Fernand Point: The Father Who Left Only Notes

Fernand Point (1897–1955) is universally recognised as the father of modern French cuisine. From his restaurant La Pyramide in Vienne, 20 miles south of Lyon, he trained the generation that created nouvelle cuisine: Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Louis Outhier, François Bise. He held three Michelin stars from 1933 until his death. His book Ma Gastronomie — published posthumously in 1969, assembled by his widow Mado from his worn, khaki-coloured notebook — contains "refined techniques rather than traditional full recipes." Thomas Keller requires every cook at The French Laundry to read it. Charlie Trotter said: "If someone were to take away all my cookbooks except for one, I would keep Ma Gastronomie." Marco Pierre White called it his favourite cookbook. Yet Point himself never wrote a conventional recipe in his life.

Point did not write recipes because he did not believe recipes were the point. His philosophy — recorded in aphorisms, not formulas — centred on principles: "Every morning the cuisinier must start again at zero, with nothing on the stove. That is what real cuisine is all about." "Success is the sum of a lot of small things done correctly." "As far as cuisine is concerned, one must read everything, see everything, hear everything, try everything, observe everything, in order to retain, in the end, just a little bit." He insisted his kitchen start from scratch every day. No stock carried over, no sauce made ahead, no prep from the previous service. Everything fresh, everything that morning, everything from the market he visited personally before dawn — followed by a breakfast of three whole chickens and a magnum of champagne.

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