Soulé, Henri

Henri Soulé (1903–1966) was born in Saubriges, France. At age fourteen Soulé began working as a busboy at the Continental Hotel in Biarritz. He moved to Paris, where he worked at the restaurant in the Hôtel Mirabeau. In 1930 he was offered the position of Captain of waiters at Ciro’s, one of Paris’s finest restaurants. He shifted to the Cafe de Paris, where he worked his way up to manager and chief of staff. Diplomatic and unflappable, Soulé had just the qualities that the restaurant’s owner, Charles Drouant, needed. In 1938, Drouant was selected by the French government to run Le Restaurant du Pavillon de France at the New York World’s Fair, which opened in 1939. Soulé became the maître d’ and manager of Le Pavillon. The restaurant received rave reviews from food critics and the public. When the fair closed for the winter in October 1939, Soulé returned to France. Germany and France were at war and he joined his military unit. He was demobilized in the winter and was sent back to New York for the reopening of the Fair in April 1940.