Michel Richard

Michel Louis-Marie Richard (/mᵻˈʃɛlrᵻˈʃɑːrd/ mə-SHEL rə-SHARD; French: [miʃɛl ʁiʃaʁ]; March 7, 1948 – August 13, 2016) was a French-born chef, formerly the owner of the restaurant Citrus in Los Angeles. He owned the restaurant Carmel and Central in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Washington, D.C.

Richard was born in Pabu, Brittany, France on March 7, 1948 and raised in Champagne. He learned to cook when he was age 7. At the age of 9, he participated in the French equivalent of the Fresh Air Fund.

Having been told that if he wanted to be a chef he first needed to learn to be a pastry chef, by age 14 he was an apprentice baker at a hotel in Reims. After serving in the French Army he worked at the bakery Maison Lenotre in Paris, under French pastry chef Gaston Lenotre. He opened Lenotre's short-lived New York branch, Chateau France, then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to run the French Pastry Shop at La Fonda Hotel.

In 1977 he was in Los Angeles, where he opened another Michel Richard Pastry Shop. He used the profits to eat in France's three-star restaurants, and solidifying his desire to move beyond pastry, and to train himself to be a chef over the next ten years.

In 1986 he opened the restaurant Citrus in Los Angeles. Satellites of Citrus were opened in Santa Barbara, Baltimore, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., all of which eventually closed. In 1997, he sold half of his interest in the restaurant to Meristar Corporation, which is also his partner in Citronelle.

In 1989, Richard opened Citronelle, in the Santa Barbara Inn Hotel in Santa Barbara. He later opened Bistro M in San Francisco, and Citronelle in Baltimore and Michel's in Philadelphia. In 1994, he opened Citronelle in The Latham Hotel in Georgetown. Later, he opened a branch of Citronelle at Carmel Valley Ranch in Carmel, California. Ten years later, he opened Central in Washington D.C..

Richard died in Washington, D.C. on August 13, 2016 after a stroke.

• Michel Richard's Home Cooking with a French Accent, Morrow, NY (January 1, 1993) ASIN: B001XGZ1Q8
• Happy in the Kitchen: The Craft of Cooking the Art of Eating, Artisan, (October 2006) ISBN 978-1-57965-299-9
• Sweet Magic: Easy Recipes for Delectable Desserts, Ecco, (November 2010) ISBN 0-06-192821-6
• "Monet's Palate Cookbook: The Artist & His Kitchen Garden at Giverny" Contributor, Gibbs-Smith, (May 2015) ISBN 978-1-4236-3997-8

• Baking with Julia (Episodes 103 and 304)
• How to Cook Everything; Bittman Takes on America's Chefs (Episode 108)
• Great Chefs – Great Cities (Episodes 40, 62, and 76)
• Chef's Story (Episode 111)
• "Cooking with Master Chefs" (Chocolate Dome; Hot Chocolate Truffles)
• "Monet's Palate - A Gastronomic View from the Gardens of Giverny"