My Thoughts on Food Trends with a Little History Included
Time gives one a perspective on many things. My food service career began at the fabled Club 33 in Disneyland in 1973. At that time, state of the art cuisine in America was the classic French or continental restaurant. A restaurant such as Scandia, Chasens, The Four Seasons, The Blue Fox, and the Chez Carey personified fine dining in America.
All that changed in 1977. Novelle cuisine hit the plate in America and we embraced it with enthusiasm. The chef/owner of L’Ermitage, Jean Betranou, introduced the new cooking to Los Angeles. His famous Diner de Cent featured Paul Bocuse, Roger Vergé and Gastone Lenotre as guest chefs. Here is a link that gives a short history of L'Hermitage and the impact Chef Jean Bertranou made, L'Ermitage. There was a whole cadre of chefs that emerged from the kitchen of L'Ermitage, Michael McCarty, Roy Yamagouchi, Michel Blanchet, Ken Frank, and John Sedlar to mention a few.
Robert Mondavi also launched his Great Chefs of France and Great Chefs of America series at his winery at the time as well. The chef proponents of this food style were being brought to California in a variety of events showcased at the Mondavi Winery. The Great Chefs program was a landmark promoting modern cuisine and the emerging great wines of Napa Valley.
Mondavi Winery
I recall reading, in French, the books by the Troisgros brothers, Michel Guérard and Paul Bocuse. These were and still are a collection of interesting, innovative dishes that still respected traditions. Remember the Troisgros dish Terrine de legume and Escalope de Veau au Moutarde?
Nouvelle Cuisine was a departure from the now out of date Escoffier style cuisine that dominated European-French-Continental cooking since the early 1900s. The Nouvelle Cuisine's precepts were:
1. Thou shalt not overcook
2. Thou shalt use fresh, quality produce
3. Thou shalt lighten thy menu
4. Thou shalt not be systematically modernistic
5. Thou shalt nonetheless seek out what the new techniques can bring you
6. Thou shalt avoid marinades, the hanging of game, fermentations, etc.
7. Thou shalt eliminate brown and white sauces
8. Thou shalt not ignore dietetics
9. Thou shalt not cheat on thy presentations
10. Thou shalt be inventive
Novelle cuisine was recognized early on by the guide Gault et Millaut and they promoted the food style in their guise. The Nouvelle Cuisine precepts freed up the imagination of chefs by loosening the shackles of the classic strictures. Why not a Pot-au Fue de Foie Gras from Michel Guérard or the iconic Truffle Soup of Paul Bocuse?
Many times, under inexperienced hands, what evolved were culinary sins due to the fact that budding chef’s had forgone the classic training that was the foundation of the food style. Kiwi fruit with snails was one of those culinary transgressions. Those sins were like a musical composer that wrote music but never studied harmony, composition and style.
The progression was that over time, more discipline came about and new fusion styles emerged. This style embraced the fusion of disparate cultures and exotic ingredients.
The next big revolution has been and continues under the banner of molecular gastronomy. This evolution uses food science to manipulate food in ways never dreamt of before. The basis of the food style is the use of high tech equipment, modern starches and new methods to produce unique results with food. Equipment such as vacuum chambers, immersion cookers, liquid nitrogen, fast freeze chillers, and dedicators are used to transform food.
I mention all this as a preamble to making predictions on where food trends may lead us in the next 10 years. Here are what I think will be three trends over the next 10 years.
1-The green movement, which is like the Whole Earth movement from the 1970s, will continue to be a strong force in shaping how food is grown, transported and prepared. People will want to know what seeds are used (GMO VS Non-GMO), how the soil has been treated, what agricultural practices are being used, how is the food transported, packed and prepared. Part and parcel to this are the healthful aspects of the food. Trans fats are an example of a vilified food being eliminated by fiat. This trend will continue to spawn the demand for clean, healthy foods that are environmentally responsible. This will embrace all food styles.
2-Economics are going to play a very strong card. The challenge will be to keep the cost of food affordable. Energy cost will trend up and this will force new thinking and play into the locovare’s theme of using locally grown products. This is in itself a very retro concept as it is how food used to be produced and distributed. In the past, we had to wait for local berries to come to the market, the first asparagus of spring, baby lettuces from the garden. This trend, in turn, will bring a return to more seasonal and regional dishes. We hardly know any seasons now due to modern transportation of food from all over the world. Why do we get fresh garlic from China? If cap and trade come about, we might even see a carbon rating on the foods we purchase. Keeping food affordable will depend on how the energy used to grow, transport, prepare, serve and dispose of food is managed.
There is an interesting movement in the Detroit area to redevelop the urban blight and return it to productive farmland to feed the local population. The thinking is to create jobs as well as food the local populace.
This trend of economics also will fuel the trend of foods being prepared by large companies. Time is our rarest asset and folks are always looking for ease of preparations.
3-I think with all the other trends I mentioned, there will be a demand for food which is genuine and classical in nature, that employs traditional cooking methods and is served in a gracious style. The molecular gastronomy style will tame down and the best of the methods will enhance the traditional cooking methods. After all, all cooking is molecular in nature and we chefs are unconscious scientists transforming by the use of heat, chemical reactions and physical manipulations. I care little if a stew takes 3 hours or 24 to cook as long as the meat is tender and the sauce lush and complex.
One last note on the seafood front is that Mariculture will increase as the demands on wild fishes are depleting and even collapsing fisheries. This is nothing new to the Asians and pond farming goes back centuries. Methods will evolve to make this environmentally sound and economically viable.
In the end, food needs to feed our bodies and nourish our souls.
Tastefully yours®
Chef Michael Hutchings
[email protected]
www.michaelscateringsb.com
Award Winning Chefs Michael
Hutchings and Christine Dahl
