Charles Barrier

Charles Barrier (born April 30, 1916 in Cinq-Mars-la-Pile , Indre-et-Loire department , † November 25, 2009 in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire , Indre-et-Loire) was a French chef and restaurateur . For his culinary art, he was awarded the prize for the best craftsperson in France ( Meilleur Ouvrier de France ) and three Michelin stars . His guests included numerous prominent people, among them Georges Pompidou and Michel Debré .

Life

Charles Barrier was one of eight children in a winemaking family . At age 12 he began an apprenticeship as a pastry chef ( pastry chef ). He then switched to the restaurant kitchen and began training in Langeais , which he continued in the Chez Bouzy restaurant in Tours . He deepened his skills in the Parisian restaurants of Lucas Carton and in Chez Larue , where the then head chef Edouard Nignon had cooked for the American President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 . He later worked in other renowned hotels in Paris and Monte Carlo as well as in the Majestic in Vichy .

After the war, Charles Barrier invested his modest savings in buying a restaurant on the right bank of the Loire in Tours. The house, like much of the city, was in ruins; it was just a wooden barrack with an original figurehead. He called it first Le Nègre , later Chez Barrier . In 1955 he received his first Michelin star. His restaurant at 101, rue de la Tranchée, was well attended.

In 1958 he took part in the Meilleur Ouvrier de France competition and won it right away in this first participation. The second and third Michelin stars followed in 1960 and 1968.

In those years he became the model for Joël Robuchon , later one of the most famous top chefs of the following generation. In 1983 he said goodbye to his customers, but then changed his mind and continued the restaurant. During this time he came into conflict with the tax laws. A case against him has been opened; it ended with a heavy tax penalty. In 1990 there was friction with another great man of his guild, Jean Bardet , who had opened his restaurant a few hundred meters from Chez Barrier and who had a similarly lively temperament as Barrier himself.

In 1996, at the age of 80, Charles Barrier gave up his restaurant and finally retired from professional life. His restaurant was taken over by Hervé Lussault, who has now also earned his first Michelin star.

culinary arts

Joël Robuchon recognized Charles Barrier for his dedication to the work, his ability to create a living kitchen in which the sovereign control of taste and aroma was more important than the purely artisanal technique. Barrier was suspicious of culinary fashions and style exercises.

Barrier was the first restaurant chef to bake his own bread with the menus and to make his foie gras and smoked salmon himself. With exceptional artistry, he made "the best bread, the best smoked salmon and the best foie gras in the world", praised Robuchon on the occasion of the death of his older colleague.

He paid particular attention and effort to bread. He did not treat it as a mere addition, but as a central part of the composition of a menu. His kitchen had its own proofing room for the dough and a bread oven. He always had at least three types of bread ready. The main role played a sourdough bread , which consisted of 5% rye. This bread took 36 hours to prepare. It was light gray, tasted a little sour and was so popular with customers that he sold it out of the house every day. He also made a pure wheat bread that contained both yeast and sourdough. He made this bread, his pain du jour , in the morning hours, the same day it was consumed. A third type of bread he invented, which was very popular with his guests, was soft bread, similar in consistency to toast, but with a bit of butter added to the batter. Barrier himself considered this bread to be a fine pastry ( viennoiserie ).

Barrier served this soft bread with foie gras because it had a delicate taste, without a tart rind, and so the foie gras came into its own. With light sauces he served light bread with a crispy crust, while in his opinion his tart bread with rye content, which, according to Barrier's own words, “offers a slight caramel note when tasted”, went best with dark sauces. Typical dishes with which he offered this bitter bread were game dishes, hare with mustard ( à la moutarde ), salted meat with lentils, red sausage, kidney, tripe , pork dishes or beef bourguignon . But he also served this bread with fish with a strong taste of its own, with bouillabaisse , brandade de morue , a Provencal stockfish dish with garlic, olives and cream, with a dandelion salad with bacon and with strong cheeses such as Munster cheese , blue cheese or goat cheese. He also recommended a strong red wine from Burgundy or the Côtes du Rhône to his guests .

He served the pain du jour with more tender cheeses, such as goat cream cheese, and recommended a white wine with a not too strong flavor. He advised against strong white wines like Sauvignon and instead recommended a Vouvray or a Montlouis . In addition to blue cheeses such as Roquefort and Bleu de Bresse , an alternative to the bitter bread described above could also be white bread, in combination with a sweet wine, for example a Sauternes , a Vouvray moëlleux or a Monbazillac .

literature

• Jean-Claude Rihaut: Charles Barrier . Le Monde , November 29, 2009, p. 25

Web links

• Obituary of the city of Tours with a photograph of Charles Barrier baking bread (French)
• Obituary at Lepays.fr with another portrait photo (French)