This blog post explores how French cuisine became the benchmark for haute cuisine through its artistry and systematization, focusing on its history and influence.
Cooking is a fundamental element of our lives today. Its history is profound, as evidenced by traces found in Stone Age pottery of grains cooked or steamed with water. Moreover, every culture developed its own culinary style, expanding horizontally. While each branch is unique and possesses its own merits, French cuisine is widely recognized as the most representative lineage among professional haute cuisine styles. This recognition stems not merely from pride in fine wine and cuisine being a significant part of French culture. French cuisine is globally acknowledged, evidenced by UNESCO designating it as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010. So, what makes French cuisine so distinct from other national cuisines?
France encompasses diverse climates and terrains, from the warm Mediterranean port city of Marseille to the cold plateaus of the Champagne region, the birthplace of champagne. Therefore, attempting to describe the characteristics of every regional cuisine is impractical. Consequently, we will focus on explaining French cuisine based on the royal court cuisine and the professional culinary style of Paris, where the excellence of French cuisine is most prominently displayed and where the most extensive historical records exist.
France is no longer a monarchy, so the true royal court style no longer exists. However, numerous recipes have been passed down through various records, and many chefs have recreated and studied them. The oldest extant source is ‘Le Viandier de Taillevent’. This book was written by Taillevent, who began working in the royal kitchen during the reign of Charles IV and became the chief royal chef under Charles VI. The 206 dishes, sauces, and ingredient preparation methods recorded in this book provide extensive insight into the cuisine of the era.
Evaluating classical French court cuisine based on these recipes reveals the French chefs’ passion for flavor, color, and presentation was already prominent at this time. The recipes utilize over 30 different spices, frequently incorporating not only European spices like saffron but also Asian spices such as nutmeg and cumin. Furthermore, sauces are distinguished by both color and flavor, as seen in recipes for green garlic sauce and white garlic sauce, highlighting the importance of visual appeal alongside taste. The decorative aspect of the dishes was also emphasized. It details not only edible decorations like creating terraces from bread but also purely decorative items, such as making linen towers with a stone-like texture. The fact that such records remain in ‘Le Viandier’ demonstrates that in France, cooking was regarded not merely as preparing tasty food but as an art form.
Furthermore, the pivotal role of wine in French cuisine is self-evident, and this book is no exception. It details extensive efforts to enhance wine quality: methods to deepen its red hue, eliminate astringency, and restore sour wine. This clearly illustrates wine’s enduring significance in French cuisine, past and present.
Through ‘Le Viandier’, we see that in French cuisine, not only taste and color, but also decoration, presentation, and the importance of wine stand out. However, as decoration and presentation became increasingly emphasized, French haute cuisine, especially for larger banquets, began to focus more on decoration than the food itself. Recipes grew increasingly complex, and buffet-style banquets, where food was displayed cold, became customary, causing the essence of cooking to fade.
The innovator who led this change was Georges Auguste Escoffier. He is considered the greatest French chef of the 20th century and remains highly respected today. There’s even a story about a hotel chef in Morocco who tattooed the cover of Escoffier’s seminal work, Le Guide Culinaire, across his entire back. Escoffier’s most significant achievement was systematizing the French course meal. The course meal we imagine in today’s fine dining restaurants was generally served buffet-style in France until the 20th century. He believed food stimulates the senses most when served hot and freshly cooked. He revolutionized the restaurant industry by popularizing the practice of serving dishes sequentially, one portion at a time, rather than displaying large quantities. Furthermore, he pioneered the division of labor within the kitchen. The way he classified kitchen roles in the 20th century is still universally applied today. As Escoffier’s philosophy permeated French haute cuisine, French cooking became the foundation for all modern Western fine dining styles. Have you ever wondered when the next course would arrive at a fine restaurant? Ever questioned why there are so many forks? Noticed how consistently identical the food on the table appears? It’s no exaggeration to say all of this stems from Escoffier’s influence.
Escoffier’s influence extended beyond cooking methodology. His most significant contribution to French cuisine was systematizing the recipes for the five fundamental sauces (Béchamel, Espagnole, Hollandaise, Tomato, Velouté). Sauces, one of the defining characteristics of French cuisine, varied in taste depending on the chef. Escoffier, however, presented standardized recipes based on these five fundamental sauces. This became a crucial catalyst, enabling French cuisine to be enjoyed with consistent quality anywhere in the world. This systematization played a major role in French cuisine being recognized internationally as the pinnacle of culinary art.
French cuisine, like that of any nation, is both historical and diverse. However, the reason French cuisine is regarded as supreme lies not only in its taste but also in its artistic traditions and the systematization of modern cuisine, driven by the genius of its chefs. While every culture’s cuisine possesses its own unique excellence, it can be confidently asserted that no other culinary style has exerted such a profound influence on restaurants worldwide as French cuisine.
