French Chef Pierre Franey Dies At Age 75

Pierre Franey, the French chef who became the “60-Minute Gourmet,” died early Tuesday. He was 75.

Best known for the quick-cooking column and his 20-year collaboration with Craig Claiborne of The New York Times, Franey became ill while traveling from France aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, lecturing on French food and wine. He was treated by the ship’s doctor and entered the hospital in Southampton, N.Y., when the ship docked Monday. He apparently suffered a stroke.

Franey was born in Tonnerre, France, and moved to the United States in 1939 to work at the restaurant at the French pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he joined the New York restaurant Le Pavillion, acknowledged to be the first great French restaurant in the United States.

It was while he was working at Le Pavillion that he met Claiborne. They began developing recipes in the early 1960s. Before their collaboration ended in the ‘80s, they had published at least 20 books together.