Pierre Franey; Chef Wrote ‘60-Minute Gourmet’ Column

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 United States Army during World War II, he joined the staff at the landmark New York restaurant Le Pavillion, generally acknowledged to be the first great French restaurant in the United States.

While working at Le Pavillion he met Claiborne. They began developing recipes together for the food pages of the New York Times in the early 1960s. Before their collaboration ended in the early ‘80s, they had published at least 20 books together, Claiborne said.

“He knew all the aspects of cuisine, no matter what,” said Claiborne. “I could say, ‘Pierre, let’s do something with this kind of fish,’ and he’d say, ‘We could do this or that.’ Then we’d get in the kitchen and cook together. What would come out would be perfection.”