Jean-Louis Palladin, a fearless and passionate cook who helped
to free French cuisine in the United States from a hidebound
orthodoxy while influencing a generation of chefs and food
lovers, died yesterday in McLean, Va. He was 55.  The cause of
death was lung cancer, said Ann Brody, a spokeswoman for his
family.  While Mr. Palladin never achieved the public profile of
contemporaries like Alice Waters and Paul Prudhomme, he was a
chef's chef whose boundless creativity and relentless pursuit of
the best and freshest ingredients set an example for countless
other cooks. His first restaurant in the United States, Jean-
Louis at the Watergate, opened in 1979 in Washington. It drew
not only the capital's political elite, but also chefs and
restaurateurs from all over the world who made the pilgrimage to
taste his cooking and learn his techniques.  In a departure from
the image of the haughty and secretive chef, Mr. Palladin always
made time to share his knowledge and methods with almost anyone
who asked. He had a r