Fernand Point

Fernand Point (1897, Louhans, Saône-et-Loire – 1955) was a French restaurateur and is considered to be the father of modern French cuisine.

From his restaurant "La Pyramide" in Vienne, a town half an hour to the south of Lyon, he gained three Michelin stars and trained a generation of French master chefs: Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Louis Outhier, Georges Perrier and Jean and Pierre, the Brothers Troisgros. He had received his training with Foyot in Paris.

The restaurant was founded shortly after World War I. From its kitchen came the modern lightly thickened sauces, baby vegetables and other aspects of nouvelle cuisine. During the regime of Vichy France, Point served refugees fleeing the Nazi invasion of France. When German officers began patronising his establishment, he stopped serving dinner. When they demanded tables for lunch, he closed his restaurant altogether.

The ovens in the restaurant were coal powered up until the 1970s, and feature the flat top that is heated from below by the coal and provides a gradient of heat (known as a "piano"). The cooking was done with copper pans. One of the regular customers was the Aga Khan III who used to eat an immense amount of food. The wine collection was also one of the best in the world with more than 40,000 bottles of wine in the 3 cellars by the 1970s. Each day the menu would be written out by hand by Fernand's wife based on the best produce available that day.