The true revolution in high restoration arrived in 1700 in France with Auguste Escoffier and also with the restlessness and mastery of Carême (a new viewing of the film is worth it Over low heat o Dodin-bouffant’s passion to refresh the figure of this important chef and gastronomous scholar). However, it was in the seventies when everything seemed in France: the new wave In the cinema, of the new novel In literature and new kitchen In gastronomy. Everything went through Paris and Paris looked fashions, trends and art as in a great showcase where everyone, without distinction, wanted to show themselves. This is how the new kitchen With its revolutionary chefs, faithful to the ten commandments of the modern cuisine to unite excesses, use fresh and good quality products, less ‘pompous’ letters, sauces, control dietary, not exaggerate in presentations, be inventive and creative …
In the book Memory of French cuisine. Conversations with Benoît Peeters, Translated by Josep María Pinto and edited by Planet Gastro, the cartoonist and writer Benoît Peeters asks the French chef Michel Guérard (who died in August 2024): “Do you agree that, although France continues to be at a remarkable level in haute cuisine, the daily restoration has degraded considerably?” To which the cook replies: “To guarantee the level of the big tables, in France there is a plethora of young people whose talent excites me. The relay is assured. Thing that does not necessarily happen with the daily restoration (…) A wrong pride in cooking has undoubtedly diverted us of the obligation to propose a simple, good and little expensive kitchen.”
This book dives in the childhood of chef Michel Guérard, in his first steps in the kitchen, in his awards, in his concern for the dietary applied to high restoration and his revolutionary attitude. In the prologue, Ferran Adrià writes: “Michel Guérard is one of the most relevant chefs in the history of gastronomic restoration. He is one of the founders of the new kitchen. Of course, there were the troist brothers, Paul Bocuse as a great ambassador and also Chapel among others. However, if we analyzed everyone’s work, I think the one who was more rupturist at the beginning was Guérard. It was he who marked the way for others, although, obviously, it was a collective work. ”
Michel Guérard’s book comes to raise his voice, to remind the world not only his name, but that of some of the chefs who managed to exalize the kitchen, professionalize it. What are the aforementioned Escoffier or Carême now? What tell us the names of Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Robuchon, Eugénie Brazier, to name a few examples?
To discover the person of Michel Guérard anything like this book; But, to know about more about chefs, haute cuisine and avant -garde, you have to read the essay of the writer and journalist Óscar Caballero A story of the Nouvelle Cuisine. And how Alain Ducasse became an emperor of world cuisine (Planet Gastro). An indispensable manual, full of data, curiosities and much depth.
Of the books of reflection and thought to the French cuisine manuals that are determined to immortalize the recipes that made France the culinary capital of the world: how to correctly prepare the macarons? How is a pot-au-feu? What is the bouquet garni? The mother sauces? The basic cuts (mirepoix, Matignon, brunoise…)? … we will find all this in the French gastronomy encyclopedia (Blume), by chef Vicent Boué, the writer Hubert Delorore and the photographer Las Clay McLachlan. More than 200 recipes, 1000 techniques and the best stored kitchen tricks in the French tradition. Or in the voluminous French cuisine step by step (Planet Gastro), by chef Guillaume Gómez. A very practical book, which thoroughly analyzes that ‘forgotten’ recipe book, without losing detail and adding, in each recipe, the indispensable tips of the chef: “The lobster, better that is female”; “serves the crop in crust with some vegetable pickles with their vinegars”; “He culibiac o knee It is not made with puff pastry but with a brioche dough and with an vesig lorraineEllish truffle soup, etc.
Speaking of indispensable manuals about French cuisine. There is a recipe book that does not go out of style, very traditional and revealing the kitchen with roots, it is the robuchon. All recipes (RBA), by Joël Robuchon. Translation by Francisco Ramos and Rosa Tovar, the book discovers us the chef’s secrets, in austere way, without illustrations or photographs, he reviews the bases of the kitchen (the broths, the seasonal products, the ways of working the food in the kitchen) and then presents 600 recipes of the chef: of some simple steamed mussels to the most sophisticated birds, filled with truffle or elaborate puff pastry.
Of the great chefs to one of the great communicators not only of the French traditional cuisine, but also in the ways of presenting it at the table, sharing and enjoying it. We talked about Julie Andrieu. His book Julie’s recipes. 150 ideas for cooking in your day to day (Planet) is a recipe book that, to some extent, shows today’s France: of tradition and fusion, of landfators to aromas of other worlds, of the crème brûlée Potimarrón with spices, to the Lebanese tabulé with Quinoa.
