"I inherited the love of cooking and baking from my parents and grandparents. My grandmother Eleonore was among the first French woman chefs in the 1900's. She was the private executive chef for the baron Rothshild family at their residences in paris and Bordeaux. My grandfather, Gaston LeNotre, was chef of the Grand Hotel. In the big city of Paris, when they discovered they were both from the same small village of Normandie, it was love and they married.

They had two boys, my father Gaston and my uncle Marcel.With my mother Colette, my father made the LeNotre name famous in Paris. They were no escape for the next generation of LeNotre's. Along with my sisters Sylvie and Annie, my wife Marie and I have continued the family tradition of fine cooking and baking and crated another culinary school."

 Gaston LeNôtre Knows the Secret of the "Art de Vivre"  

 (Art of the Good Life) 

      My father Gaston LeNôtre, now 88, is admired as a living Antonin Caréme or as a modern Auguste Escoffier. He is certainly the world's most famous French Pastry Chef and caterer alive.

      My grandmother, Eleonore, was one of the first women chef's in Paris during the 1900. She was the chef of the Rothschild family. My grandfather, Gaston, was also a talented chef who worked for the Grand Hotel in Paris.

       In 1920, my father was born in Normandy, a province of plenty west of France, world famous for its Calvados Brandy, cheeses (including Camembert), the Mont Saint Michel monastery, and the landing beaches of the Battle of Normandy, As a patriarch, he liked to work with this family member, twelve of us at one time; including the third generation of the LeNôtre chef's, my cousin Patrick and myself.

       In addition to his incredible taste and professional "Savoir Faire" he always made bold moves. Among his list of firsts are; the first chain of upscale bakeries in Paris, a bakery-café bistro in the first French shopping mall, the first central kitchen in the country outside of Paris, the first professional French re-training chef school, the first line of frozen desserts distributed all over France, and he developed the first International bakery franchises (now in a dozen countries including Germany, Japan, Hong Kong and Kuwait). My father wrote nine recipe books with my sister Sylvie that have been translated into English, German, and Japanese and have sold close to a million copies. He also was the official caterer of the World Soccer Cup in France in 1998 and of the French Olympic team in Sydney, Australia. He catered for Presidents, Kings and celebrities all over the world.

       My father in now enjoying a well deserved retirement at his Hunting Ranch in the Loire Valley. My wife Marie, my son Gaston, and I visited him. Together we made apricot jam, watched the wild ducks on his lakes, picked mushroom chanterelles in the woods and cooked them for our dinner.

Thanks to him we know the true secret of "The Art de Vivre".

Alain LeNotre 

   Marcel, Gaston (Alain's father)

with their parents,

Gaston and Eleonore LeNotre