Obituary: Pierre Franey, Chef, Author

Pierre Franey, 75, the internationally renowned chef, New York Times food writer, and author, who lived in Springs for more than 40 years, died on Tuesday in Southampton, England.

Mr. Franey suffered a stroke aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 shortly after giving a cooking demonstration for passengers, and was transferred to a hospital when the ship docked in Southampton on Monday. He never regained consciousness, his family said.

Elizabeth (Betty) Franey accompanied her husband on the voyage, a "theme cruise" arranged by Food & Wines of France. The couple was planning to visit family in France before returning to East Hampton, said Pauline Vergnes, a longtime friend and Gerard Drive neighbor.

"His work took him everywhere, but this was their pied-a-terre," said Mrs. Vergnes, whose husband, Jean, also a chef and the former owner of Le Cirque in Manhattan, worked with Mr. Franey on a television show called "Cuisine Rapide."

"Pierre," Mrs. Vergnes said, "was Pierre. Very French, and happy in what he did. Food was the center of his life, and his garden and his grandchildren, all of whom had visited here last summer."

Diane Franey Schaldenko said her mother, who also loves to cook, "always started dinner" for their family of five. When her father arrived home, "he would grab an apron, and they would finish the meal together. It is," Mrs. Schaldenko said, "a fond memory."

Mrs. Franey was to have returned to East Hampton last night. The family will receive friends at the Williams Funeral Home on Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 4 and from 7 to 9 p.m. Burial on Monday will be private.

"The Franeys made their life here for the love of it," said Mrs. Vergnes, recalling a lobster and champagne "pique-nique" on Gardiner's Island in August 1965, in which Mr. Franey participated with four of the world's most famous chefs - Jacques Pepin, once the chef for Charles de Gaulle, Rene Verdon, then the White House chef, Roger Fessaguet, then chef at New York's La Caravelle, and Mr. Vergnes, then chef at the Colony.

In an account of the event, Jeannette E. Rattray, the Star's publisher, reported that Robert David Lion Gardiner was heard to remark: "The island hasn't seen a feast like this since Captain Kidd ate suckling pig with my forebears nearly 300 years ago."

Pierre Franey was born on Jan. 13, 1921, in St. Vinnemer, in Burgundy, France. His parents were Charlotte and Aristide Franey, who was the town's mayor. In his memoir, "A Chef's Tale," Mr. Franey wrote of an idyllic childhood filled with trout fishing and local delicacies.

His career began at age 14 when he went to Paris, first as an apprentice at the Thenint restaurant on the Place de la Republique and later at the famed Restaurant Drouant, where he moved up the kitchen hierarchy learning the principles of French cuisine.

In 1939, with the winds of war blowing through Europe, he had become sufficiently well respected to be chosen as one of the chefs sent to the New York World's Fair to work in the restaurant at the French Pavilion. Unable to return to France, which by 1940 was under German occupation, he moved with what became Le Pavillon restaurant into Manhattan. In 1941, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent back to France, where he was shot three times and awarded a Purple Heart.

After his discharge, he worked for a short time at the Waldorf-Astoria, and then returned to Le Pavillon, ultimately becoming executive chef there and also at La Cote Basque, and later, the Hedges Inn in East Hampton, all owned by the legendary Henri Soule.

In 1947, while on a restaurant tour of France, he met his wife of nearly 50 years, the former Betty Chardenet. The two were married the following year.

They came to East Hampton in 1954 when Mr. Franey first worked at the Hedges, now the James Lane Cafe. The Franeys, who were living in Valley Stream, rented here for a year and later bought two houses in Springs - one on the water on Gerard Drive, the other, inland, on Old Stone Highway.

Mr. Franey was a familiar face at the Fisherman's Fair at Ashawagh Hall in Springs, where for 25 years he prepared his famous mussels and crepes. "He really loved East Hampton," said Mrs. Schaldenko - "the streets, the water, the smell."

Over the years, she recalled her father spending much time on his boat, the Billi Bi (named for the cream of mussel soup). He loved fishing for bluefish and mackerel and checking his lobster pots in Gardiner's Bay, she said, also gathering mussels off Cartwright shoals, and clamming in Accabonac.

"He would come back covered with mud, mosquito bites on his back and a big smile on his face," she said.

Mr. Franey also could be seen out on Gerard Drive having a lively game of boules with Mr. Vergnes, or bicycling along Springs's wooded roads.

He was said to have been responsible for bringing Craig Claiborne, the former New York Times food editor, to East Hampton. After Le Pavillon closed in 1959, Mr. Franey took a 9-to-5 job as a vice president of Howard Johnson, the restaurant and hotel chain, responsible for the menus of more than 700 restaurants coast to coast. The family spent weekends here, more often than not preparing Saturday dinners of the freshest ingredients for regulars and visiting guests.

The two published a food and restaurant newsletter together for a time. When Mr. Claiborne returned to The Times after several years' absence, he reportedly insisted that Mr. Franey come with him, which he did, creating the weekly "60-Minute Gourmet" column that simplified classic French cooking for busy home cooks.

Over time, the two friends collaborated on five books, including several New York Times cookbooks, "Classic French Cooking," and "Cooking With Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey." On his own, Mr. Franey published "The New York Times Sixty-Minute Gourmet," and collaborated with Richard Flaste, a former Times editor, and Bryan Miller, the newspaper's former restaurant critic.

After he retired from The Times, Mr. Franey, who held an honorary doctorate from Johnson and Wales University, appeared in several cooking series on public television. "He was such a dear person," said Charles Pinsky, his friend and producer for 14 years. "Pierre showed me, and America, just how much fun food could be - and how much fun life could be."

On just about every show, Mrs. Schaldenko said, her father asked his viewers, "Please, don't burn the garlic!"

"He said it all the time," she recalled, so much so that neighbors made a sign with the instruction for his own kitchen.

Mr. Pinsky said Mr. Franey's latest series, "Pierre Franey Cooking In Europe," will air on PBS in the spring. A companion book, "Pierre Franey's Healthy Cooking," written with his daughter Claudia Jensen, will be published by Artisan Books, a division of Workman Publishing.

"My sister, my brother, and I are proud and honored to have known and loved him," said Mrs. Schaldenko. "My father gave us a love for food and a deep respect for those individuals in the culinary arts. He will be sorely missed."

Besides his wife and daughters, Mrs. Schaldenko of Dracut, Mass., and Mrs. Jensen of Larchmont, N.Y., Mr. Franey is survived by a son, Jacques Franey of Garrison, N.Y., and seven grandchildren.

The family has suggested memorial donations to the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson and Wales University, Providence, R.I. 02900, or the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, N.Y. 12538. S.R.