July 14 marks July 14, the day the French and French heartely greet Le Tricolore to celebrate. The Bastille in Paris, a hard symbol of the old regime, and the capture of the famous castle and criminal on 14 July 1789 prompted the French Revolution. Calls for “freedom, equality, fraternity” echoed around the world, and The French chefs who had emigrated, who had worked in the kitchens of the nobility, had to seek new opportunities abroad, taking with them their formidable skills.
Classical French cuisine has taken root in countless countries with these chefs, and more than two centuries later, it still has a bountiful influence. This is the criterion by which chefs’ prestige and prestige are measured and evaluated, from New York to Singapore.
But does vintage French cuisine have a kind of old culinary regime, which desires some of that revolutionary spirit of July 14th? In this pandemic world, when other people reassess what is vital and what is not, is classical French cuisine still important?
“French cuisine remains relevant,” says Michel Roux Jr., speaking just two days after Le Gavroche, in London’s upscale Mayfair district, reopened after the coronavirus closed. “When we opened the phone lines to collect the reservations, the booking formula was blocked. We are complete now, albeit with a reduced capacity, but we are complete for the rest of the month. This is the testimony that other people like to eat.” French cuisine founded on the classics.
However, Roux Jr., a descendant of the remarkable French culinary dynasty, is deaf to criticism of French cuisine in recent decades: it is too frozen, too hidden through tradition, too self-referential, a cuisine preserved in spurious.
“I suppose France got lost a little in many ways,” he says. “I think French gastronomy can be too pompous, too serious. The French are incredibly proud, and rightly so, of their cuisine, but they are also incredibly arrogant. And I say it as French.”
However, Roux is not satisfied with the concept that French cuisine does not need to evolve with its time. “For a while, I think the [French] chefs were resting on their laurels: ‘Our cuisine is the best, that’s how it’s made, and that’s how it’s done…’ And I think they’ve damaged chains, and that’s, I think, even a generation of French chefs who have traveled the world, noticed other cuisines, and came back and enriched the French classics.
Roux cites the French bistronomic movement of the 1990s as a turning point, when French chefs made a conscious effort to serve good, fair and affordable cuisine in an informal setting, without all the starched naps and Michelin stars. “The gastronomy was about returning to the joys of what a bistro would be and what gastronomy would be,” says Roux.
However, much earlier, he says, the wonderful French chefs were innocent. Quote chef Alain Chapel, with whom Roux Jr. was trained decades ago, at Chapel’s open-air restaurant in Lyon (Chapel was the creator of the New Kitchen). “He was an instructor and innovator who unfortunately died too young. In 1979 and 1980, he used soy and ginger sauce; however, his food was incredibly classic. It brought small touches of fashionable flavors. Innovative but respectful of classics”. »»
Roux Jr. is proud of his French heritage but, as his accessory attests, he lived to the fullest of his life in London, and has witnessed the maturation of British food culture over the decades.
“The way he’s replaced it is incredible,” he says. “The democratization of restoration, restoration: you can eat at a moderate price and eat well, that is, in my opinion, the greatest change. People are much more informed and much more in touch now than ever about seasonality, the provenance of the products, and they are also incredibly curious.
Londoners would now be infamous, but are there other people in a position to eat again as a result of restrictions caused by coronavirus? Roux Jr. believes the government’s Eat Out To Help Out program will help build trust among Londoners in the restaurant.
While other people this ten-pound coupon or whatever its form, I applaud it because I think it’s a wonderful message that the hotel industry is open and that restaurants and hotels are safe.
And, he says, what other people want right now is fast food. “What you don’t want now are foods that challenge you, foods that are hard to eat and understand. You want foods that are a big warm blanket around you that makes you feel good.”
So, this Bastille Day, bring on la fraternité and the feel-good food; but let’s leave la révolution aside for now.
In my career as a journalist, I have been a wine writer, editor and restaurant critic. Former editor of the BBC Food online page and former deputy editor of Delicious.
In my career as a journalist, I have been a wine writer, editor and restaurant critic. Former editor of the BBC Food online page and former deputy editor of Delicious. The magazine I’ve written for publications in the U.S. And the UK has an uncontrollable collection of cookbooks, thirst and a crunchy addiction. For me, food is not only a matter of subsistence (although it is also intelligent), but a way of understanding the world.