Émile Bernard (chef)

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Émile Bernard (5 April 1826 – 31 August 1897) was a French chef who helped shape French cooking. He is best known for co-writing La Cuisine Classique, a classic cookbook that guides traditional French cuisine.

Family and early training
- He came from a food-loving family: his father, Laurent Bernard, was a butcher; his grandfather, Pierre Bernard, owned a restaurant; and his mother’s family traded faience pottery.
- He trained in Lons-le-Saunier at Vivian Jacquinot’s restaurant, then worked in Turin for his uncle. He later helped in a renowned hotel kitchen in Genoa, where the city’s governor hired him. He traveled to Rome, Paris, and Russia, where he met fellow chef Urbain Dubois.

Career with royal households
- Bernard cooked for kings and princes and became an expert in royal tastes.
- In the early 1850s he worked for Count Krasinski in Warsaw and for the French Foreign Affairs Ministry.
- He later became the personal chef to King William I of Prussia (who would become Kaiser) and prepared meals for him during a state visit to Lyon. He also oversaw the coronation banquet at Königsberg Castle in January 1861.
- When war broke out between Prussia and France in 1870, Bernard chose France and returned to Jura, living at Château des Buvettes. He remained devoted to France.

Contribution to dining style
- Bernard helped introduce service à la russe in France, a方式 where courses are prepared in the kitchen, plated, and served hot in sequence, instead of all at once on the table.

La Cuisine Classique
- Together with Urbain Dubois, he wrote La Cuisine Classique, a practical and detailed study of the French school applied to service à la russe. Published in 1856, it was reprinted many times into the early 20th century.