The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine in the United States - Paul Freedman
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2024
- Friends Culture & Cuisine Talk: November 15, 2013
"The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine in
the United States"
Paul Freedman
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I'd listen to Paul Freedman read the yellow pages.
What brought me here is my liking of food - can't live without it. I would love to hear a history of the fall of American cuisine. I'm from Brazil and know nothing about US cooking - except the scene in which John Wayne eats in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". My question: how did the US go from eating steak and whole fried potatoes to barbecuing burgers and eating chips?
The notion of contemporary bistros relying mainly on the _cachet_ of things French rather than the actual gastronomic tradition rings pretty true. There's a little vignette in the third installment of the video game trilogy _Mass Effect,_ set roughly two centuries in the future, that plays the concept for laughs. The hero is ambushed by antagonists at a high-end sushi restaurant on a space station called "Ryuusei" with an entirely French staff and various extra-terrestrial patrons that can be overheard gushing about the prestige of eating "authentic French sushi." I doubt the devs were making a conscious comment about Nouvelle Cuisine, of course, but it does demonstrate the idea is bouncing around in the _zeitgeist._
4:17 Talk begins.
From the history of the Roman Empire to all you ever wa ted to know about French cuisine is not that great a leap for Paul. I hear him using the same critical analysis of the Chef as the creator rather than guardian of tradition as he does in his wonderful lectures on the Roman Emperor's . Constantine- guardian or creator? He is one brilliant academic. Such a tonic to the parade of screenwriter's masquerading as historians that we have all to many of today .
Very interesting lecture. It's true that the dominance of French cuisine has also ended in parts of Europe I know outside France. When I was a child in the seventies this dominance was still there. If I speak for myself I think the reason it ended was persistent low value for money in comparison with other cuisines.
@10:00 Not even a mention of Germany.
french cuisine still the best by far tho it's insane how many good cooks they have. a random one star michelin from france will have a complete mastery of his craft to such a level that is hard to understand for the foreigner. frankly there is no competition beside the italians. a good chef in france must be an excellent baker,patissier,saucier,cook,grill master, roaster, gardener,somellier, fromagier,butcher etc you hardly find anyone that can master the full spectrum of cooking like that.
France isn't an island but culturally the French have been obtusely insular for a very long time, never more so than in their assumption that no other country could have a cuisine to match theirs.
The truth is that there are great dishes to be found all over the world and a vast wealth of culinary knowledge and expertise to be explored everywhere.
It isn't for nothing that the 'great' Paul Bocuse has been called the Stalin of cuisine: authoritarian reflexes twitch along French nerves, not least when it comes to food.
Technically, professional French cooking is superb but as a people the French need to lighten up and be more open to new ideas: if they could do that, the standing of their cuisine would rise again.
I agree, but for me what's so sad is not the French attitude itself, but the way a lot of the rest of the world accepts it. There is a huge cultural cringe in countries like my own, the UK, and it's completely unnecessary. In other circumstances the French snottiness would be their undoing internationally; instead it has been their making. I can't see how their particular set of culinary values will survive in the sort of ecology-determined world we are moving into, where climate catastrophe will transform diets, ingredients, cooking styles and nutrition.
The French people I know are very kind and accommodating and certainly not arrogant at all. Their cuisine is a southeastern "country French" faire.
Chauvin was a Frenchman but the French do not have a monopoly on snotty "exceptionalism". Besides, as everyone knows, God is an Englishman.
French inwardness you're complaining about is what keeps its standards high unlike incoherent dirtpile island Britain where they think curry is English food
@@dudeidontcare3430 Depends on the curry. There is English curry, Korean curry, Indian curry. There are plenty of different curries. Stop being an ignorant idiot
do French have there own cuisine culture???