DEVELOPMENT AND AVAILABILITY,Origin of modern cookery Classical and New World COOKING IN THE TWENTIETH AND Cuisine,Different styles cookery: oriental,
Origin of modern cookery Classical and New World Cuisine bhmct note
Quantity cookery has existed for thousands of years, as long as there have been large groups of people to feed, such as armies.
Modern cuisine begun in the middle of the eighteenth century. At this time, food production in France was controlled by GUILDS. Caterers, pastry makers, roasters, and pork butchers held licenses to prepare specific items. An innkeeper, in order to serve a meal to guests, had to buy the various menu items from those operations that were licensed to provide them. Guests had little or no choice and simply ate what was available for that meal.In 1765, a Parisian named Boulanger began advertising on his shop sign that he served soups, which he called restaurants or restoratives. (Literally, the word means “fortifying.”) According to the story, one of the dishes he served was sheep’s feet in a cream sauce. The guild of stew makers challenged him in court, but Boulanger won by claiming he didn’t stew the feet in the sauce but served them with the sauce. In challenging the rules of the guilds, Boulanger unwittingly changed the course of food service history.
The new developments in food service received a great stimulus as a result of the French Revolution, beginning in 1789. Before this time; the great chefs were employed in the houses of the French nobility. With the revolution and the end of the monarchy, many chefs, suddenly out of work, opened restaurants in and around Paris. Furthermore, the revolutionary government abolished the guilds. Restaurants and inns could serve dinners reflecting the talent and creativity of their own chefs, rather than being forced to rely on licensed caterers to supply their food. At the start of the French Revolution, there were about 50 restaurants in Paris. Ten years later there were about 500. Another important invention that changed the organization of kitchens in the eighteenth century was the stove,
CHEF CARÊME
Marie-Antoine Carême (1784–1833). As a young man, Carême learned all the branches of cooking quickly, and he dedicated his career to refining and organizing culinary techniques. His many books contain the first systematic account of cooking principles, recipes, and menu making.
He was perhaps the first real celebrity chef, and he became famous as the creator of elaborate, elegant display pieces and pastries, the ancestors of our modern wedding cakes, sugar sculptures, and ice and tallow carvings.
ESCOFFIER
Georges-Auguste Escoffier (1847–1935), the greatest chef of his time, is still today revered by chefs and gourmets as the father of twentieth-century cookery. His two main contributions were the simplification of classical cuisine and the classical menu, and (2) the reorganization of the kitchen.
Escoffier rejected what he called the “general confusion” of the old menus, in which sheer quantity seemed to be the most important factor. Instead, he called for order and diversity and emphasized the careful selection of one or two dishes per course, dishes that followed one another harmoniously and delighted the taste with their delicacy and simplicity.
Escoffier’s books and recipes are still important reference works for professional chefs. The basic cooking methods and preparations we study today are based on Escoffier’s work. His book Le Guide Culinaire, which is still widely used, arranges recipes in a simple system based on main ingredient and cooking method, greatly simplifying the more complex system handed down from Carême. Learning classical cooking, according to Escoffier, begins with learning a relatively few basic procedures and understanding basic ingredients. Escoffier’s second major achievement, the reorganization of the kitchen, resulted in a streamlined workplace that was better suited to turning out the simplified dishes and menus he instituted. The system of organization he established is still in use today, especially in large hotels and full-service restaurants.
MODERN TECHNOLOGY
Today’s kitchens look much different from those of Escoffier’s day, even though our basic cooking principles are the same. Also, the dishes we eat have gradually changed due to the innovations and creativity of modern chefs. The process of simplification and refinement, to which Carême and Escoffier made monumental contributions, is still ongoing, adapting classical cooking to modern conditions and tastes.
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW EQUIPMENT
We take for granted such basic equipment as gas and electric ranges and ovens and electric refrigerators. But even these essential tools did not exist until fairly recently. The easily controlled heat of modern cooking equipment, as well as motorized food cutters, mixers, and other processing equipment, has greatly simplified food production. Modern equipment has enabled many food service operations to change their production methods. With sophisticated cooling, freezing, and heating equipment, it is possible to prepare some foods further in advance and in larger quantities.
DEVELOPMENT AND AVAILABILITY OF NEW FOOD PRODUCTS
Modern refrigeration and rapid transportation caused revolutionary changes in eating habits. For the first time, fresh foods of all kinds—meats, fish, vegetables, and fruits— became available throughout the year. Exotic delicacies can now be shipped from anywhere in the world and arrive fresh and in peak condition. The development of preservation techniques—not just refrigeration but also freezing, canning, freeze-drying, vacuum-packing, and irradiation—increased the availability of most foods and made affordable some that were once rare and expensive
COOKING IN THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES
A generation after Escoffier, the most influential chef in the middle of the twentieth century was Fernand Point (1897–1955).Working quietly and steadily in his restaurant, La Pyramide, in Vienne, France, Point simplified and lightened classical cuisine. ”Point insisted that every meal should be “a little marvel”
Many of his apprentices, such as Paul Bocuse, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, and Alain Chapel, went on to become some of the greatest stars of modern cooking. They, along with other chefs in their generation, became best known in the 1960s and early 1970s for a style of cooking called nouvelle cuisine. Reacting to what they saw as a heavy, stodgy, overly complicated classical cuisine, these chefs took Point’s lighter approach even further. They rejected many traditional principles, such as a dependence on flour to thicken sauces, and instead urged simpler, more natural flavors and preparations, with lighter sauces and seasonings and shorter cooking times. In traditional classical cuisine, many dishes were plated in the dining room by waiters. Nouvelle cuisine, however, placed a great deal of emphasis on artful plating presentations done by the chef in the kitchen. Very quickly, however, this “simpler” style became extravagant and complicated, famous for strange combinations of foods and fussy, ornate arrangements and designs. By the 1980s, nouvelle cuisine was the subject of jokes.
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| Origin of modern cookery Classical and New World Cuisine |
Origin of modern cookery Classical and New World Cuisine.
