Bernard Loiseau, the iconic French chef who served as an inspiration for Pixar’s Ratatouille, is set to get the biopic treatment.
Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, the Paris-based production company behind such French box office hits as Beating Hearts (2024), The Stronghold (2020) and Dog 51 (2025) is working with the Loiseau’s family on a feature film inspired by the life and legacy of the chef, famous for his three-Michelin-star restaurant La Côte d’Or, which turned the Burgundy village of Saulieu in a world-renowned gastronomic destination.
Thomas Lilti, a French director known for his films and TV series about doctors and the medical profession, including Irreplaceable (2016) and Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor (2014)) is attached to direct. Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan company, will produce together with Lilti’s 31 Juin Films.
Loiseau was a leading figure on the French, and international, food scenes throughout the 1980s and ’90s. His life ended tragically, via suicide, in 2007. The cause of his death was the source of wide-spread speculation in the French media, with reports of depression brought on by mounting debts and rumors, never substantiated, that the Michelin Guide was planning to remove one of La Côte d’Or’s three stars.
Loiseau was cited as one of the main inspirations for the character of Auguste Gusteau in Ratatouille, the chef who dies of a broken heart after a scathing review by food critic Anton Ego leads to the loss of one of his stars.
“Since the beginning of my career, I have sought to portray work and to tell the stories of men and women confronting their vocation,” said Lilti. “With Bernard Loiseau, that question becomes even more intimate, and that is what moves me so deeply about his story. Exploring his life means speaking about excellence, work, doubt, legitimacy, and solitude. It means trying to understand genius — in all its visionary power, but also in its deeply destructive dimension.”
Loiseau’s family, through the Groupe Bernard Loiseau, continues to operate La Côte d’Or, now under the name Le Relais Bernard Loiseau, and is supporting the biopic.
“We are deeply moved that Thomas Lilti has shown such sensitivity to Bernard Loiseau’s story,” said Bérangère Loiseau, chairwoman of Groupe Bernard Loiseau. “Much like medicine, gastronomy is a passion that calls for complete dedication in the service of others and their happiness. The pursuit of excellence is constant: every gesture, every detail matters. That is exactly what drove Bernard Loiseau — love for others and for work well done. Thomas Lilti understands all of this with sincere respect and deep humanity.”
