Award-winning chef Jean-Yves Piquet, known for his artistic vision, dies at 76
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Jean-Yves Piquet, of Stewart Manor, died Aug. 4. He was 76. Credit: Eileen Scourtos
As a prolific metropolitan restaurant chef, Jean-Yves Piquet cooked elaborate meals for friends, colleagues, and strangers.
On Christmas, he cooked for family.
From his Stewart Manor home kitchen in Nassau County, Piquet sent out meats like ostrich and venison to a party of 20-or-so relatives. Menus in the house tended toward exotic. Year-round, his son and daughter would play critic as he fine-tuned such offerings as blowfish tails.
Piquet took pride in plating and executing his own artistic vision, said his daughter Eileen Scourtos, of West Islip. Through his retirement, he prioritized time in the kitchen until he succumbed to a series of health struggles on Aug. 4. He was 76.
A career that began in Europe and continued in the United States spanned decades and left him with a laundry list of awards. These included the Officier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2015 and the Officier dans l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole in 2018, both stepping stones to the French Legion of Honor, the nation's highest award, Scourtos said.
He taught his grandchildren to serve dishes as he would at a restaurant, taking care to clean the edges of each plate.
Born in the city of Nantes in northwestern France, Piquet began his culinary career in Europe. A three-year apprenticeship at Restaurant Decré in Nantes led to a string of restaurant jobs in Paris interrupted by a stint as a cook for a commander in the French navy. He received numerous honors while in France.
"He was extremely passionate about everything culinary," said his son Marc Piquet, of Olympia, Washington.
In 1967, Jean-Yves Piquet immigrated to the United States and worked at the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, before moving to New York.
Once in New York City, Piquet worked as chef saucier, sous-chef and chef adjoint at La Caravelle, sous-chef at Le Cirque and executive chef at Le Cygne, before finishing his career as executive chef at The University Club.
He was an active member of various professional associations, playing such roles as president of the Vatel Club, founder of Eurotoques in the United States, and délégué général of the Association des Maîtres Cuisiniers de France for the United States.
Piquet developed a reputation within the culinary community. In a 1982 piece for The New York Times, Mimi Sheraton reports that the Manhattan restaurant Le Cygne had lost two of its four stars the previous year.
"To judge by four recent visits, however, the chef, Jean-Yves Piquet seems to be newly inspired, and the food he is turning out is excellent and well worth three stars," Sheraton writes.
After he died, others in the culinary world took to social media to pay their respects. Chef Thomas Keller, whose ventures include The French Laundry in California and Per Se in New York, called Piquet, "one of our chef icons in America."
"He had a huge impact on my career, not because I worked for him, but because I aspired to be as good as he was," Keller wrote in an Instagram post.
Part of Piquet’s legacy was sharing his passion with his grandchildren. In a 2019 Kidsday article, Piquet’s grandson Lucas Scourtos writes of the time he would spend cooking with his grandfather — experience to which he credits an adventurous palate.
"My sister and I love to help him make our favorite dish: iles flottantes, or floating islands," he writes…."Because of my grandpa, I eat so many different types of food."
When he was not working, Jean-Yves Piquet enjoyed watching soccer games and Formula 1 races, playing foosball with his grandsons, traveling, and dining at his friends’ restaurants. But his favorite extracurricular activity was gardening, said his daughter Eileen Scourtos.
"He always told the landscapers not to touch any of the plants," said Scourtos, who now lives in West Islip. The landscapers had permission to touch the grass but not the flowers, Scourtos recalled.
Most of his time was spent in kitchens on the demanding schedule characteristic of culinary professions. In his personal life, he married twice, first to Virginia Piquet, with whom he had two children. Virginia died of breast cancer in 1980. The following year, he married Paulette Piquet, who also preceded him in death.
Piquet retired in the mid-2000s at 62. He had grown accustomed to 6:30 a.m. trains into New York City, New Year’s overnights at work, and working for 14 days straight. In retirement, he would cook dinners for private clients.
"I think retirement was challenging for him," his son said. Cooking and hosting were "his identity."
Piquet is survived by his daughter Eileen Scourtos and her husband James; son Marc Piquet and his wife Cycely; brothers Annick Maindon and Jacques Piquet; and five grandchildren.
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