of wild
flowers from the garden." In addition to "Cuisine
of the Sun" (published in the United States as "Roger
Vergé's Cuisine of the South of France"), his many
cookbooks include "Entertaining in the French Style"
and "Roger Vergé's Vegetables in the French Style."
Cuisine of the Sun
Without
hesitation, he offered diners humble ingredients previously
unthinkable in a three-star restaurant. "He had the guts
to take a pig's foot and raise it to a level that made people
drive from all over to taste it," said Hubert Keller, who
started out as a saucier at the Moulin de Mougins in the 1970s
and later helped Vergé open restaurants in Brazil and
San Francisco.
Roger
Vergé was born on April 7, 1930, in central France, where
his father was a blacksmith. For his fifth birthday, his aunt
gave him a wooden bench so he could stand next to her at the
stove and watch as she prepared Sunday meals for the Vergé
clan, which was his simple beginning to become a world renowned
chef. A chef who was admired and loved by fellow chefs, including
Daniel Boulud, who spoke of Vergé during a press interview
I participated in prior to accepting an award at the 3rd Annual
Wine & Food Festival Cancun-Riviera Maya Secrets The Vine
Gala in 2014. Boulud shared stories of their work together and
considered him a friend and a man for whom he had great affection
and respect.
Chef Daniel Boulud
Although
as a young man he dreamed of becoming a pilot Vergé apprenticed
at a local restaurant, Le Bourbonnais, at 17. He went on to
Paris for stints at the Tour d'Argent and Plaza Athénée
before traveling to Africa, where he worked at Mansour de Casablanca
in Morocco and L'Oasis in Algiers.
After
working for an airline catering service in Kenya, he returned
to Europe, where he cooked at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte
Carlo and the two-star Club de Cavalière in Le Lavandou,
France, while spending several months each year at the Plantation
Inn in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
Moulin de Mougins
In
June 1969, Chef Vergé and his second wife, Denise, opened
the Moulin de Mougins (the Mill at Mougins). A year later the
restaurant earned its first Michelin star, with a second in
1972 and a third in 1974. Widely recognized as one of France's
pre-eminent restaurants, it trained a small army of future culinary.
The restaurant's proximity to Cannes ensured it a stream of
celebrity guest patrons who attended the annual Cannes Film
Festival.
In
1977, Roger and Denise opened a companion restaurant, L'Amandier
de Mougins (the Almond Tree at Mougins), with a cooking school
on the ground floor, l'École de Cuisine du Soleil Roger
Vergé. He also joined forces with Chef Bocuse and Gaston
Lenôtre, the celebrated pastry chef and caterer, to open
two restaurants at the France Pavilion at Disney's Epcot Center
near Orlando, Florida in 1982. On the ground floor, Les Chefs
de France offered the homey style known as cuisine bourgeoise.
Upstairs was the fancier Bistro de Paris (now Monsieur Paul).
History
will be kind to him, if only for the reason given in Conran's
(Caroline Conran adapted and translated his book 1979) preface
to her adaptation of Cuisine of the Sun: "Roger Vergé,
of all the master-chefs working in France today, is probably
the one whose ideas are most accessible to home cooks... he
has never lost sight of the fact that cooking should be a pleasure
- a celebration of wonderful ingredients, cooked in a simple
and practical way that will not overtax the cook and leave her
(or him) too exhausted to enjoy the meal." Visit www.moulindemougins.com.
Rest
in peace dear Roger Vergé!
By Bonnie Carroll
About Bonnie Carroll
Bonnie Carroll has been a food/travel/lifestyle writer since
1983. She is the founder & publisher of Bonnie Carroll's
Life Bites News - www.lifebitesnews.com,
does travel and food reporting on KZSB1290 radio, and contributes
to a variety of national and international travel/lifestyle
publications. Her first children's book C.C. Charles was published
in 2002 and she is currently working on a second book. Contact
her at Contact her at writebc@aol.com.