Gaston Lenôtre

Gaston Lenôtre (, 28 May 1920 – 8 January 2009) was a French pastry chef. He is known as a possible creator of the opera cake (gâteau opéra), the founder of Lenôtre a culinary empire, whose brand includes restaurants, catering services, retail concerns and cooking schools, as well as one of the three founders with Paul Bocuse and Roger Verge of Les Chefs de France at Epcot in Orlando, Florida, US.

Lenôtre compared the making of pastry to architecture, where structure, materials and precision are key for making great pastries.

Biography Lenôtre was born on a small farm in Normandy, in the commune of Saint-Nicolas-du-Bosc. Both of his parents eventually moved the family to Paris and became restaurant workers. Lenôtre's mother worked as a pastry and general cook for a French baron and his father was a chef at the Grand Hôtel in Paris. The chef Alain Ducasse also worked under him.

In 1974 Lenôtre dispatched another then apprentice of his Michel Richard to open Chateau France a restaurant and patisserie on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City to spotlight the Lenôtre culinary style. It only stayed in business for a single year.

In 1985 the businesses under the banner head Lenôtre were taken over by the French hotel firm Accor.

Death Gaston Lenôtre died on 8 January 2009 at the age of 88 in Sennely, Loiret. He was buried in the family vault at Bernay, Eure.

Published work

Lenotre's Desserts and Pastries, Barron's, 1978