The French might have an undeserved reputation for male chauvinism in the kitchen, but the same can’t be said of their culinary prizes.

Today, the prestigious Eugenie Brazier annual award is being given to Super Chef‘s own Colette Rossant for her gastronomic memoir, Mémoire d’une Egypte perdue (Editions Les Deux Terres 2010).

Eugenie Brazier was a famed chef of two Lyon restaurants, La Mere Brazier in Lyons and La Mere Brazier in Le Col de la Luere. She was the first female chef to received three stars in 1933 from the guide Michelin, and the same time as Marie Bourgeois, then Marguerite Bise in 1951, and Anne-Sophie Pic in 2007. But she was also the first chef, male or female, to receive three stars for two different restaurants,years before Alain Ducasse in 1996, and Marc Veyrat in 2001, and Thomas Keller in 2006. Paul Bocuse famously studied under Brazier.

In 2007, Eugenie’s granddaughter, Jacotte set up a foundation, Les Amis d’Eugénie Brazier to celebrate women in the culinary arts. It presents several award to outstanding books by women each year. Previous winners for best novel or non-fiction of food include:

• 2009 – Esther David: Le Livre de Rachel (Héloïse d’Ormesson)
• 2008 – Evelyne Bloch-Dano: La fabuleuse histoire des legumes (Grasset)
• 2007 – Michèle Barrière: Natures mortes au Vatican: Roman noir et gastronomique en Italie à la Renaissance (Agnès Vienot)

Colette’s book was published in English as Apricots on the Nile. It is part of a trilogy of books, including Return to Paris: A Memoir, and The World in My Kitchen, on her memories of growing up and living in Cairo, Paris, and New York. (See World in My Kitchen: Bocuse Chez McDonald’s)

Congratulations!

Press release:
Editions des Deux Terres (publisher)

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