*With all the technical manipulations and complexities for which they are justly famous, it is striking to note how thoroughly some chefs are able to seduce the most finicky gastronomes on earth with gestures of almost childish simplicity. Bernard’s friend (and rival, naturally) Joël Robuchon, a great master if ever there was one, knocked Parisians for a loop with his mashed potatoes, containing enough good Normandy butter to bend the arrow and shatter the glass of every cardiologist’s cholesterol meter.