ABSTRACT
From 1948, Oliver was owner of one of Paris’s most fashionable restaurants, Le Grand Véfour, in the Palais-Royal. However, his fame springs less from this than from the fact that he was France’s first television cook. At a time when programmes went out live and equipment lacked the sophistication of today’s, this was a bold venture; he quickly became a household word, especially after the success of his best-selling book Le Cuisinier (1965). He refused to take part in a televised cooking contest with the British TV chef Fanny Craddock, stating that in his view women were not capable of great cuisine.
