Leontre is a very prolific name. Signifying France's most celebrated patissier, it completes the triumvirate that boasts Bocuse and Verge as fellow office holders. It is also LEONTRE S.A., an international corporation that is to specialty foods what the Cardin name is lifestyle. From his native France to Canada; the U.S., Europe, Arabia and Japan, Gaston Leontre's distinctive logo, a Centaur-like illustration of a quadruped chef inextricably melded with his beloved table symbolises the now seventy year old master chef's philosophy and life's work. Indeed, in gastronomic mythology, the Leontre name occupies a lofty place in the pantheon both for his cuisine techniques, and for a formidable business acumen more seemingly attributable to a Wall Street entrepreneur than a three star chef.

Gaston Leontre's career has been an extraordinarily successful one; from his early years as a teenage apprentice in his native Normandy when he dreamed of being one of the legends of cuisine, to the pervasive presence of the surname that has application to just about every segment of the contemporary culinary world. Lenotre's name has literally turned to gold. Today, LENOTRE is a centre of production and research, an Ecole Gastronomie staffed by the best teachers and chefs in France, and with a student intake of 1800 each year; it is two prestigious restaurants both housed in Parisian landmarks, retail outlets that span the globe recipes books, a gift division, catering operation and a vested interested in the Epcott project at Florida's Disney World with Bocuse and Verge. A formidable inventory of interests in anybody's books, but as yet not complete.