Reply to Other than bread/pastry I don't get the fuss about French cuisine

Forum Index » Food, Cooking, and Restaurants

Reply to "Other than bread/pastry I don't get the fuss about French cuisine"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]French cuisine has evolved greatly from the trailblazing days of “The French Chef,” when the average American ate big hunks of underseasoned overcooked meat (beef more often than not) accompanied by equally underseasoned potatoes and probably canned vegetables, if any vegetables at all. People used dehydrated onion instead of fresh, some of them had never seen a garlic clove in real life, and a raft of herbs, seasons and garnishes we routinely use today were either virtually unknown or thought of as very exotic.

Even back then, however, the French focus on seasonal, fresh ingredients, cooking food to the optimum, using various seasonings, and perhaps most of the use of sauces to enhance presentation, texture and palatability was revolutionary in the US. So was the French focus on careful preparation and precise, efficient  technique.  The various staples of cuisine bourgeoise (onion soup, steak a poivre, and the like) were completely new to many, if not most, American cooks.

With today’s year round availability of ingredients, access to once unheard of exotic ingredients like foie gras, and now-multiple generations of readily accessible cooking instruction, it is easy to forget (if one ever even knew) just how comparatively primitive US cuisine was, particularly after the broad introduction of frozen and other convenience foods.

It is not that easy, however to define exactly what constitutes “French” cooking nowadays. French cuisine has never stood still and the French have a long history of being willing to eat nearly anything that will stand still long enough for them to masticate it. The ingredients, seasonings and culinary influences in France today are far broader than in, say, even the 1960’s.

That said, and as PP’s have noted, the “soul” of French cooking remains fresh (typically local), seasonal ingredients of the highest quality, carefully prepared to enhance their taste and presented as elegantly as circumstances allow. French vegetables don’t come from another continent. Their meat animals are raised more naturally, and everything from chicken on up has remarkably more flavor than what we find in the average US supermarket.  This is not to say that one can’t get a bad meal in France, or that with the advent of “super-“ and “hyper-marches,” there hasn’t been a decline in average ingredient quality as compared to specialty shops. There are gradations in everything and even the French are not immune to culinary decline.

The good news is that quality ingredients in the US are more available than ever, albeit probably not at the local supermarket. Those ingredients, handled with a French ethic, will yield food to rival any ethnic or other cuisine. Even Jacques Pepin, perhaps the most famous French cook in history, no longer recognizes his cooking as specifically “French”. For him, inputs change, but technique remains constant, and this is what allows any cooking to shine.

[/quote]
So what you are saying is not that the French cuisine is something truly special, more that it is special to the U.S? I grew up eating tomatoes, strawberries, and all the rest that we grew. We even had our own pigs and chickens.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics