Gerard Crozier, chef and restaurateur, dies at 63
Times Picayune October 01, 2009


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Gerard Crozier, the chef who brought authentic French cuisine to New Orleans in the 1970s, died
Wednesday night at his home in Maryville, Tenn. He was 63.

gerard-crozier-crop.jpgGerard Crozier

"He died in his sleep, " said his wife, Eveline, who said the cause has yet to be determined. "I
imagine it was a heart attack."

The Lyon-born chef and his wife opened Crozier's in eastern New Orleans in 1976. At the time, the
city was, despite its historical connection to French culinary culture, a poor spot to find
French cooking unadulterated by outside influences.

"Gerard and Eveline introduced a lot of New Orleans people to authentic French cooking, " said
former Times Picayune  restaurant critic Gene Bourg.

Former New Orleans States-Item restaurant critic Richard Collin wrote in 1976 that before the
opening of Crozier's, New Orleans "really did not have a French restaurant."

Despite a career as a New Orleans chef spanning more than 30 years, Mr. Crozier never trafficked
in the local French-Creole hybrid, which over time has come to bear less and less resemblance to
the traditional cooking of France. Instead he distinguished himself with dishes he started
mastering as a 14-year-old apprentice in Lyon: coq au vin, steak au poivre, filet perigourdine,
onion soup gratinee.

"He had the old-fashioned apprenticeship, " Eveline Crozier said. "You worked almost full time
and went to school a few days a week. You went from restaurant to restaurant to hone your trade."

Mr. Crozier's training took him to highly regarded restaurants in Baux-de-Provence and St.
Tropez, which is where he met Eveline. The couple moved to the United States in 1970 and to New
Orleans in 1972, when Mr. Crozier took a job at the Royal Sonesta Hotel to work with chef Willy
Coln. He struck out on his own four years later.

In 1989, the Croziers moved their restaurant from its original location to a strip mall in
Metairie. Eveline Crozier said her husband's devoted customers followed.

"People would come from all over, " she said. "Even Mississippi."

He "had dozens of loyal customers who appreciated his kind of cooking and who recognized
(Crozier's) was the only place you could get that kind of cooking locally, " said Bourg, who
called the chef's versions of classic French sauces -- particularly his béarnaise -- "textbook."

The Croziers sold their restaurant in 1999. Their retirement didn't last long. In 2001, they
opened Chateaubriand Steakhouse in Mid-City. The levee breaches severely damaged the restaurant,
and it never reopened.

"I just don't want to take a chance with another hurricane, " Mr. Crozier told The Times Picayune
in 2005.

"He didn't feel like he was up to starting over after the restaurant was flooded, " Eveline
Crozier said.

Besides his wife, Mr. Crozier is survived by his son, Francois, and 10 siblings. A New Orleans
memorial ceremony is being planned for early next week.