Gotham, May 2005
Journalist Rudolph Chelminski unfolds the story of one man's pursuit of excellence – no, his obsession with excellence and how that obsession slowly unravels his life leading to a tragic ending. The Perfectionist is the true story of Bernard Loiseau, from youthful exuberance as an apprentice in the culinary training grounds of excellent French restaurants to an equally exuberant worldwide celebrity revered as a national treasure throughout France, arguably the epicenter of Haute Cuisine.
In telling Bernard Loiseau's story Chelminski shines a light on la scène gastronomique, its high priests and its cathedrals. We meet some of France's most respected chefs, visit their kitchens, and learn of their passions. For many this is a singular passion – a quest to reach the pinnacle of their profession – a three star rating from le Guide Michelin.
Journalist Rudolph Chelminski unfolds the story of one man's pursuit of excellence – no, his obsession with excellence and how that obsession slowly unravels his life leading to a tragic ending. The Perfectionist is the true story of Bernard Loiseau, from youthful exuberance as an apprentice in the culinary training grounds of excellent French restaurants to an equally exuberant worldwide celebrity revered as a national treasure throughout France, arguably the epicenter of Haute Cuisine.
In telling Bernard Loiseau's story Chelminski shines a light on la scène gastronomique, its high priests and its cathedrals. We meet some of France's most respected chefs, visit their kitchens, and learn of their passions. For many this is a singular passion – a quest to reach the pinnacle of their profession – a three star rating from le Guide Michelin.
This is no antiseptic tale of chefs in their world, nor is it the down and dirty world of Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. Rather, we see the French restaurant world as one more akin to ascension through a formal structure of education leading to recognizable and well-regarded skills in a country where to be a great chef is to be a celebrity. Against this backdrop the young Loiseau, with poor academic skills, makes the decision that will shape his life, "allons-y pour cuisinier" – let's try cooking. With that simple declaration Chelminski introduces us to a reborn Loiseau – a Loiseau with drive, with a goal (remember the three stars), with a vision of the future and, unfortunately, a Loiseau who is insecure despite a rising record of success. It is through the telling of his rise to fame that, as readers, we become one with this man of great passion – his euphoric highs and his dysphoric lows.
Loiseau does reach the pinnacle of his profession, receiving a three star rating from le Guide Michelin at the age of forty – it appears as if life could get no better. Possibly, but it could, and did, get worse – he lived in fear of loosing this new found status. We learn of the rewards he enjoyed and we learn of his inner devils as he built le style Loiseau into a business empire – the first restaurateur to take his business public, trading on the Second Market in Paris as le Groupe Bernard Loiseau. Those devils were to consume him some twelve years later as in a fit of fearful depression he chooses to end his life. According to Chelminski's opening remarks "... this was an event of national and even international proportions."
While spanning some 350 pages devoted to the world which molded one man and how he played out his role on life's stage, The Perfectionist is also a book that opens discussion of bipolar behavior and obsession as too often misunderstood frailties of humankind. What this book provides is an impassioned view of, as the sub-title states, Life and Death in Haute Cuisine. It is a story well told – one of emotion in contrast with struggle, of sanity in contrast with obsession, of a gentile spirit in a struggle with inner demons – and Chelminski tells it well. You leave this story with a deep respect for Bernard Loiseau and his accomplishments and a deep resentment towards the system that drives individuals to the edge of insanity as they pursue goals that lack real meaning.
