Body of renowned French chef found in freezer
He was found after his former girlfriend, Guylene Collober, confessed to her daughter on a night out that ‘something unfortunate’ had happened to the chef, who was known as a gastronomic great in France during the 1970’s and 80’s.
Police who raided the apartment said Collober burst into tears when they arrived and said ‘I think you’ll find what you’re looking for’. His body was subsequently found in a freezer curled into a foetal position.
According to prosecutor Marc Dessert, she has since confessed to punching Poinard in November 2008. He said that Collober ‘isolated her partner from his friends, his family and the neighbours’.
Poinard had run the Restaurant de Paris and the Panier a Salade in Lyon between the 1960’s and 1990’s, and had become known as ‘passionate and exacting chef’.
Lyon newspaper Le Progrès described Poinard as one of the city’s ‘great names’ in gastronomy and said he represented the fourth generation of one of France’s ‘great cooking dynasties.’
His son, Jean-Stephane Poinard, who runs Bistro de Leon in St. Augustine in Florida, said in a statement that he wanted to ‘remember my Father as the incredible man who inspired me in my career’.
