Clémence Lefeuvre (née Praud) (born 1860 in Saint-Julien-de-Concelles - 1932) was a French chef and restaurateur best known for being the inventor of the beurre blanc or white butter sauce.
Clemence Praud was born in a house on the south bank of the Loire, along the Levée de La Divatte [fr] in the hamlet of La Chebuette.
According to records, three customers came to her establishment "La Buvette De La Marine" for lunch and she wanted to serve the pike that they ordered with some béarnaise sauce.
[3] Apart from inventing a sauce used by many restaurants worldwide, she was also honoured with an oenology prize called the "Clémence-Lefeuvre Grand Prix du Muscadet" in the Muscadet, France region being named after her.
Aristide Briand, long-time prime minister of France and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said at her death in 1932 that it "was a bit like national mourning"[4] The Clémence-Lefeuvre road in her hometown, Saint-Julien-de-Concelles was also named after her.