Christian Millau, Co-Founder Of Gault-Millau Restaurant Guide, Dies At 88

Christian Millau, the co-founder of the renowned Gault-Millau restaurant guide, passed away at his home in Paris on Saturday at the age of 88, according to Côme de Chérisey, the managing director of Gault & Millau.

Along with writer Henri Gault, Millau launched Le Nouveau Guide Gault-Millau in 1969. The guide was highly influential in the French dining scene, largely because it served as a counterpoint to the staid Michelin Guide; instead of piling accolades on highbrow establishments, it celebrated little-known bistros and cafes that practiced a new style of cooking that came to be known as nouvelle cuisine.

Millau and Gault are credited with helping to bring now-legendary chefs including Michel Guérard, Frédy Girardet and Joël Robuchon into the limelight. These chefs cooked in the style that the guide championed, which was codified in a 1973 manifesto, titled "Vive la Nouvelle Cuisine Française," in which the guide laid down 10 commandments, including "Thou shalt use fresh, high-quality products," "Thou shalt lighten thy menu," and "Thou shalt not overcook." Not only did the guide usher in the age of nouvelle cuisine, it also helped to create the modern-day celebrity chef; and by targeting young, adventurous readers with its witty, freewheeling prose, it also helped invent the modern-day restaurant review as we know it.

In 1981 the guide expanded to New York City (with Los Angeles and San Francisco following shortly thereafter), and nowadays Gault-Millau Restaurant Guides are published in dozens of countries throughout the world. Millau and Gault sold the business in 1983, but Millau kept writing, publishing his most recent book, a memoir called Rude Journal: 2011-1928, in 2011.