Alain Senderens

Alain Senderens

Alain Senderens (2 December 1939 – 25 June 2017) was a leading French chef and practitioner of Nouvelle Cuisine. Le Figaro credited him as the inventor of food and wine pairings.^[1]

Biography

Senderens was born in Hyères, Var, France and completed secondary school in Labatut-Rivière. Before moving to Paris, he apprenticed at the Ambassador Hotel in Lourdes. In Paris, Senderens worked at well-known restaurants La Tour d'Argent and Lucas Carton, which he would later own. He later became the sous-chef at a Hilton restaurant near Orly Airport.

In 1968, Alain Senderens opened L'Archestrate in Paris, which he operated until 1985. In 1978, the restaurant earned three Michelin stars.^[2] He was the chef at Lucas Carton from 1985 until 2005, when he acquired ownership of the restaurant and renamed it Senderens.^[3] In 2005, he became the first chef to hand back his three Michelin stars after the restaurant was relaunched.^[4] At the time he said he could not charge an affordable price for meals while keeping up the standards Michelin required. As a result, Senderens stated that the customers pay a third of the former prices, return more often, generating profits that were nearly four times of what they were.^[5] Despite handing back his three star rating, Senderens was later awarded two stars by Michelin.^[3] In 2013, Senderens sold the restaurant, which reverted to its Lucas Carton name.

Senderens died at his home in Corrèze on 25 June 2017.^[1]

Influence

The New York Times called him a founding father of Nouvelle Cuisine and he is recognized as a pioneer of food and wine pairings.^[3] Senderens trained a number of notable chefs, including: Alain Passard, who took over L'Archestrate and renamed it Arpège, Alain Solivérès of Taillevent, Christian Le Squer of Le Cinq, and Christopher Hache of Hôtel de Crillon.

References