Raymond Oliver

Raymond Oliver ( born March 27, 1909 in Langon, † November 5, 1990 in Paris) was a French chef and cookbook author.

Oliver learned his craft in Langon ( Gascony) with his father, a hotelier. Until the period after the Second World War he worked in various French restaurants, including L' Alpe d' Huez.

From 1948 he headed the restaurant Le Grand Véfour in the Palais Royal in Paris. Louis Vaudable, owner of Maxim's had purchased this traditional, but closed since 1905 home after the war and transferred after renovations to Oliver. It became one of the most famous Parisian restaurants of the 1950s and 1960s and a popular meeting place for politicians, industrialists, celebrities and artists, including Colette and Jean Cocteau, who lived in the Palais Royal. In 1953, Raymond Oliver cooked up three Michelin stars and kept it until 1980.

1953 Oliver debuted the first French TV chef along with Catherine Langeais in the show Art et magie de la cuisine, which for years was very successful. In 1956 he founded with other Parisian chefs the restaurant association Traditions & Qualité - Les Grandes Tables du monde. In 1976 he was a juror in the wine jury of Paris.

In December 1983, an attack was carried out on the Grand Véfour, in which 12 people were injured. 1984 Oliver sold the restaurant to the Taittinger group and went into retirement.

Oliver wrote about 30 cookbooks. He was a collector of gastronomic books and had more than 3,000 part very valuable volumes, which are now known by the name bookplate Rouvier de Vaulgran.

His son Michel Oliver was also a TV chef and cookbook author. Raymond Oliver's grave is located at the Paris Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Bibliography (selection)

German editions:

• France dines, Prestel, Munich, 1969
• The great French cookbook, Modern Publishing Company, Munich 1971