"Paris is the culinary centre of the world. All the great missionaries of good cookery have gone forth from it, and its cuisine was, is, and ever will be the supreme expression of one of the greatest arts of the world," observed the English author of The Gourmet Guide to Europe in 1903. Even today, a sophisticated meal, expertly prepared and elegantly served, must almost by definition be French.
For a century and a half, fine dining the world over has meant French dishes and, above all, French chefs. Despite the growing popularity in the past decade of regional American and international cuisines, French terms like julienne, saute, and chef de cuisine appear on restaurant menus from New Orleans to London to Tokyo, and culinary schools still consider the French methods essential for each new generation of chefs. Amy Trubek, trained as a professional chef at the Cordon Bleu, explores the fascinating story of how the traditions of France came to dominate the culinary world.
One of the first reference works for chefs, Ouverture de Cuisine, written by Lancelot de Casteau and published in 1604, set out rules for the preparation and presentation of food for the nobility. Beginning with this guide and the cookbooks that followed, French chefs of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries codified the cuisine of the French aristocracy. After the French Revolution, the chefs of France found it necessary to move from the homes of the nobility to the public sphere, where they were able to build on this foundation of an aesthetic of cooking to make cuisine not only a respected profession but also to make it a French profession. French cooks transformed themselves from household servants to masters of the art of fine dining, making the cuisine of the French aristocracy the international haute cuisine.
Eager to prove their "good taste," the new elites of the Industrial Age and the bourgeoisie competed to hire French chefs in their homes, and to entertain at restaurants where French chefs presided over the kitchen. Haute Cuisine profiles the great chefs of the nineteenth century, including Antonin Careme and Auguste Escoffier, and their role in creating a professional class of chefs trained in French principles and techniques, as well as their contemporary heirs, notably Pierre Franey and Julia Child.
The French influence on the world of cuisine and culture is a story of food as status symbol. "Tell me what you eat," the great gastronome Brillat-Savarin wrote, "and I will tell you who you are." Haute Cuisine shows us how our tastes, desires, and history come together at a common table of appreciation for the French empire of food. Bon appetit!
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From Library Journal
Trubek, an instructor at the New England Culinary Institute who has a background in anthropology, has given us an interesting account of the French contribution to the development of the culinary profession. Food and its preparation are examined both as cultural symbols and as means for creating social distinctions. The discussion focuses on French cuisine from 1870 to 1910, although events as far back as the 11th century are also recounted. The author addresses a variety of topics, including whether cooking is a trade or a profession, the role of schools and expositions, and the emergence of the restaurant. A brief glossary of culinary terms and a few illustrative recipes are featured, and there is an extensive section of resource notes. Recommended for large academic libraries and specialized culinary collections.DMary A. Martin-Russell, New Hampshire State Lib., Concord
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From The New Yorker
Trubek sees the world the way cooks do.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For readers interested in either France or cuisine of any kind, Haute Cuisine is a worthwhile and enjoyable read. Offering insight into the efforts of French chefs to establish their trade as a profession, the book explains how and why the French style of haute cuisine came to dominate within France and, more inportantly, far beyond its borders. The book studies the trade associations and journals of chefs, primarily in the 19th century. The rivalry between France and Britian in terms of culture and cuisine is discussed. It also describes the culinary expositions of the day. I highly recommend Haute Cuisinefor the casual reader as well as academics in history, anthropology, sociology, or cultural studies.
8 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
How did the French invent the culinary profession and rise to culinary heights? Haute Cuisine: How The French Invented The Culinary Profession charts the history of French cooking and French chefs, providing reviews of the pioneers of the field and their achievements. A fine survey of French food and culture, and how it influenced the world.
4 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
OK, the topic of the book is french cuisine. But Ms Trubek writes so simplistically worshipful that I think the book is not informative any more. She gives as a fact that until today french cuisine has been on top in every respect - and that's too narrow a view in the year 2000. The book should be displayed in every french cultural center and maybe in all the cooking schools mentioned which propagate french cooking - maybe that was the main motivation to write it anyway.
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 63
books:
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7
books
cite this book:
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- The Physiology of Taste: Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy by M. F. K. Fisher on 5 pages
- The Rise of Professional Society by Professor Harold Perkin in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- French Country Cooking (Cookery Library) by Elizabeth David on page 120, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Culture and Imperialism by Edward W. Said in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Simply French: Patricia Wells Presents the Cuisine of Joel Robuchon by Patricia Wells on page 20, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 63 books this book cites
- Gusto: Essential Writings in Nineteenth-Century Gastronomy by Denise Gigante in Front Matter
- Food + Architecture (Architectural Design) by Karen A. Franck on page 67
- The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating (Blackwell Readers in Anthroplogy, No. 8) by James L. Watson on page 38
- What Happened to Recess and Why Are Our Children Struggling in Kindergarten? by Susan Ohanian on page 172
- Taste: A Literary History by Prof. Denise Gigante in Back Matter
See all 7 books citing this book
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