Bruno Goussault (born 26 January 1942) is a French scientist, economist, inventor, and chef. He is best known for developing and promoting the modern
sous-vide
Sous vide (; French for 'under vacuum'), also known as low-temperature, long-time (LTLT) cooking, is a method of cooking in which food is placed in a plastic pouch or a glass jar and cooked in a water bath for longer than usual cooking times (usu ...
(French for "under vacuum") method of cooking.
Before becoming the Chief Scientist at
Cuisine Solutions
Cuisine Solutions is an American premium foods company that specializes in the sous-vide method of cooking and meal preparation. Originally founded in 1971 under the name Vie de France, the company now maintains headquarters and manufacturing facil ...
in 2000, Bruno worked as a consultant helping to create sous-vide cooking manufacturing facilities in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, and
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
.
In 1991, he founded Centre de Recherché et d'Études pour L'Alimentation (Culinary Research and Education Academy or CREA) in Paris to train chefs on the application of sous-vide cooking.
In addition to his work with Cuisine Solutions and CREA, Goussault is on the board of the Association of Chemists, Engineers and Managers of Agricultural and Food Industries.
Education
Before beginning his culinary science career, Goussault earned a post-graduate degree from the d'Etudes et du Developpement Economique et Social, an MS degree in food technology from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Industries Agricoles et Alimentaires (now
AgroParisTech
AgroParisTech (officially ''Institut des sciences et industries du vivant et de l'environnement'', or Paris Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences)English naming according tEnglish brochure is a French higher educati ...
), and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Paris Pantheon.
Career beginning
Goussault's food science career officially launched in 1967 when he began working with beef and ham.
He spent three years in Niger, Africa experimenting with millet and sorghum milling techniques and continued his work with grains upon returning to France.
This resulted in Goussault inventing a new technique for making a "super-quick-cooking '2-minute rice.'"
Sous-vide
In 1970, Goussault began working with vacuum pouch cooking method.
It was also around this time, in 1972, when Goussault was involved with meat research and became a meat specialist despite being colorblind.
Goussault claimed that he learned to "correlate the structures and textures people associate with particular colors to exact temperatures," and because of this, he discovered that meat cooked at lower temperatures loses less of its juices, develops a better texture, and cooks more evenly.
In 1974, a study that Goussault conducted regarding the sous-vide cooking of beef shoulder was presented at an international frozen-foods conference in Strasbourg, France, demonstrating how cooking the beef sous-vide extended its shelf life to 60 days.
Goussault was later approached by Cryovac executives in 1978 and asked to add a scientific basis to Pralus' culinary training.
Also in the 1980s, Goussault teamed up with three-star chef
Joël Robuchon
Joël Robuchon (, 7 April 1945 – 6 August 2018) was a French chef and restaurateur. He was named "Chef of the Century" by the guide Gault Millau in 1989, and awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (France's best worker) in cuisine in 1976. ...
and
SNCF
The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...
, France's national train system, to create a new menu featuring sous-vide-prepared foods for SNCF's first-class service between Paris and Strasbourg.
In 1991, Goussault founded Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes pour L'Alimentation (Culinary Research and Education Academy or CREA) in Paris to teach students proper sous-vide cooking techniques, instructing them on how to use the method safely.
Through CREA, Goussault has trained over 80% of chefs with three
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 establishments. The ac ...
stars.
In August 2015, under Goussault's training, Daylesford Crossing in Paoli, Pennsylvania became the first senior-living center in the United States to implement a sous-vide system.
Cuisine Solutions
Goussault has been the Consultant of ''Cuisine Solutions'' (originally called Vie de France) since 1989 when he was hired by Stanislas Vilgrain to design a new system for producing high-quality sous-vide food on an industrial scale.
Goussault began working with Cuisine Solutions' American operations in 2000, as the Chief Scientist.
With a production line at Cuisine Solutions headquarters designed for 130,000 meals per day, the company now prepares sous-vide food for clients including the Super Bowl, Costco, the first-class cabins on Air France and American Airlines, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and hotel chains such as Westin and Hyatt.
Cuisine Solutions has also worked with chef Thomas Keller on a sous-vide product line, and Goussault has helped to train the kitchen staff at both of Keller's restaurants, French Laundry and Per Se.
Acclaim
Goussault received the
Ordre National du Mérite
The Ordre national du Mérite (; en, National Order of Merit) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's esta ...
from the President of France in 1995.
In 2017, Goussault was named "one of the 100 greatest visionaries" by The Einstein Legacy Project and chosen for inclusion in ''Genius: 100 Visions of the Future'', the world's first 3D-printed book.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goussault, Bruno
Recipients of the Ordre national du Mérite
French economists
French chefs
1942 births
Living people