A champion of "slimming cuisine" and undoubtedly the most creative, erudite and mischievous incarnation of the nouvelle cuisine generation, Michel Guérard was the last living legend from the French gastronomic renewal of the early 1970s since the passing of his friends Paul Bocuse, Pierre and Jean Troisgros, Roger Vergé, Alain Chapel and Alain Senderens.

A three-star chef since 1977 at the restaurant Les Prés d'Eugénie, in Eugénie-les Bains, south-west France, and the author of best-sellers including La Grande cuisine minceur (The Cuisine of Slimness,1976) and Cusine Gourmande (1978), which amplified his international renown, Guérard died on Sunday, August 18, aged 91, those close to him announced, confirming a report from France Bleu.

Paraphrasing a quote from the painter Claude Monet, Guérard liked to say that he aspired to "cook like a bird sings." With a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face, his culinary philosophy was free and joyful, combining accuracy with fluidity – made possible by the former pastry chef's technical mastery and encyclopedic knowledge of culinary history.

The creator of the salade gourmande, the lightly chimney- smoked roast lobster, the soft pillow of mmoreousseron and morille mushrooms, the oyster with green coffee chiboust or the soft Marquis de Béchamel cake, also trained numerous disciples in kitchens of Eugénie: Michel Troisgros, Daniel Boulud, Gérald Passédat, Arnaud Lallement, Arnaud Donckele, Laurent Petit, Christopher Coutanceau, Sébastien Bras, Jacques Chibois and Alexandre Couillon.

One of these trainees, the multi-starred Alain Ducasse, recalled in one of his books his two years of apprenticeship in 1975 and 1976 with Guérard, writing: "I discovered and learned several fundamental things: teamwork in a spirit of friendliness, but above all, imagination in power and professionalism pushed to an absolute point of perfection."

Guérard liked to say he was "very naturally" introduced to gourmet pleasures. Born on March 27, 1933, in the small town of Vétheuil, north-west of Paris, whose church was immortalized by Monet, he grew up during the Second World War in Pavilly, Normandy, where his parents were farmers and butchers. While their father was a prisoner, he and his brother helped with household chores, chopping wood, picking fruit and washing tripe in the river. In a fascinating book of interviews from 2020, Michel Guérard, Mémoire de la cuisine française ("Michel Guérard: A memoir of French cooking") conducted by Benoît Peeters, the chef recalls experiencing "hunger and fear." It was an experience that he said "armed me well, because everything I experienced afterwards made me love life, no matter what."

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