Georges Blanc (chef)

Georges Blanc
Born January 2, 1943
Bourg-en-Bresse, Ain, France

Culinary career

Website
georgesblanc.com

Georges Blanc (born January 2, 1943) is a French chef and restaurateur, with three Michelin stars and four toques from the guide Gault et Millau. His sons Frédéric and Alexandre Blanc continue working with him.

Biography

Georges Blanc was born in Bourg-en-Bresse in the department of Ain, the son of Jean and Paulette Blanc. He has an older sister who was born in 1933. His grandmother Élisa died at her homeplace in Vonnas at the age of 66.

Initially, Georges Blanc was not really interested in becoming a chef. In 1962, he graduated at the École Hôtlière of Thonon-les-Bains in Haute-Savoie. He worked as a steward for Air France traveling all over the world during one summer.

In 1965, after working in a number of famous places, he underwent military service as a chef to Amiral Vedel on the aircraft carriers Foch and Clémenceau. He joined the family business (started in 1872) working with his mother Paulette and then succeeded her in 1968 at the age of twenty five. He transformed the hotel into a luxury hotel with subsequent development of adjacent properties into a gourmet village.

In 1970, he came third in the best sommeliers of France contest and was a finalist at the in the Meilleur Ouvrier de France contest in Paris in 1976.

In 1981, he received his third Michelin star and the title of Chef of the Year by the guide Gault et Millau. In 1985, he received the rare mark of 19.5/20 from the same guide, a level of marking that had never been reached before.

In 1990, Georges Blanc bought the bakery and grocery store from the Charvet-Guyennet family to create the Ancienne Auberge. He also opened seventeen houses around his restaurant at the center of Vonnas to create his "village gourmand" (hotels, restaurants, shops, etc.)

With Cyril Lignac, he is a member of the jury in the television program Un dîner vraiment parfait, a spin-off of Un dîner presque parfait (French version of Come Dine with Me) on M6.

Honours

External links