ANTH 205 Lecture 34
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French Food Cont'd
Golden Age of French Gastronomy
French Revolution: ca. 1880
- birth of the restaurant
- fall of aristocracy
- abolition of guilds
Three main traditions:
- Classical French Cuisine
- Haute Cuisine (high cuisine; expensive, classy, best-of-best)
- Nouvelle Cuisine (20th century cuisine; lighter)
Marie-Antoine Carême
1784–1833
Architecture student
- Applied architectural principles to food preparation
- Made things on a grand scale (Cake Wars Extreme)
- Employed by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, who challenged Carême to come up with year-long menu (no repeats)
My ambition was serious. Early on I wanted to raise my profession to the state of art.
King of Chefs and Chefs of Kings
After Napoleon, Carême became chef for the Prince Regent of Britain
Invited by Alexander I, Tsar of Russia and learned Russian service
- Also in courses, but waiters serve each guest individually
- c.f. French, where dish placed on table, and people serve themselves
Everyone wanted to be like French (in terms of cuisine and cooking), and Carême was leading this.
First celebrity chef
Contributions
Mother Sauces:
- Béchamel: milk-based, thickened with rue
- Espagnole: brown veal stock sauce, thickened with dark rue
- Velouté: lighter version of Espagnole
- Allemand: Velouté thickened with egg yolk and cream
Soufflés
The toque (so that it stands up)
Refined and simplified French culinary tradition
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
1755–1826
Published The Physiology of Taste in 1826 just before he died
Made dining the supreme social setting in France
Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are
- Made cuisine an intellectual and social matter
- social introspection
- Made eating a scientific thing
- "Social gourmandise"
Georges Auguste Escoffier
1846–1835
Raised in Curême-inspired culture
Life-long foodie
- chef
- restauranteur
- food writer
Worked mainly in hotels
Modernized Haute Cuisine that Curême codified
- big fan of truffles
- his food would later become the national cuisine of France
Made cooks a respected profession:
- Introduced organization and discipline in kitchen: brigade system
- Divided kitchen into 5 stations:
- Garde: cold dishes
- Entremetier: soups, vegetables, non-meat
- Rôtisseur: rosated, grilled, and fried dishes
- Saucier: sauces
- Pâtissier: pastries
British Author A.V. Kirwan: No one can compare with France's science of preparing food.
Refined Curâme's mother sauces:
- Added Hollandaise (emulsified sauces) and Tomato
De-stressed use of heavy sauces
- favored lighter food in general
- Sauces supposed to elevate flavor
Two books:
- Le guide Culinaire (1903) more or less "How to be come a French cook"; 5000+ recipes
- Larousse Gastronomique (1938) Culinary encyclopedia
goal was to catalog of food at the time since gastronomy is always changing
Nouvelle Cuisine
Began in late 1960s
- Paul Bocuse (and other chefs) began to rebel against "orthodoxy" of Escoffier and Carême
- Simplified cuisine
- Replaced heavy sauces
- (very) small portions
- Emphasized intricate visual artistry
10 characteristics (commandments):
- reject excessive complication
- reduce cooking times to preserve natural flavors (steaming)
- use freshest possible ingredients
- shorter menus
- no strong flavors
- no heavy sauces
- regional dishes for inspiration
- new techniques and modern equipment
- close attention to dietary needs of patrons
- extremely inventive in pairing different flavors
Culinary Legacy
Major contributors
- Taillevent
- La Varenne
- Carê
- Escoffier
Heavily influenced by social and political conditions in France and Europe
5 fundamentals (in order of importance)
- Stocks
- sauces
- knife skills (butchering, preparation, cutting styles)
- cooking methods
- pastry
Restaurant as we know it
Culinary profession
Meal structure
- courses/stages
- waiters
Dishes themselves
Julia Child
Single-handedly responsible for introducing French cuisine to mainstream America in the 1960s
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
"The French Chef"