Chef Frédéric Perrier, a native of Lyon, France who showed the Houston, Missouri City and Sugar Land areas how beautifully French and Texan cuisines could meld, has passed away after a struggle with undisclosed health issues. (Update: According to the Houston Chronicle, the ultimate cause of death after “a series of health-related challenges” was a heart attack.) He leaves behind his longtime spouse, Michelle Perrier, and two sons. His last restaurant affiliation was with Bisou in River Oaks District. (It was the last place I saw him, too, and we had a great chat at the bar.) Bisou closed earlier this year. Perrier had already left by then in mid-2023. 

Perrier, who started his journey in the United States at La Cité in New York City, had many distinctions for his work and restaurants in Houston, but one of the most-defining was being named a Maitre de Cuisiner — a master chef of France — in 2015. There were only five in all of Texas, and all of them in Houston. (The remaining four are Phillipe Schmit, most recently of PS-21, which also closed earlier this year, David Denis of Bistro 55 and Cocody, Jean-Luc Royère of the Post Oak Hotel and Philippe Verpiand of Étoilé. Schmit was named first, followed by Perrier and Verpiand.) 

Perrier was perhaps best known for his work at his long-running restaurant, Aura, first in Missouri City and then in Sugar Land. It followed his first Houston restaurants, Grille 5115 and Café Perrier, and started in a modest strip center before he moved it in 2012 to Sugar Land Town Square. He described his cuisine as “innovative American with an inch of French”. While his technique was flawlessly French, he’d playfully throw in Texas-style ingredients, one example being his herb-crusted rack of lamb with mint jalapeño jelly and flageolets, or go full-out Texas with dishes like pork belly tacos. Sometimes, irrepressible French classics would appear. To this day, I’ve not had a better tarte tatin. 

He and Michelle also ran Italian restaurant Coco Pazzo in Sugar Land and Hoggs N Chicks in Missouri City. At the latter, he embraced casual Southern cuisine like chicken fried chicken, sliders and burgers. Perrier was also on the founding committee for the Sugar Land Wine & Food Affair, a festival that ran for 15 years.

Since the announcement of Perrier’s passing, the notes of condolences and grief from fellow chefs and friends have poured in. On Instagram, the MCF USA account, which posts about Maître Cuisiniers de France working in the United States, posted, “It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the death of our colleague and friend Frédéric Perrier. He has gone to return and cook in heaven with those who have already left; all too soon. He has been Maître Cuisiner de France since 2015, and we were all looking forward to seeing him again at our next conference in Houston in September 2025. We send to his devoted wife Michelle, his two sons, our sincere condolences and friendships.”

Perrier holds a special place in my own career. It was Teresa Byrne-Dodge, editor and publisher of My Table magazine, who gave me my first print article opportunity, and that first assignment was to interview five French chefs in Houston. (I have some French heritage, but it was truly then that I learned and embraced the cultural joy and abandon with which the people approach cuisine.) Perrier was among them, and one of the first times I interviewed a chef. 

I was so charmed by Aura and Perrier’s culinary perspective that I quickly returned to write more about it. I’d follow his career for a dozen more years, right up through his sale of Aura in 2016 and his consultancy at Bisou. I came away with admiration for the playful, down-to-earth chef who had a warmth and generosity that was the opposite of the stereotype of the haughty, temperamental image that Americans have of French chefs. 

I wasn’t the only one with that impression. In 2014, former restaurateur Jason Liao opened Preview Modern Seafood in Sugar Land. One night, he had some unexpected and honored guests. “Back when I opened Preview Modern Seafood, Perrier’s restaurants, such as Aura, were considered the top restaurants in Fort Bend County. A seasoned elder with Michelin star pedigree, Perrier showed up one night with his wife to my restaurant one night with a bottle of Russian vodka. We killed it with my former late GM Jay Lee after his meal. We would later have similar sessions at other times down the line at Pokeology [one of Liao’s subsequent restaurants], and when he opened Bisou in the River Oaks District. He held me in high regard from our first meeting and treated me as a peer, despite the giant gap of experience and accomplishment. I will miss you, sir.”

Perrier, in addition to being one of Houston’s most talented and acclaimed chefs, was gregarious, funny and capable of making nearly instant friendships. He will be missed by many.

Phaedra Cook

Phaedra Cook has written about Houston’s restaurant and bar scene since 2010. She was a regular contributor to My Table magazine (now closed) and was the lead restaurant critic for the Houston Press for two years, eventually being promoted to food editor. Cook founded Houston Food Finder in November 2016 and has been its editor and publisher ever since.