Dione Lucas
Scope Features/ Time & Life Pictures
The first woman to graduate from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu culinary institute in Paris, Englishwoman Dione Lucas opened her own restaurant in London in the 1930s and began the Cordon Bleu restaurant and cooking school in New York in 1942. That quickly made her the talk of the town and won her a television show in 1948 — making her the first woman featured on a television cooking show and an even earlier pioneer of French cooking than Julia Child. Onscreen, she concocted delicious dishes for her celebrity guests; offscreen, she gave private lessons to luminaries including Salvador Dali and actress Helen Hayes. While working at a hotel in Hamburg, Germany, Lucas claimed, she had once cooked squab for Adolf Hitler, disputing the belief that he was a vegetarian. “I do not mean to spoil your appetite for stuffed squab, but you might be interested to know that it was a great favorite with Mr. Hitler, who dined at the hotel often,” she wrote in one of her books. “Let us not hold that against a fine recipe though.”
Next: Jacques Pépin
Jacques Pépin
When Jacques Pépin first arrived in Manhattan from his native France in 1959, the 24-year-old was already well on his way to becoming a culinary icon, having worked as the personal chef for three French heads of state, including President Charles de Gaulle.
That he decided, in 1960, to turn down an offer to cook for another President — the newly elected John F. Kennedy — might seem ludicrous. But Pépin’s career flourished nevertheless. After working as director of research and development for the hotel-restaurant chain Howard Johnson, he published his first book, La Technique, in 1976. The illustrated guide to French cooking, which includes dozens of step-by-step photo instructions, remains a masterpiece on Parisian cuisine and helped land its author the first of seven cooking shows on PBS. His shows included Jacques Pépin’s Kitchen: Encore with Claudine, featuring his daughter, and Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home starring another legend of the field, Julia Child, who first met Pépin during his early years in New York and once praised him as “the best chef in America.” “He is remarkable,” Child told the Los Angeles Times in 1996 of his legendary technique. “He does everything so well you forget how difficult it is.”
Next: Jeff Smith
