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What is Nouvelle Cuisine?
By Troy Pentico
The 1970's brought a great deal of upheaval and new ideas to the
forefront, and the world of cuisine was no exception. In June of 1975,
the British magazine Harpers & Queen coined a term to refer to a new
type of food that was sweeping the world: Nouvelle Cuisine.
What is nouvelle cuisine? It is, in a word, the marriage of health-conscious
California to traditional France. Consider it an updated version of French
cuisine- flavorful food with a light-handed, healthy approach. It's difficult
to define nouvelle cuisine in more specific terms because of its huge
impact on the way food in general is prepared today. Nouvelle cuisine
opened doors to a new generation of restaurant-goers who loved rich
tastes and fresh combinations, but didn't want their bodies to pay for it
later.
With this new lighter menu came a new style of cooking as well. Chefs in
nouvelle cuisine restaurants used shorter cooking times and fresher
ingredients, cutting down on the multiple steps that got in the way of
the natural flavors of the food. In a world that was waking up to faster-
moving times and stricter diets, this new cuisine caught on with incredible
speed.
Like any other trend, nouvelle cuisine was often widely misunderstood
and misrepresented. Depending on what regional restaurant you visited,
you might have been subjected to a low-calorie meal with tiny portions
and been told it was nouvelle cuisine. Many chefs and consumers alike did
not grasp the concept that lighter did not necessarily mean less.
One of the main goals of nouvelle cuisine was to excite more than just
the sense of taste. A skilled nouvelle chef would be able to produce a
meal that was artistically arranged on the plate and contained a wonderful
mix of smells, textures, and flavors. Oils and fresh spices were used
extensively to bring out the natural flavor of the fresh vegetables and
pastas in these meals.
The way we cook at home today owes a great deal to nouvelle cuisine.
Olive oil, vinaigrette, and fresh herbs are common today in many American
kitchens, mainly due to the influence of the nouvelle cuisine movement.
Restaurants, too, have taken their cue: before the appearance of
nouvelle cuisine, portions were heavier and larger, and consumers went
to restaurants expecting to come out full, but not necessarily sated.
Nowadays fine restaurants base their expertise on combining flavors, not
smothering them; and on their presenting food that satisfies, not simply
fills, an empty stomach.
There is still a debate on whether nouvelle cuisine has disappeared from
the radar. It has certainly influenced other fields of cooking, but nobody is
sure if it can be considered a movement of its own in the current times.
Then again, a trend that catches on so quickly is almost always destined
to develop in other ways and spread to other things, losing its identity as
a separate entity along the way.
About the Author
Visit The Tasty Chef for more great tips, techniques, and insights pertaining to cooking and recipes. http://www.tastychef.net
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