molecular gastronomy chef 4

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Many of the molecular gastronomy chefs championed by Gault and Millau quickly garnered respect and Michelin stars, but the new style drew fire from established French food critics, particularly La Reyniere (aka Robert Courtine), the prominent critic at Le Monde. Nouvelle cuisine was seen as a threat to French tradition and was often attacked on nationalist grounds. Senderens says that in 1978, when he introduced soy sauce into his molecular gastronomy
after a trip to China, “a food critic ripped me to shreds.” In 1979, the sociologist Claude Fischler wrote an article for Le Monde titled “The Socrates of the Nouvelle Cuisine/’ in which he subtly mocked the movement’s emphasis on letting ingredients express their true flavors: “The artist in this field is no longer characterized by his overpowering authority, but rather by the opin- ionated modesty of an exponent of the maieutic art: In place of the cook as mercenary of the kitchen stove, we now have the Socratic cook, midwife at the birth ofculinary truth.”
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Julia Child’s book brought French cuisine to the United States. It both led to a shift in American home molecular gastronomy chef
and paved the way for French restaurants in the U.S. Her love of French food was traditional: she disliked Nouvelle cuisine and spoke out against it.
Nouvelle cuisine was a successful revolution; it succeeded so well that today we view French cuisine through its lens. High-end chefs still make great dishes of the pre-Nouvelle years, but usually as a self-conscious throwback to a lost age.
The first wave ofNouvelle cuisine represented
a real revolution, analogous in some ways to Impressionism in its rebellion against the establish- ment and the attendant controversy. Many long- cherished aspects ofEscoffier’s grande cuisine, such as sauces made with meat extracts and thickened with flour-based roux, were discarded.
In the United States, one of Nouvelle cuisine’s chief critics was celebrity chefJulia Child, author of the best-selling Mastering the Art ofFrench molecular gastronomy chef. Child saw the new movement as an affront to the logic and grandeur of French cuisine. She particularly disliked the Nouvelle cuisine penchant for serving barely cooked meat and vegetables, which she believed did not properly develop the “essential taste” ofthe ingredients.
She also accused Gault and Millau of.”pushing the Nouvelle cuisine relentlessly/’ to the point of “browbeating” restaurants that didn’t embrace
a Nouvelle cuisine ethos.
The system of the restaurant changed as well. Escoffier had championed service aIa Franfaise, in which empty plates were set before each diner and waiters served and carved food at the table. Nouvelle cuisine featured plated dishes, assem- bled in the kitchen by chefs. All the waiter did was set the plate in front of the diner.
In the United States, the leading restau- rant guide is the Zagat Survey. Unlike the Michelin guide or Gault Millau, Zagat’s results are based on voting by the public. Many consumers view the guide as being far more accurate and reliable than the others.
Yet in another sense, Nouvelle cuisine was
a rather limited revolution, because it was all about techniques and ingredients. The famous ten principles ofNouvelle cuisine championed by Gault and Millau all have to do with rather techni- cal aspects of molecular gastronomy chef.
Other American gastronomes shared Child’s wariness of the new movement. As renowned San Francisco molecular gastronomy chef teacher Jack Lirio quipped to Newsweek in 1975, “Without butter, cream, and
Theywere a big deal to the best chefs and food critics, who were steeped in the traditions of Ia grande cuisine, but they seem quite ordinary to us today. High-end food was, ultimately, still high-end food with a slightly different set of techniques. As Nouvelle cuisine won the battle for the
hearts and minds of the best chefs and diners, the revolution matured into a new culinary establish- ment. Successive generations of chefs carried forward the torch of culinary innovation, but in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary fashion. In part, that is because Nouvelle cuisine carved out some notion ofindependence for the chef. Escoffier (and Careme before him) had explicitly sought to establish rules and conventions. Nou- velle cuisine gave more leeway to the individual chef, so there seemed to be little incentive to rebel.
As young chefs rose to prominence, they extended the range of Nouvelle cuisine, although at that point it was no longer new. Joel Robuchon, named “chefofthe century” by Gault Millau in 1989, was known for relentless perfectionism. His cuisine was Nouvelle in the sense that it followed the ten commandments, but at the same time it was clearly his own. Much the same could be said of Fredy Girardet, the self-taught Swiss master chefwho was often listed as the best chefin the world. Again, he was clearly staying inside the boundaries of Nouvelle cuisine but developing
a unique repertoire.
Within the movement, some chefs were known for tending toward more unusual and daring foods and combinations. Michel Bras, Pierre Gagnaire, and Marc Veyrat took their own paths, each fiercely original and extremely inventive. Yet none of these chefs has been described as being outside the mainstream, and all were lauded by both the Michelin and Gault Millau guides.
Outside of France, Nouvelle cuisine sometimes had an enormous impact and other times had barely any, depending on the country and its local gastronomic culture. In the United States, Nou- velle cuisine was deeply influential, helping to inspire “New American” cuisine (see next page).
American chefs borrowed techniques from Nouvelle cuisine, but more important than any single technique or principle was the idea of revolution itself. American chefs weren’t steeped in Ia grande cuisine; instead, they rebelled against the doldrums of mass-produced, uninspired American food. These chefs created a distinctive New American cuisine based on regional ingredi- ents and food traditions, but with a clear nod to Nouvelle techniques.
HISTORY 2 7
THE HISTORY OF
New American Cuisine
In the 1970s, fine dining in the United States usually meant one oftwo things: either
a steak house with a menu straight from the
1950s, or a “Continental cuisine” restaurant that served ersatz, heavy, and uninspired food . Food writer Calvin Trill in lampooned this type of restaurant, saying that they might as well all have the same name: “La Maison de Ia Casa House.”
News of Nouvelle cuisine in France en-
couraged a generation of American chefs to
rebel and create something oftheir own. The
two culinary movements shared many tenets: eschewing heavy stocks and sauces, showcasing fresh and local ingredi- ents, and the best molecular gastronomy chefs used those ingredients minimally (or not at all).
The New American movement looked to the culinary traditions of many different regions for its inspiration, including California, the South and Southwest, and Cajun country. As diverse as these culinary styles were, they were unified by a spirit of creativity among their proponents, including Alice Waters and jeremiah Tower at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California; Larry Forgione at The River Cafe and An American Place in New York City; Charlie Trotter at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago; Paul Prudhomme at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans; and Wolfgang Puck (pictured) at Ma Maison and Spago in Los Angeles. Through their experimentation, these chefs laid the groundwork for
inspire Spanish Modernist chefs. But throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Spanish food was largely unaffected by the developments in France.
Italy had even less of a reaction to the Nouvelle revolution. In part, that is because Italian cuisine has always been highly regional and did not have centralized standards. There was no set of oppres- sive grande cuisine rules to rebel against.
A few Italian chefs-including Gualtiero Marchesi, Nadia Santini of the great restaurant Dal Pescatore, and Luisa Marelli Valazza ofAI Sorriso-used some principles of Nouvelle cuisine to inform their interpretations ofltalian culinary themes. A more recent example is Heinz Beck, who was born in Germany but for years has been considered one of the top chefs in Rome. The refined and sophisticated Italian cuisine produced by these chefs definitely owes some-
an American cuisine that had the techniques and refinements found in Nouvelle French food but that was based on American tastes and traditions.
Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971 and hired Tower as head chef two years later. Working together in the kitchen, the two borrowed heavily from Nouvelle cuisine, but they also forged their own distinctly Califor- nian style-which included high-end pizzas, whole baked garlic with white cheese and peasant bread, and cream offresh corn soup
with crayfish butter. Tower, a self-taught chef, had a brash confidence and a penchant for taking chances.
More important, Waters, Tower, and subsequent chefs at Chez Panisse helped launch a revolution in how food was purchased, working directly with farmers and purveyors to acquire the best possible ingredients. They became some of the first and most vocal proponents of small farms and
. sustainable agriculture, a trend that has gathered momen- tum overtime. They also championed artisanal baked bread and had enormous influence on American bakers.
As Waters wrote in her Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook, “We as a nation are so removed from any real involvement with the food we buy, cook, and consume. We have become alienated by the frozen foods and hygienically sealed
bread. Iwant to stand in the supermarket aisles and implore
The same effect occurred in the United King- dom, where a generation of”New British” chefs emerged, adamant that British food was not synonymous with bad food. Chefs such as Nico Ladenis, Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, and Fergus Henderson took principles ofNouvelle cuisine and applied them in their own characteris- tic ways.
A number ofFrench expatriates, such as Albert and Michel Roux, Raymond Blanc, and Pierre Koffmann, joined their ranks, bringing French Nouvelle cuisine directly to British diners. As in the United States, this helped lead a movement toward higher-quality food and dining.
In Spain, the effect of Nouvelle cuisine was much more limited. It was clearly an inspiration for the Spanish Basque chefJuan Mari Arzak, who created his own distinctive style that would later
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thing to the Nouvelle movement, but it never constituted a revolution.
Today, many of the original leaders of the Nouvelle cuisine movement are retired from day-to-day activities in the kitchen but remain involved with the restaurants that bear their names. Subsequent generations of French chefs have extended the scope of French cuisine, but all through gradual evolution.
What started as Nouvelle cuisine is now one branch ofwhat could be called “New International” cuisine. Around the world, one can find national cuisines that were clearly inspired by the Nouvelle movement, borrowing both molecular gastronomy techniques and the general attitude ofrebellion. This includes various “New” takes on Asian molecular gastronomy, or so-called Fusion, which melds Asian spices and techniques within a Western, Nouvelle-inspired backdrop.
In the later stages of Nouvelle cuisine and in New International molecular gastronomy chefs
, innovation has mainly been limited to flavor combinations. The first step was mining traditional regional cuisines for their approaches and flavors . Next, chefs sought to bridge the gap between Western and Asian cuisines.
Then new and exotic ingredients found their way onto menus.Wagyu beefand fish such as hamachi and taro (tuna belly) have always been found inJapanese restaurants. Today, you might find them on the menu at nearly any New Interna- tional restaurant anywhere in the world. Mean- while, ostensiblyJapanese restaurants, such as Nobu, incorporate their own take on foie gras, jalapeno peppers, and other completely non- Japanese ingredients.
Although France started the ball rolling, it is
the shoppers, their carts piled high with mass-produced artificiality, ‘Please … look at what you are buying!”‘
Forgione was also an early supporter ofsmall-scale farming. In 1978, after two years in London, he returned to the U.S. and soon became frustrated at how difficult it was to find quality ingredients. While heading the kitchen atThe River Cafe, he worked diligently to purchase free-range chickens, ducks, and wild game (including muskrat, beaver, and elk). The River Cafe became the first New York restaurant to serve fresh buffalo in 70 years. Forgione also procured periwinkles, sea urchins, and other seafood from Hawaii, as well as specialty produce such as cattail shoots and fiddlehead ferns. In 1983, he opened his own restaurant, An American Place, and continued to shine
a spotlight on small farmers and seasonal ingredients.
In Chicago, Charlie Trotter espoused a similar philosophy at his eponymous restaurant, which he opened in 1987. The famously perfectionistic chef combined French technique, Japanese-style presentation, and a strong emphasis on Ameri- can ingredients, including Maine lobster, Alaskan halibut, Hudson Valley foie gras, and fresh organic vegetables. He pioneered both the craze for microgreens and the practice of serving diners at a table in the kitchen. He was also one ofthe first high-end chefs to offer a vegetable tasting menu.
Meanwhile, Prudhomme was making his name with a very different, but nevertheless ingredient-driven, menu. K-Paul’s, which opened in 1979, served dishes inspired by the Cajun and Creole communities of rural Louisiana, including jalapeno and
cheddar biscuits, free-range roast duck with rice and orange sauce, sweet potato- pecan pie, and Prudhomme’s signature blackened redfish (the progenitor ofall other “blackened” dishes). He treated Cajun and other Louisiana-based cuisine as a framework for innovation, and he soon attracted attention from the press and the public. Prudhomme became a house- hold name after he launched his line ofspice blends, which are now distributed worldwide.
Puck’s name is equally recognizable today. His career took off in 1975, when he began his seven-year tenure as chef at Ma Maison, becoming a favorite of Hollywood stars. When Puck opened Spago, in 1982, it quickly became one ofthe most popular restaurants on the West Coast. His culinary style, which he called “L.A. Provincial,” was similar to Waters’s and Tower’s in emphasizing regional ingredients and a casual atmosphere. He specialized in haute pizzas (with then-unusual toppings such as fresh duck, Santa Barbara shrimp, and smoked salmon with caviar) and California-style dishes such as Sonoma baby lamb with braised greens and rosemary. Puck spun his early success into an international empire that now includes high-end restaurants, a chain of bistros, a catering business, and consumer products (such as his ubiquitous frozen pizzas).
These New American pioneers became some ofthe first celebrity chefs. Their popularity coincided with the growing American interest in good food and made top-quality ingredi- ents de rigueur in fine restaurants . The stage was set for the emergence of a new molecular gastronomy.
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hard to argue that the French are leading the New International movement. There is no single driving force or capital city of New International.
Other chefs who have set up shop in Vegas include globetrotting transplants such as Nobu Matsuhisa from Japan, Peru, and Los Angeles;
But if one insisted on finding a representative city, it might be, of all places, Las Vegas, Nevada. At some point in the 1990s, Las Vegas casino owners discovered that food was a great potential draw for clientele. Casinos dove into the food world with the same gusto and excess that they have shown in their billion-dollar hotels and glitzy theater shows. Casino owners courted restaurants and chefs that were considered to be among the greatest in the world.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten from France by way of New York; Julian Serrano of the restaurant Picasso, from Spain and San Francisco; and Wolfgang Puck from Austria, France, and Hollywood.
Today, Las Vegas has an incredible number of top chefs running restaurants across the culinary spectrum, from fast food to high end. The majority of the establishments at the high end are show- casing their own take on New International. This includes restaurants by Thomas Keller, Charlie Palmer, and Bobby Flay from the United States; and Pierre Gagnaire, Guy Savoy, and Joel Robu- chon from France.
Another case could be made that New York is the center of New International cuisine. Chefs such as Daniel Boulud, Eric Ripert, David Bouley, Alain Ducasse, and Charlie Palmer, along with Vongerichten, Matsuhisa, and Keller, all have restaurants there. And as the headquar- ters of the United Nations, New York is as close to being the capital of the world as we are ever likely to see.
Las Vegas is the capital of bad taste in some ways, with ersatz copies of every- thing from the Eiffel Tower to an Egyptian pyramid. Underneath the fake glitz, Las Vegas has many serious restaurants.
The best molecular gastronomy chef
in the New Interna- tional style, many would argue, is Keller. Trained in France, he in many ways has inherited the mantle of perfection and elegance in execution that once belonged to Robuchon or Girardet.
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VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENT ALS
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l’Atelier de Joel Robuchon is a chain of eight identical restaurants in cites around the world.
Others would argue that the best chef is Ducasse, who reinterpreted the food ofMediterranean France through a New International lens. He is arguably the most famous and influential chefin France today and also has global reach, with restaurants around the world.
have followed in his footsteps. Indeed, by 2010 Ducasse had 19 stars, and Robuchon had 25, summed across their restaurant empires.
The discussion ofwhich city is the center, or which chefis the best, is ultimately self-defeating, because the New International style isn’t a move- ment so much as it is an entrenched orthodoxy. There is no single city or country at its hub, because high-end cuisine has globalized. There is no single leader because you need a leader only if you are going somewhere.
Like them, Vongerichten and several other chefs have empires of restaurants with different names, niches, and price points. These restaurants are mostly high-end, with a set ofless formal dining options. The empires’ principal common theme is the chef/owner.
At this stage, changes in theNew International style amount to a steady evolution of a mature discipline. Each chef is innovating, but to a large degree they are all going in their own directions. Taken as a whole, there is no net movement.
Other major figures, such as Puck, have a few high-end restaurants, but their empires are weighted toward the low end, creating chains of cafes, fast-food outlets, and even canned food, following the lead ofEttore Boiardi. Perhaps the most surprising player is Robuchon, who came out of retirement to open a set of eight identically named restaurants-L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon- in cities around the world. The Nouvelle cuisine master and chef of the 20th century came back to create the first haute cuisine restaurant chain of the 21st century.
CLASSIC TOMATO wnH BASIL
One of the most surprising trends in the New International style is that well-respected chefs have in some ways taken the path of Harland Sanders and Ray Kroc, turning what had once been single restaurants into empires. Ducasse started the trend, with the then-audacious goal of having two Michelin-three-star restaurants. In 1998, he succeeded in becoming the first “six- star” chefsince the 1930s, and many other chefs
The fundamental reason for this expansion is the same one that drove the fast-food revolution: customers like to have familiar names and brands to rely on. That is even true at the very high end. Why risk a local chef’s attempt to be the best in the world ifyou can instead walk into a restaurant run by Robuchon or Ducasse?
like Ettore Boiardi in the 1920s, Wolfgang Puck has gone into the canned food business.