Guillaume Fouquet de la Varenne

Guillaume Fouquet de la Varenne (1560 in La Flèche – 7 December 1616) was a French chef who became an important statesman in the service of Henry IV. Biography Guillaume Fouquet was born into a bourgeois family in La Flèche (France, Loire valley). His father, Martin Fouquet, was master chef ("écuyer de cuisine") to Françoise d'Alençon, Duchess of Vendôme. Martin Fouquet served three generations of the family; following the duchess' death, he served her son, Antoine de Bourbon (1518–1562), husband of Jeanne III of Navarre (Jeanne d'Albret), and later their young son Henry of Navarre, the future Henry IV of France. In 1578, at the age of 18, and with help from his father, Guillaume became a cook in the service of Catherine de Bourbon (1559–1604), sister of the future king. Impressed by the young man's personality and skill, in 1580 Catherine recommended him to her brother, and he subsequently became a portmanteau at the court of Henry IV. For thirty years, until the King's assassination in 1610, Fouquet lived in the shadow of Henry IV, but nevertheless took an active part in important events of the realm. Confirming his reputation for skill and bravery and in spite of near-certain personal risk, he devoted himself completely to the causes of the king.