Restaurant De La Pyramide, popularly known as La Pyramide, was a

Michelin Guide The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few restaurants ...

3-star restaurant located in

Vienne, Isère Vienne (; ) is a town in southeastern France, located south of Lyon, at the confluence of the Gère and the Rhône. It is the fourth-largest commune in the Isère department, of which it is a subprefecture alongside La Tour-du-Pin. Vienne w ...

, France. It was widely regarded as the greatest restaurant in France while its owner Fernand Point (1897–1955) was alive.

History

Point renamed the restaurant that his father bought. He quit Royal Hotel and started working there at 24. He changed the name to La Pyramide after a nearby Roman pyramid that had marked the turn of a chariot racetrack. Point was strict and unforgiving in the kitchen, but he was known to play pranks on his patrons and visitors (often with

Paul Bocuse Paul François Pierre Bocuse (; 11 February 1926 – 20 January 2018) was a French chef based in Lyon known for the quality of his restaurants and his innovative approaches to cuisine. Dubbed "the pope of gastronomy", he was affectionately nick ...

as his apprentice and wing-man). Parisian high society visitors would find themselves ushered into the kitchen, pushed into a corner, and fed one of Point's dishes under the pretense of being asked to evaluate the readiness of the offering while Bocuse, hidden underneath a prep table, whitewashed the heels of their shoes. Postmen and visiting locals fared not much better; in one famous stunt Point ordered Bocuse to paint the bicycle of a visiting

gendarme A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to "men-at-arms" (). In France and som ...

pink while Point distracted his visitor. After Point's death, his widow, Mado, carried on and maintained the restaurant's 3-star rating for many years.

Present time

The restaurant changed hands and fell off the Michelin ratings, but after chef Patrick Henriroux took it over, it gained one Michelin star after a year and has two Michelin stars now.

References

Michelin-starred restaurants in France Isère {{France-restaurant-stub