Nouvelle Cuisine
Encyclopedia
Nouvelle cuisine is an approach to cooking and food presentation used in French cuisine
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...

. By contrast with cuisine classique
Cuisine classique
Cuisine classique is a style of French cookery based on the works of Auguste Escoffier. These were simplifications and refinements of the early work of Antoine Carême, Jules Gouffé and Urbain François Dubois. It was practised in the grand restaurants and hotels of Europe and elsewhere for much of...

, an older form of French haute cuisine
Haute cuisine
Haute cuisine or grande cuisine was characterised by French cuisine in elaborate preparations and presentations served in small and numerous courses that were produced by large and hierarchical staffs at the grand restaurants and hotels of Europe.The 17th century chef and writer La Varenne...

, nouvelle cuisine is characterized by lighter, more delicate dishes and an increased emphasis on presentation.

History

The term nouvelle cuisine has been used many times in the history of French cuisine. In the 1740s for example, the work of Vincent La Chapelle, François Marin and Menon was described as nouvelle cuisine, and in the 1880s and 1890s even the cooking of Georges Auguste Escoffier was described with the term. The modern usage can be attributed to authors André Gayot
André Gayot
André Gayot is a French restaurant critic. With his friends Gault and Millau, he coined and promoted the term "Nouvelle Cuisine" in the early 1970s. In 1981 he began publishing a series of guidebooks known as Gayot Guides, where restaurants are rated on a 20-point scale, based on the system of...

, Henri Gault and Christian Millau
Christian Millau
Christian Millau is a food critic and author. In 1965 he founded the restaurant guide Le Nouveau Guide with Henri Gault and Andre Gayot. He was originally slated to be one of the judges at the historic Judgment of Paris wine tasting event of 1976 but was replaced by his brother Claude...

, who used nouvelle cuisine to describe the cooking of Paul Bocuse
Paul Bocuse
Paul Bocuse is a French chef based in Lyon who is famous for the high quality of his restaurants and his innovative approaches to cuisine...

, Alain Chapel
Alain Chapel
Alain Chapel was a French Michelin 3 starred chef, credited with being one of the originators of Nouvelle Cuisine.Chapel was born in Lyon, the son of Maître d' Charles and his wife Eva...

, Jean and Pierre Troisgros
Pierre Troisgros
Pierre Troisgros is a French restaurateur, best known for his restaurant Frères Troisgros.Pierre Troisgros and his brother Jean Troisgros completed an apprenticeship with renowned top chefs in Paris. In 1955, the country restaurant of Pierre and Jean Troisgros won the first Michelin star...

, Michel Guérard
Michel Guérard
Michel Guérard is a French chef, author, one of the founders of nouvelle cuisine, and the inventor of cuisine minceur.- Biography :...

, Roger Vergé and Raymond Oliver
Raymond Oliver
Raymond Oliver was chef and owner of Le Grand Véfour restaurant in Paris, one of France's great historical restaurants. Oliver detested the nouvelle cuisine, preferring the rich ingredients favored by the chefs in his native Gascony....

, many of whom were once students of Fernand Point. Paul Bocuse claimed that Gault first used the term to describe food prepared by Bocuse and other top chefs for the maiden flight of the Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...

 airliner in 1969.

The style Gault and Millau wrote about was a reaction to the French cuisine classique
Cuisine classique
Cuisine classique is a style of French cookery based on the works of Auguste Escoffier. These were simplifications and refinements of the early work of Antoine Carême, Jules Gouffé and Urbain François Dubois. It was practised in the grand restaurants and hotels of Europe and elsewhere for much of...

placed into "orthodoxy" by Escoffier. Calling for greater simplicity and elegance in creating dishes, nouvelle cuisine is not cuisine minceur
Cuisine minceur
Cuisine minceur is a style of cooking created by French chef Michel Guérard, which recreated lighter versions of traditional Nouvelle cuisine dishes...

("thin cooking"), which was created by Michel Guérard as spa food. It has been speculated that the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 was a significant contributor to nouvelle cuisine's creation—the short supply of animal protein during the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 occupation made it a natural development.

The "formula"

Gault and Millau "discovered the formula" contained in ten characteristics of this new style of cooking. The ten characteristics identified were:
  • A rejection of excessive complication in cooking.
  • Cooking times for most fish, seafood, game birds, veal, green vegetables and pâtés were greatly reduced in an attempt to preserve the natural flavors. Steaming was an important trend from this characteristic.
  • The cuisine was made with the freshest possible ingredients.
  • Large menus were abandoned in favor of shorter menus.
  • Strong marinades for meat and game ceased to be used.
  • They stopped using heavy sauces such as espagnole and béchamel thickened with flour-based roux
    Roux
    Roux is a cooked mixture of wheat flour and fat, traditionally butter. It is the thickening agent of three of the mother sauces of classical French cooking: sauce béchamel, sauce velouté and sauce espagnole. Clarified butter, vegetable oils, or lard are commonly used fats. It is used as a...

    , in favor of seasoning their dishes with fresh herbs, high quality butter, lemon juice, and vinegar.
  • They used regional dishes for inspiration instead of cuisine classique
    Cuisine classique
    Cuisine classique is a style of French cookery based on the works of Auguste Escoffier. These were simplifications and refinements of the early work of Antoine Carême, Jules Gouffé and Urbain François Dubois. It was practised in the grand restaurants and hotels of Europe and elsewhere for much of...

    dishes.
  • New techniques were embraced and modern equipment was often used; Bocuse even used microwave ovens.
  • The chefs paid close attention to the dietary needs of their guests through their dishes.
  • The chefs were extremely inventive and created new combinations and pairings.

Abandonment

There is a standing debate as to whether nouvelle cuisine has been abandoned. Much of what it stood for—particularly its preference for lightly presented, fresh flavors—has been assimilated into mainstream restaurant cooking. By the mid-1980s some food writers stated that the style of cuisine had reached exhaustion and many chefs began returning to the cuisine classique style of cooking, although much of the lighter presentations and new techniques remained.

Further reading

  • The Nouvelle Cuisine Cookbook: The Complete International Guide to the World of Nouvelle Cuisine by Armand Aulicino. (1976) ISBN 0-448-14418-2
  • The Nouvelle Cuisine of Jean and Pierre Troisgros by Jean and Pierre Troisgros. (1977) ISBN 0-688-03331-8.
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