10 Facts About Bernard Loiseau

Bernard Loiseau was one of the most mediatised French chefs between the 1980s and 1990s.

Bernard Loiseau's decision was likely due to increased bouts of clinical depression.

Bernard Loiseau was born in Chamalieres, in the Auvergne region of central France.

Bernard Loiseau decided to become a chef as a teenager, apprenticing at the famous La Maison Troisgros run by the brothers Jean and Pierre Troisgros in Roanne between 1968 and 1971.

In 1972, Bernard Loiseau began working for restaurateur Claude Verger at La Barriere de Clichy, and was hailed as a prodigy by the Gault Millau guide, a proponent of the nouvelle cuisine style that emphasised lightness and freshness in contrast to the cuisine classique of traditional French gastronomy.

Bernard Loiseau bought La Cote d'Or from Verger in 1982, and the well known Michelin Guide bestowed the coveted three-star rating on his establishment in 1991.

Bernard Loiseau established Bernard Loiseau SA in 1998, and was the first star restaurateur to establish the concept of having one's restaurant incorporated and traded.

Bernard Loiseau was by this time deeply in debt, and suffered from bouts of increasingly severe clinical depression.

Bernard Loiseau died by suicide on 24 February 2003, shooting himself in the head with a shotgun after presiding over the lunch service in his restaurant.

Bernard Loiseau had made a life's ambition of becoming a three-star chef, a goal which had required 17 years of hard work at La Cote d'Or to achieve.