I've learnt this morning that Gaston Lenôtre died today. He was 88 years old. If you live in the US, you may not have heard his name, even though he actually opened a restaurant with Paul Bocuse, another "maitre" in the cooking world, at Disney World, in Orlando (Chefs de France). But Lenotre was one of those people who helped evolve the art of cooking, and more importantly the "patisserie".

For some reasons, even though I love cooking, I'm not a big "sweet" fan. I usually skip that part in a meal (even though I do prepare it for my guests!). And yet, I'm very sad about his death, since he revolutionized the desserts. He said it many times himself, he wanted to fight "conformism". He hated to be like everybody else, or to do what everybody else was doing. So he invented much lighter desserts, with new tastes, like his famous "succes". This really created a new trend and inspired so many "patissiers" in so many places in the world.

On top of being a great chefs, Gaston Lenôtre was also a fantastic business man. In 1960, he created a "traiteur" service, which became insanely successful. He actually built a real empire that he sold 25 years later to Accor. He opened high end bakeries in the middle of Paris and all over the world, cooking schools, restaurants...

He was among that generation of French chefs who revolutionized cooking across the world, while following traditions and the "art of cooking".