A Guide To The World's Best Fine Dining Restaurants

               
Nouvelle Cuisine
Nouvelle cuisine was a reaction to classic French cuisine placed into "orthodoxy" by Escoffier. It is characterized by lighter, more delicate dishes with greater simplicity and elegance, absolute freshness of ingredients, lightness and natural harmony in the accompaniments with an increased emphasis on presentation and simplicity in the cooking method. This "set of ideas" was France's contribution to the globalization of the world.


Gault and Millau "discovered the formula" of nouvelle cuisine and identified ten characteristics in 1971:

  • 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 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 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.

Source: Nouvelle Cuisine. (2022). Wikipedia.   Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouvelle_cuisine


Further Explanations of Nouvelle Cuisine Per Gayot

  • Less fat, no flour liaisons, no indigestible mixtures, and no 'disguised' dishes.
  • Light sauces based on meat juices, stocks, essences, and spices.
  • Vegetables prepared so that their natural flavors are retained.
  • Rapid cooking without fat, which allows the food to retain some of its texture. This entails dry cooking in the oven, or under a grill (broiler), steaming, stewing, cooking in a bain-marie, or cooking en papillote.


Source: Nouvelle Cuisine Larousse Gastronomique Definition. (n.d). Gayot. Retrieved from:
http://www.gayot.com/restaurants/features/nouvelle_cuisine_larousse_def.html


Claude Fischler wrote for the daily newspaper La Monde an article titled ‘The Socrates of the Nouvelle Cuisine’ where he states ‘in place of the cook as mercenary of the kitchen stove, we now have the Socratic cook - midwife at the birth of culinary truth’ (versus an 'authority' like Escoffier).


The Roots of the New American Cuisine Movement
Was born by Restaurant Associates in New York City. They owned or managed the Four Seasons restaurant, Windows on the World, Tower Suite, Forum of the 12 Ceasars, Mama Leone's, and many more. The owners Joe Baum & George Lang and long running corporate chef Victor Broceaux first presented 'modern American cuisine' to President Kennedy at the 1964 NY Worlds Fair. 






They opened the  Four Seasons in 1959 in New York City and became 'the cult of freshness and organically grown ingredients, ........the inventive interpretation of regional American dishes, which became known as the New American cooking...... they developed the international blending of styles and ingredients, later described as fusion.....they were naming the places where the ingredients came from. They would write: ‘Handpicked tomatoes from Long Island, carved tableside.’ They were the first to pick up on farm-to-table.' 

Source: Jeremiah Tower, the chef at Chez Panisse in the early 1970s.


They later developed the first totally modern American restaurant concept - The American Restaurant in Kansas City 1974. The next restaurant to approach American fine dining was Larry Forgione in 1979 at the River Café.

Source: The first and third paragraphs came from Victor Brocceaux in 1981. Please let us know if you believe any part of this in error.



 

 

Other Early Modern American Fine Cuisine Restaurants

1971  Alice Waters opens Chez Panisse. Jeremiah Tower becomes chef in 1973


1974  Restaurant Associates opens The American Restaurant in Kansas City   


1979  Larry Forgione opens the River Café