Henri Gault; Co-Founder of GaultMillau Guide

Henri Gault, 70, food critic and co-founder of the GaultMillau food guide that helped launch nouvelle cuisine around the world. Gault and Christian Millau, now 71, founded the annual GaultMillau restaurant guide in 1969. With its colorful comments on food, atmosphere and decor that blended feisty criticism with warm praise, the guide quickly caught on among the French, and it went on to become a serious rival to the more established Michelin guide. Restaurants are rated on a scale of 1 to 20, and chefs are awarded a maximum of four toques, or chef’s hats. The Michelin guide awards a maximum of three “macaroons,” or stars, for restaurants rated “worth the journey.” GaultMillau came under intense criticism in recent years for its close relations to certain chefs and publishing ads for restaurants and hotels featured in the book. Gault, the son of a doctor, studied science at the Sorbonne after his graduation from the Lycee Carnot in Paris. But his first love was food, and he became a food critic, working for French radio stations, newspapers and magazines. His best-known books are “Gault and Millau Eat Dinner,” “My 50 Best Restaurants in France,” “Europe’s Top 300 Restaurants” and “The Guide to Foreign Restaurants in Paris.” On Monday in Saint-Sulpice-en-Pareds, France, of a heart attack.