Claude Rouas, Napa Valley Hospitality Visionary and Beloved Father, Dies at 92
By Tim Carl
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — Claude Rouas, the restaurateur whose vision helped transform Napa Valley from a rustic farming region into one of the world’s great food and wine destinations, died June 27 surrounded by family. He was 92.
Best known for founding Auberge du Soleil in 1981, Rouas introduced a style of quiet, elegant hospitality that blended French refinement with California’s natural beauty. His approach helped define a generation of Wine Country dining and luxury — an understated yet exacting hospitality that set the tone for what Napa Valley would become.
But for his family and especially for his daughter, Bettina Rouas, Claude’s legacy was never just about the restaurants. It was about family, memory and a deep respect for the kind of hospitality that nourishes not only the body but also the spirit.
“My father was not just a restaurateur — he was a father, a friend to many and a leader who taught us that hospitality is about making people feel welcome and at home,” Bettina said. “He believed deeply in the power of gathering around a table, in creating memories and in building community. His legacy lives on not only in restaurants but in the way we care for one another each day.”
Born in 1933 in Algeria, Claude Rouas was one of six children in a modest Jewish family. Orphaned young after both parents died of cancer, he was raised by older siblings and extended family. As a boy, he worked as a street vendor, tailor and pastry apprentice — early jobs that shaped his sense of discipline and resilience. At 14, he left for Paris to attend hotel and restaurant school, where he graduated near the top of his class. His career took him through the elite kitchens and dining rooms of Paris and London — including Maxim’s and the — before he immigrated to the United States in the early 1960s. In San Francisco, he rose to manage Ernie’s, then one of the city’s premier restaurants, before opening L’Etoile, among the Bay Area’s first French fine-dining establishments and a landmark in the region’s growing culinary identity.
“His legacy lives on not only in restaurants but in the way we care for one another each day.”
— Bettina Rouas, daughter
After relocating to Napa Valley, Rouas opened Auberge du Soleil on a sunlit hillside above Rutherford. With its Mediterranean styling, world-class wine list and serene setting, the restaurant and inn helped set the standard for Napa Valley hospitality — graceful, unhurried and deeply rooted in place.
With business partner Bob Harmon, Claude also co-founded Calistoga Ranch, Solage and Esperanza Resort. Their restaurant group, Piatti Ristorante, expanded to 14 locations across the West Coast and Hawaii.
"My life has been the places I worked, the places I created — that's 95% of my life story," he once said. "And I'm having a tremendous time living it."
Claude raised two daughters, Bettina Rouas and Claudia Beck. Bettina began working weekends at Auberge while in high school and later followed in her father’s footsteps, managing restaurants in San Francisco before spending several years in Paris reconnecting with family and her roots.
It was there, living above a modest Paris bistro coincidentally named Chez Angèle — sharing the name of both her grandmother and her own middle name — that Bettina began to dream of her own restaurant. With Claude’s encouragement, she returned to Napa and in 2003 opened Angèle on the Riverfront.
“When she told me the name for the restaurant, I thought it would be too difficult for people to pronounce,” Claude once told me. “But she was adamant that it be called Angèle.”
That conviction ran deep. On a family trip to Algiers, Bettina and Claude visited the Jewish cemetery where her grandmother, Angèle, was buried. The cemetery had been partially destroyed and left in disrepair. Claude, in tears, assumed they would never find the grave. Bettina insisted they try. Through the crumbling stones and rubble, they somehow found her resting place.
“It just had to be called Angèle,” Bettina said.
Angèle has become one of Napa’s most cherished restaurants, known not just for its cuisine but also for its sense of community and care. Executive Chef Josue Alvarado, who rose from line cook to executive chef, affectionately called Claude “Papa.”
“Claude was more than a founder or a father,” Alvarado said. “He was the soul of this place. He believed in us, in what we could create together.”
I first met Claude in 1981, as a teenager, when I was hired at Auberge du Soleil as a dishwasher and prep cook under Chef Masataka “Masa” Kobayashi. Claude would regularly walk into the kitchen — not to bark orders but to observe, check in and quietly set the tone. He was stern and exacting, always looking for ways to improve and instruct without ever seeming angry or overbearing. Years later, Bettina told me that was one of his quiet philosophies: Always enter through the kitchen. Keep a presence.
Joanne Dickenson DePuy, a close friend and early advocate for Napa Valley’s wine and tourism scene, first collaborated with Claude during the formative years of food and hospitality in the region. She recalled climbing a ladder to preview the view from what would become the site of Auberge du Soleil.
“He was such a good and true friend — the kind everyone wants to have,” DePuy said. “So handsome, so much fun. Those were the days. So many gone — but I’m so glad to have known him.”
“Claude was more than a founder or a father. He was the soul of this place.”
— Josue Alvarado, executive chef at Angèle
Rouas helped shape Napa Valley’s identity — through both its aesthetic and its spirit of hospitality.
Claude is survived by his wife of 30 years, Alexandrine Rouas; daughters Bettina Rouas and Claudia Beck; and his grandsons, Nick and Sam Beck.
Private services are being planned by the family.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Napa Valley Together or Up Valley Family Centers in St. Helena.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Tim Carl is a Napa Valley-based photojournalist.
