By
Peter and
Linda D'Aprix
What
happens when you are married to a three-star Michelin chef
and he dies prematurely? For two brave and committed women,
their husband's legacy was too important to abandon. Both Mme.
Alain Chapel and Mme. Bernard Loiseau chose to maintain the restaurants,
dishes and memories of their celebrated spouses.
The
unique talents of the top chefs, such as Alain Chapel
and Bernard Loiseau, drive an empire and cannot
be replicated. Nor can their extensive business tentacles and
media darling status. Left alone, the wives had decisions to make
in the midst of personal tragedy and loss. What to do now? Keep
the establishment struggling on without the grand master or close
it down?
One factor to consider
were the huge debts still left on financing long term expansion.
Shock and paralysis came first, followed by anger and grief. And
the demands of the empire probably quickly invaded what should
have been a time of mourning.
Rudolph
Chelminski, a food journalist in France, had known Bernard
Loiseau for about 30 years. He wrote a biography on the
great chef, The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine.
According to Chelminski, a, the loss of one Michelin star equals
a 50% drop in income. And since the stars go with the chef, not
the establishment, there was automatic deduction one star. Contrast
that to the 30% to 60% increase that came with each additional
star earned by the gifted chef/husband, in addition to the instant
celebrity status as the third star was awarded. For the widows,
finances were another difficulty that had to be faced.
A women in the
past who confronted this dilemma is connected to Chapel and Loiseau
by a similar tragedy but also in the way of master chef and culinary
offspring.
Mado Point,
the wife of Fernand Point, regarded as the father
of modern French cuisine with his restaurant "La Pyramide"
in Vienne battled on long after her husband Fernand's death. Fernand,
in fact, not only shares the early death (he died at 58 in 1955)
in common with Chapel and Loiseau, but was also a great teacher
whose acolytes include such luminaries as Paul Bocuse
(recently turned 80), Alain Chapel, Louis Outhier
and Pierre Troisgros. Loiseau
learned under Troigros. After Chef Point's death,
Mado ran the restaurant with Chef Guy Thivard,
who maintained its three-star Michelin rating until Madame Point's
death in 1986.
But more recently,
the loss of a famous and supremely talented husband/chef hit two
women in France who picked themselves up and kept going, like
their predecessor Mado, keeping the brand as well as the cuisine
alive. Mme. Alain Chapel and Mme. Bernard
Loiseau have their similarities and differences, but
both continue to preside over the establishments their husbands
forged into gastronomic Meccas.
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