The remarkable ‘mother of French cuisine’

Lyon is renowned for its culinary achievements, thanks in part to legendary chef Paul Bocuse. However, well before Bocuse reached the height of his success, another Lyonnaise chef was setting culinary records. Yet few people know about the chef, Eugénie Brazier (aka Mère Brazier). Her story is fascinating and deserves more recognition, says the BBC’s Anna Richards.

Brazier never completed primary school and left home as a teenager when she became pregnant out of wedlock. However, twenty years later she was running two esteemed restaurants, becoming the most decorated chef in the world. The first person to receive six Michelin stars, Brazier’s record stood for 65 years until Alain Ducasse matched her in 1998. She also played a significant role in Paul Bocuse’s culinary education.

So why does Brazier remain a relatively obscure figure in the the food world, eclipsed by her protégé and other lauded French chefs? While some speculate that it was due to chefs not being in the media spotlight at the time, those that came before her like Varenne, Carême and Escoffier achieved worldwide renown and acclaim. This leaves one obvious explanation: Brazier was overlooked because she was a woman.

Another reason Brazier did not enjoy broader celebrity was due to the location of her restaurants near Lyon. “Brazier’s dishes remained firmly and unapologetically rooted in Lyonnaise cuisine, familiar and recognizable dishes that didn’t try to approach the gilded cuisine of Paris,” says author Maryann Tebben. Chefs like Bocuse went on to apprentice in the capital, bringing the city’s fine dining influences back to Lyon. At the time, these apprenticeships were denied to women, shutting Brazier out of the ranks of haute cuisine and the fame that went with it.