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The same effect occurred in the United Kingdom,
where a generation of “New British” chefs
emerged, adamant that British food was not
synonymous with bad food. Chefs such as Nico
Ladenis, Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay,
and Fergus Henderson took principles of Nouvelle
cuisine and applied them in their own characteristic
ways.
A number of French expatriates, such as Albert
and Michel Roux, Raymond Blanc, and Pierre
Koffmann, joined their ranks, bringing French
Nouvelle cuisine directly to British diners. As in
the United States, this helped lead a movement
toward higher-quality food and dining.
In Spain, the effect of Nouvelle cuisine was
much more limited. It was clearly an inspiration
for the Spanish Basque chef Juan Mari Arzak, who
created his own distinctive style that would later
inspire Spanish Modernist chefs. But throughout
the 1960s and 1970s, Spanish food was largely
unaffected by the developments in France.
Italy had even less of a reaction to the Nouvelle
revolution. In part, that is because Italian cuisine
has always been highly regional and did not have
centralized standards. There was no set of oppressive
grande cuisine rules to rebel against.
A few Italian chefsincluding Gualtiero
Marchesi, Nadia Santini of the great restaurant
Dal Pescatore, and Luisa Marelli Valazza of Al
Sorrisoused some principles of Nouvelle
cuisine to inform their interpretations of Italian
culinary themes. A more recent example is Heinz
Beck, who was born in Germany but for years has
been considered one of the top chefs in Rome.
The refined and sophisticated Italian cuisine
produced by these chefs definitely owes some-
thing to the Nouvelle movement, but it never
constituted a revolution.
Today, many of the original leaders of the
Nouvelle cuisine movement are retired from
day-to-day activities in the kitchen but remain
involved with the restaurants that bear their
names. Subsequent generations of French chefs
have extended the scope of French cuisine, but all
through gradual evolution.
What started as Nouvelle cuisine is now one
branch of what could be called “New International”
cuisine. Around the world, one can find national
cuisines that were clearly inspired by the Nouvelle
movement, borrowing both cooking techniques
and the general attitude of rebellion. This includes
various “New” takes on Asian cooking, or so-called
Fusion, which melds Asian spices and techniques
within a Western, Nouvelle-inspired backdrop.
In the later stages of Nouvelle cuisine and in
New International cooking, innovation has
mainly been limited to flavor combinations. The
first step was mining traditional regional cuisines
for their approaches and flavors. Next, chefs
sought to bridge the gap between Western and
Asian cuisines.
Then new and exotic ingredients found their
way onto menus. Wagyu beef and fish such as
hamachi and toro (tuna belly) have always been
found in Japanese restaurants. Today, you might
find them on the menu at nearly any New International
restaurant anywhere in the world. Meanwhile,
ostensibly Japanese restaurants, such as
Nobu, incorporate their own take on foie gras,
jalapeño peppers, and other completely non-
Japanese ingredients.
Although France started the ball rolling, it is
T HE HISTORY O F
New American Cuisine
In the 1970s, fine dining in the United States
usually meant one of two things: either a
steak house with a menu straight from the
1950s, or a “Continental cuisine” restaurant
that served ersatz, heavy, and uninspired
food. Food writer Calvin Trillin lampooned
this type of restaurant, saying that they might
as well all have the same name: “La Maison
de la Casa House.”
News of Nouvelle cuisine in France encouraged
a generation of American chefs to
rebel and create something of their own. The
two culinary movements shared many tenets: eschewing
heavy stocks and sauces, showcasing fresh and local ingredients,
and cooking those ingredients minimally (or not at all).
The New American movement looked to the culinary
traditions of many different regions for its inspiration, including
California, the South and Southwest, and Cajun country.
As diverse as these culinary styles were, they were unified by
a spirit of creativity among their proponents, including Alice
Waters and Jeremiah Tower at Chez Panisse in Berkeley,
California; Larry Forgione at The River Café and An American
Place in New York City; Charlie Trotter at Charlie Trotter’s in
Chicago; Paul Prudhomme at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in
New Orleans; and Wolfgang Puck (pictured) at Ma Maison
and Spago in Los Angeles. Through their experimentation,
these chefs laid the groundwork for an American cuisine that
had the techniques and refinements found in
Nouvelle French food but that was based on
American tastes and traditions.
Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971 and
hired Tower as head chef two years later.
Working together in the kitchen, the two
borrowed heavily from Nouvelle cuisine, but
they also forged their own distinctly Californian
style—which included high-end pizzas,
whole baked garlic with white cheese and
peasant bread, and cream of fresh corn soup
with crayfish butter. Tower, a self-taught chef,
had a brash confidence and a penchant for taking chances.
More important, Waters, Tower, and subsequent chefs at
Chez Panisse helped launch a revolution in how food was
purchased, working directly with farmers and purveyors to
acquire the best possible ingredients. They became some of
the first and most vocal proponents of small farms and
sustainable agriculture, a trend that has gathered momentum
over time. They also championed artisanal baked bread
and had enormous influence on American bakers.
As Waters wrote in her Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook, “We
as a nation are so removed from any real involvement with
the food we buy, cook, and consume. We have become
alienated by the frozen foods and hygienically sealed bread.
I want to stand in the supermarket aisles and implore the
shoppers, their carts piled high with mass-produced artifici-
ality, ‘Please … look at what you are buying!’”
sauce, sweet potato–pecan pie, and Prudhomme’s signature
blackened redfish (the progenitor of all other “blackened”
dishes). He treated Cajun and other Louisiana-based cuisine as
a framework for innovation, and he soon attracted attention
from the press and the public. Prudhomme became a household
name after he launched his line of spice blends, which are
now distributed worldwide.
Puck’s name is equally recognizable today. His career took
off in 1975, when he began his seven-year tenure as chef at Ma
Maison, becoming a favorite of Hollywood stars. When Puck
opened Spago, in 1982, it quickly became one of the most
popular restaurants on the West Coast. His culinary style,
which he called “L.A. Provincial,” was similar to Waters’s and
Tower’s in emphasizing regional ingredients and a casual
atmosphere. He specialized in haute pizzas (with then-unusual
toppings such as fresh duck, Santa Barbara shrimp, and smoked
salmon with caviar) and California-style dishes such as Sonoma
baby lamb with braised greens and rosemary. Puck spun his
early success into an international empire that now includes
high-end restaurants, a chain of bistros, a catering business, and
consumer products (such as his ubiquitous frozen pizzas).
These New American pioneers became some of the first
celebrity chefs. Their popularity coincided with the growing
American interest in good food and made top-quality ingredients
de rigueur in fine restaurants. The stage was set for the
emergence of a new Modernist cuisine.
Forgione was also an early supporter of small-scale farming.
In 1978, after two years in London, he returned to the U.S. and
soon became frustrated at how difficult it was to find quality
ingredients. While heading the kitchen at The River Café, he
worked diligently to purchase free-range chickens, ducks, and
wild game (including muskrat, beaver, and elk). The River Café
became the first New York restaurant to serve fresh buffalo in
70 years. Forgione also procured periwinkles, sea urchins, and
other seafood from Hawaii, as well as specialty produce such
as cattail shoots and fiddlehead ferns. In 1983, he opened his
own restaurant, An American Place, and continued to shine a
spotlight on small farmers and seasonal ingredients.
In Chicago, Charlie Trotter espoused a similar philosophy at
his eponymous restaurant, which he opened in 1987. The
famously perfectionistic chef combined French technique,
Japanese-style presentation, and a strong emphasis on American
ingredients, including Maine lobster, Alaskan halibut,
Hudson Valley foie gras, and fresh organic vegetables. He
pioneered both the craze for microgreens and the practice of
serving diners at a table in the kitchen. He was also one of the
first high-end chefs to offer a vegetable tasting menu.
Meanwhile, Prudhomme was making his name with a very
different, but nevertheless ingredient-driven, menu. K-Paul’s,
which opened in 1979, served dishes inspired by the Cajun and
Creole communities of rural Louisiana, including jalapeño and
cheddar biscuits, free-range roast duck with rice and orange
28 VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTALS
HISTORY 29