Michel Guerard, the celebrity chef who committed sacrilege in France by pioneering the nouvelle cuisine movement with low-fat, low-calorie and no-sugar food, has died. Time magazine in a cover issue recognizing his talent wrote: “No longer need a Frenchman dig his grave with a fork.”
He wanted to be a doctor but with a family background in food, heading for the kitchen became his chosen route to health. He started by championing a Japanese style of cooking, focused on freshness, lightness and flavour and moving away from traditional Escoffier-style butter and cream heavy recipes. Despite early resistance he was feted and awarded prestigious Michelin and Presidential awards.
Born 27 March 1933 5pm Vetheuil, France, he had a go-ahead and charming Sun, Venus in Aries; with Mars, Neptune, Jupiter in Virgo, a stellium that has produced many notable celebrities. Those Virgo planets plus his Saturn in scientific Aquarius on the cusp of his 6th house of health would give him an interest in physical well-being. But it was his 8th house Moon Uranus square Pluto which would propel his inventive, convention-breaking ambitions.
Unsurprisingly he started to experiment with cuisine minceur at the start of the 1960s when the revolutionary Uranus Pluto in Virgo was upending tradition and moving across his Virgo planets. He had two wide-ish yods – one onto disciplined Saturn from a confident Jupiter sextile Pluto, and the other onto creative Neptune from Saturn sextile Sun.
A trailblazer.
The post Michel Guerard – a counter-culture chef first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
