Long before Georges Lamour came to Atlanta, his handiwork could be seen in restaurant and hotel kitchens here and across the globe. The tall, white, pleated paper chef's hat, now commonplace in many commercial kitchens, was once a figment of Mr. Lamour's imagination.
Though the design has been altered and improved upon since Mr. Lamour's patent in 1967, his goal was to create an aesthetically appealing hat that could be thrown away and easily replaced. The cloth hats that many used at that time, were cumbersome to clean, he said in the patent abstract.
"The conventional chef's hat has pleats and other structural features which render its laundering costs excessive, if not prohibitive," he wrote almost 45 years ago.
Claude Lamour said his father's mind was always working, looking for a better or more efficient way to do things.
"He was always thinking and planning ahead," said Mr. Lamour, who lives in Roswell. "Whether it was about a new product or how to achieve a better taste in food, making something better was what he was always thinking about."
Georges Lamour, of Sandy Springs, died Sunday at Northeast Rehabilitation Center from complications of pneumonia. He was 89. His body has been cremated and a private mass will be scheduled at a later date. Northside Chapel Funeral Directors and Crematory was in charge.
Born in Paris, Georges Lamour was introduced to commercial food service by his father, who owned two restaurants. He trained under his father until France was invaded by Germany during World War II, after which he joined the Resistance movement. After the war he moved to Montreal, where he began to make a name for himself as a culinary artist. During his career, which lasted more than 40 years, he worked at the Americana Hotel, in Miami, for 20 of those years. It was there that he started thinking about modifying the heavy cloth chef's hat that he wore every day, his sons said.
Mr. Lamour was always conscious of how he looked, and how the food he prepared was presented, said son Jacques Lamour, of Lyndhurst, N.J.
"Hotel food was really bad back then," Mr. Lamour said. "And my father took institutional food and not only made sure it looked good, but that it would taste good too."
In addition to his two sons, Mr. Lamour is survived by his wife of 60 years, Francoise Lamour of Sandy Springs; a third son, Bernard Lamour of Dallas, Texas; 4 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
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