What would the earthy chef Paul Bocuse, nicknamed the “cook of the century”, who died four years ago, think of this? A fierce legal battle now opposes his heir, Jérôme Bocuse, to his former school, the Paul Bocuse Institute, who are torn on the question of the use of the famous surname. In 2002, the chef agreed to attach his name to the school of culinary arts and hospitality in Écully (Rhône) to energize it. Chaired at its creation in 1990 by Paul Bocuse, the establishment had encountered significant financial difficulties before its takeover in 1998 by Gérard Pélisson, the co-founder of the hotel giant Accor.
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Twenty-four years later, the Institute, overseen by an association, has become an impressive war machine, with 1,400 students, trained on ten campuses, destined to become part of the elite of the kitchen and hotel industry. . A rise in power supported by the G & G Pélisson foundation, for Gérard and his nephew Gilles, the boss of TF1. Led since 2015 by Dominique Giraudier, the former managing director of Groupe Flo, one of the leaders in French catering, the association now has a subsidiary dedicated to innovation and development and another dedicated to the operation of establishments. of students, such as the Royal Lyon Mgallery hotel, the Institut Restaurant or the Saisons Restaurant, one star in the Michelin guide.
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The school which is the pride of Lyonnais is even one of the linchpins of a project pushed by Emmanuel Macron and Laurent Wauquiez. ” Football in Clairefontaine, now gastronomy will have its training center “, had ignited the boss of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region last February. This center of excellence for gastronomy and catering is financed to the tune of 25 million euros by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region. But this dynamic is now threatened by the extent of the conflict between Jérôme Bocuse and the school. For the establishment, the heir is in the process of bringing the school to its knees by asking for undue copyright and by trying to interfere in educational management. This could eventually result in a significant increase in tuition costs.
Contested partnerships
On the contrary, ” Jérôme Bocuse has always been ready to abandon his royalty request if the Institute undertakes to respect its contractual commitments “, points out his lawyer, Carine Piccio. On the merits, the heir, who made his career far from his father in the kitchen in the United States, deplores the profound changes in the organization of the school which would exploit the name of his father for the benefit of a project marketing. And he assures that the origin of the estrangement is to be sought on the side of the school, which would have liked to strengthen its rights to the surname in 2017 to support its project to extend the Château de la Roseraie, a file at 25 million euros. euros.
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Originally, the contract between Paul Bocuse, whose signature has always been based on respect for a certain idea of French cuisine, and the school, updated in 2009, provided for the obligation to request the agreement of the head in the event of use of the name with other parties. The name “Institut Paul Bocuse”, usable until 2037, was also to be limited to teaching, hotel and catering activities. Paying particular attention to the risk of confusion between school activities and those of the family. But, according to information from Marianne, a series of partnerships, including before the death of the famous chef, made his heirs wince. Jérôme Bocuse, for example, was surprised by the opening of a restaurant-school during the Shanghai World Expo using the name, without having been informed.Another application restaurant, Amber West in Singapore, would have been managed by a company foreign to the Institute, ITE College West. The famous chef’s reel then ended up on the cover of a recipe book for the Fontignac casserole brand, a use without right or title, according to the plaintiffs.
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Several other partnerships have still made things red: the marketing of derivative products, watches and lemonadiers, a Paul Bocuse business class operated by Air France, a contract with Tefal, a Lyon clinic or even an association with the Elior group, a multinational collective catering. Finally, in 2021, the chef’s son discovered the deposit in China two years earlier of several “Institut Paul Bocuse” brands. These partnerships are without no profit motive “and intended for companies” who work with the students or who help “the research center, replied Dominique Giraudier, the boss of the school, in the columns of the Figaro. Solicited by Marianne, the Institute did not respond to our requests for clarification. But internally, according to our information, the director also denied that actions had been carried out profitably by abnormally using the name of Paul Bocuse. By recalling, for example, that derivative products are those made for students, or that there was no menu signed for Air France but training for in-flight service teams.
Jérôme Bocuse dismissed
After a mediation that failed in 2020, the conflict between Jérôme Bocuse and the Institute intensified the following year. The first has thus sent a formal notice to the school. This suggests that it could take legal action against the heir in the event of loss of use of the name of the Institut Paul Bocuse.In favor of a reorganization of the governance of the association in the spring of 2021, Jérôme Bocuse then complained of having been ejected from the new executive committee, a component which is the subject of another separate legal procedure. Before therefore asking the courts to terminate the agreements binding him to the Institute, and therefore to prohibit him from using his surname.
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If we will have to wait at least next year to see the dispute settled by judges, voices are being raised in the school to worry about the turn of things. ” There are many legitimate fears regarding the academic decisions and the current governance of the Institute, particularly in terms of human resources regrets Stéphan Demaeght, one of the school’s teachers, who has just been fired. Against the backdrop of the fear that the Institute is no longer the standard-bearer of a certain French elegance.
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Witness, for example, the 12,000 signatures on the Mesopinions.com site of a petition deploring the filming of “Tourists” on school premises. This very quirky show featured broken arms playing with food, for example. This had aroused the indignation of chef Christophe Muller. ” A school with such a radiant name doesn’t have to be a circus scene “, had judged this former pillar of the Paul Bocuse restaurant in Lyon.
