Suzanne, You have no argument from me, infact, I am in total agreement with you. I am only expressing my love for culinary history in a factual way, No more than that.
back to France.
Since the 17th century, French chefs have been expressing their desire for reform in the cuisine they inherited from the past. As time passed, they became more and more articulate in their criticism of the "ancient cookery"and boastfully dogmatic about the virtues of " modern cookery". In 1733, for example, Vincent La Chapelle wrote: " If a great lord's table were served today as it was twenty years ago, it would not satisfy his guests. His Cuisinier moderne announced the birth of " Nouvelle cuisine" a new way of cooking that would be adopted by several generations of French chefs - until Careme challenged it in the early 19th century. In our own time, French chefs have once again "rebelled" and the " Nouvelle cuisine" that revoluionized cookind during the 1970s has led to a new respect for vegetables, lighter sauces, and the discovery of regional specialities like Foie Gras. Indeed, perhapes more than anything else, it is the French chefs willingness to question and build on there past, to innovate, to revise, that has kept French cuisine pre eminent among western cuisines and one of the great cuisines of the world  |