Grandstand. Culinary France, like political France, seems to me today to look more to the past than to the future, as if our cuisine seemed doomed to return to the recipes of yesteryear. Indeed, the know-how inherited from Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935) and the cuisine of the first half of the 20and century seem to be making a powerful comeback on our charts.
I don’t deny their importance or their deliciousness, but I wonder if today’s cuisine can be reduced to its past. Shouldn’t it rather be a testing ground, conducive to creation? Are we ready for French cuisine that favors an avant-garde approach?
Gastronomy has given me so much that the observation of its regression cannot leave me indifferent. In this preference for the recipes of the past, I read a rejection of innovation and the renunciation of tasty and daring tomorrows. I see a throwback, nostalgic and oh so comfortable.
Necessary developments
However, the quest for new culinary horizons is the only possible way to move the kitchen forward, to give it the energy it needs to satisfy the changing appetites of today’s consumers. This progress approach must also allow our food to respect the constraints posed by the safeguard of our planet..
This culinary backward movement tends to hide the essential issues and to prohibit the necessary developments. Like other creative professions, cooking is an organic matter that must remain open to influences, new practices or the most recent technologies. Current fashion cannot be defined solely in the old sketches of the great couturiers of the new-look. As for architecture, it also advances with the times: witness the hair-raising projects of Jean Nouvel.
You have to know how to keep your eyes open to the world in order to patiently add layers of knowledge from other horizons to the common pot of gastronomy. French cuisine has become a master in this field: it knows how to perfectly integrate this knowledge which makes it always more interesting.
I know precisely to what extent France today has a quite exceptional density of culinary talents. This gastronomic offer never ceases to amaze and delight me. I meet talented chefs, women and men, of all ages and nationalities, based in Paris and in the regions, concerned by today’s challenges, courageous in their ability to undertake.
You have 42.37% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.