 | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "La Pyramide" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| La Pyramide | |
|---|---|
 Gardens at the restaurant and hotel | |
| Location | Vienne, France |
| Governing body | Private |
Restaurant De La Pyramide, popularly known as La Pyramide, was a Michelin Guide 3-star restaurant located in Vienne, Isère, France. It was widely regarded as the greatest restaurant in France while its owner Fernand Point (1897–1955) was alive.
History
Point renamed the restaurant that his father bought. He quit Royal Hotel and started working there at 24. He changed the name to La Pyramide after a nearby Roman pyramid that had marked the turn of a chariot racetrack.
Point was strict and unforgiving in the kitchen, but he was known to play pranks on his patrons and visitors (often with Paul Bocuse as his apprentice and wing-man). Parisian high society visitors would find themselves ushered into the kitchen, pushed into a corner, and fed one of Point's dishes under the pretense of being asked to evaluate the readiness of the offering while Bocuse, hidden underneath a prep table, whitewashed the heels of their shoes.
Postmen and visiting locals fared not much better; in one famous stunt Point ordered Bocuse to paint the bicycle of a visiting gendarme pink while Point distracted his visitor.
After Point's death, his widow, Mado, carried on and maintained the restaurant's 3-star rating for many years.
Present time
The restaurant changed hands and fell off the Michelin ratings, but after chef Patrick Henriroux took it over, it gained one Michelin star after a year and has two Michelin stars now.
References
- MacVeigh, Jeremy (2008). International Cuisine. Cengage Learning. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-4180-4965-2.
45°31′00″N 4°52′01″E / 45.5165417°N 4.86700556°E / 45.5165417; 4.86700556
 | This France-based restaurant or restaurant chain article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |