Gaston Lenôtre

Gaston Lenôtre (20 May 1920 – 8 January 2009) was a French pastry chef and caterer.

Lenôtre was born in, France. His mother, Éléonore, was one of the first women chefs in Paris during the 1900s, and was the chef of the family. His brother Marcel was also a talented chef who worked for the Grand Hôtel in Paris.

As a patriarch, he liked to work with his family members, twelve of them at one time; including the third generation of Lenôtre chefs, amongst which was his son Alain, the founder of the Culinary Institute located in USA.

He is the uncle of Patrick Lenôtre (Pavillon des Princes, Paris), a well known French chef .

Lenôtre made bold moves during his lifetime. Among his list of firsts: the first chain of upscale bakeries in Paris, a bakery-café bistro in the first French shopping mall, the first central kitchen in the country outside of Paris, the first professional French re-training chef school, the first line of frozen desserts distributed all over France, and the first International bakery franchises (now in a dozen countries including Germany, Japan and Kuwait) Among the prominent chefs he trained are David Bouley and Michel Richard. He was one of the main inspirations for the character Gusteau in the 2007 Pixar film Ratatouille.

Lenôtre wrote nine recipe books with his daughter Sylvie that have been translated into English, German, and Japanese and have sold close to a million copies. He also was the official caterer of the Football World Championship held in France in 1998 and of the French Olympic team in Sydney, Australia. He catered for presidents, kings, and celebrities all over the world.

Lenôtre died at his home in the central French region of Sologne after a long illness on 8 January 2009, aged 88.