bleudauvergne

While in the Auvergne last week, I enjoyed a wonderful serving of tourte, in the old town of Clerment-Ferrand, a simply delicious little pie served for lunch. I think the place is called Le Chouette. I enjoyed it immensely 1) because it was clearly prepared with love, and 2) the crust was out of this world. I recognized the texture of the pate immediately, it was clear he was using duck fat. This one had a smoked magret de canard, onions, peppers, herbs of various kinds, among other things. It was pretty too. The tourte also brought to mind a recipe in George Blanc's Cuisine en famille for his Petit tarte a l'ognion et aux herbes potagers that I prepare whenever I have fresh new onions, with spinach, sorrel, and creme fraiche. Are there any special savory tourtes or tartes that you have had in France that you might want to mention in this thread? What are the local names? What's the difference between a tourte and a petite tarte? Can you comment on regional differences in the preparation of the pate?

Dude, that is sweet.

How will the slow food movement work into this? It will be interesting to see how this works itself though in the next decade.

Hi Stef, I am not claiming that this article is 100% correct on the origins of Nouvelle Cuisine. However I do understand that they are picking up on some historical trends, patterns that have taken place. I know that you have had some ideas about Point and his influence in this, and I'll do more research into Point and discuss this with you further in the Point thread in the France forum. For the moment I would love to hear what the round table panelists think about the historical elements that lead to the creation of trends in general, no matter who is the initial instigator of the movement. ok?

Thank you for your kind participation in this round table, it has been extremely interesting so far... I've been doing some research into the historical development of nouvelle cuisine in France and was reading an article "Institutional Change in Toque Ville - Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy", (pp795-843, AJS volume 108, No.4 January 2003) that puts forth some theories about why the nouvelle cuisine movement took off when it did in France. The article statistically examines the timing of the the transition Careme/Escoffier classical cuisine to the Nouvelle Cuisine movement and cites radical social change as the actor for this movement gaining its necessary impetus to become a movement that actually shifted the institutional structures of the kitchens of fine dining in France. The specific turning moments were fueled by the events of May 1968 in Paris. (mass uprising of youth against existing power structures...) "Nouvelle activists celebrated their differences with the dominant orthodoxy of classical cuisine but also exploited the foundations of classical cuisine for their project. Bocuse and other activists were able to denounce the lack of autonomy for chefs in classical cuisine because their criticisms resonated with the sentiments against hierarchy gaining ground after the events of May 1968 and were also in tune with the avante garde movements in the literary and artistic worlds." (p.805) They preface this by a list of which fields made revolutionary changes and in what order, with the area of gastronomy falling last in line after many other radical changes in theory and language in film, the visual arts, and dance, etc. So the timing of institutional change in cuisine took place a good 15 years after a revolution in film language we see developing in the Nouvelle Vague, for example. Basically the article goes on to define this institutional power shift as a new delegation of much more direct power into the hands of the chef than ever before and actually re-defining the role of the chef from technician to actual chief actor in the creation, preparation and serving of food (before the nouvelle cuisine movement the plating was executed by the waiter, menu planning done by owner, etc). Thinking about today, and this round table of the Future of Dining, I look at some of the radical trends that are crossing cultural borders in the area of fine dining and questions come to mind - I wonder if this same kind of institutional trend in the new gastro-science movement - introducing the new battery of kitchen equipment for example, is falling on the heels of the information technology movement. The changes that have taken place in the last decade - particularly the radical drop in cost of industrial production of equipment through automation and development of mega manufacturing regions in Asia that through information technology can execute ideas much more quickly than ever before - that make the cost of equipping a custom built laboratory of sorts much more accesible - have these changes opened a path from an economic perspective for institutional change in mainstream cuisine? Meaning available and accesible tools and industrially extracted ingredients that at one time were not available to the food service industry in general... Could we ever see this working its way into mainstream dining? Can the round table members give their thoughts on what might be a few general results in mainstream dining from this kind of insitutional change?

American Hamburger jokes are not funny to Americans either, as Bux so astutely pointed out upthread.

Oh, alright. But I am a disasterous baker. One of the reasons I moved to France, you know.

I think Kit is right and the cake is a Gateau Basque. Paula Wolfert has a recipe in her SW France book. What do you think?

Wow, what a husband. Lucky girl! I'm all the more impressed because if home baking is not difficult in se, making a good baguette at home is extremely difficult. I too used to have my bowl of levain in the fridge when I lived in NY, but I never dared to make baguette. He was quite scientific about it, and did a lot of research. Some days it was better than others. The hardest thing was getting the crust just right. He let it rise overnight and did some things with timing and spritzing water on a brick at the bottom of the oven halfway through baking that did quite nicely. I just dug out the old pan from the safe: He just made it with water and flour and levain. It tasted very good. There are many happy memories in that pan. We don't use it here but I'll never let it go.

Wow I like the way they changed the plates, the light looks overall very special in the restaurant. I thought for a minute that the plate in your photo of the amuse had pressed dried herbs placed around the edge, then lapsed into a daydream that it's something I'd like to do on a special occasion. But then I realized it was the pattern on the plate. Nice, those daydreams.

I think that Ptipois once again gets it right on target, and have something to add. I have just read Blume's article on Kaufmann's book, and although I have not read this particular book I can say that Kauffman's specialty is the study of family dysfunction. This is not his first expose on this topic. It is another Kaufmann book, this time though the lens of food. It is a very specialized look at how things can break down, and not a statistically supported body of work that can be taken as evidence that the French are all this way. That said, Blum's sensationalism of the topic with her opening paragraph is exactly what we are discussing here in this thread. Has anyone ever had the false impression that family dysfunction does not exist in France? How did we "get the French all wrong"? Sunday luncheon involving home cooked meals are not a rarity in France. Some people have done away with it, and we see from Kaufmann's study that some people let their anger or dissapointment in their family relations manifest in a complex way surrounding food. Not suprising since food plays a big role in the family here. My experience foodwise with my French in-laws (my husband was born and raised in the midi, we are transplants to Lyon) has been similar to John's, i.e. family meals at the table, involving much home cooking. They do not watch TV while eating. Dinner is also at the table every night, even when it is his parents alone and it involves home cooked (by Brigitte) main course followed by salad, and then cheese. Every Sunday, Mamie comes to dinner at noon. The meal on Sunday lasts approximately 3 hours beginning to end. In our home, my husband needs to have his meal at the table, or things don't seem right. I have adopted his family customs as I have adopted this country. He and I have breakfast and dinner together. I do all of the cooking. He tells me when he likes something and when he feels a dish could use some improvement - I take it as an opportunity to improve my cooking skills, although I admit that it took some getting used to. I do take efforts to cook things he likes to eat, because I love him. This may not be normal, but it works for us. It seems our friends and neighbors have the same habits, i.e. meals at the table, etc. When we lived in Los Angeles, we spent almost all of our time together trying to find French food items. We ate less cheese at that time because as Farid points out, it was prohibitively expensive in LA (Whole foods had the best affordable selection although there was a very nice fromagerie in Beverly Hills). My husband actually had his own jar of home raised levure and baked his own baguette because he could not stand the store bought bread. One of our primary reasons for coming to France was the food and the eating habits that the culture allows. We're crazy.

My husband's family always has a cheese plate going. And it always features at least 6 different cheeses. They may eat more cheese than the average French family. I just got lucky, I guess.

Wow the duck looks delicious, Susan. I sometimes like to put a bit of cassis in the sauce. Did you eat a whole breast each or did you have some leftover?

Going back to the original post, I've found that the pharmacists here in France take their vocation very seriously. If fatty foods were to avoided with a med, even if there was a sticker on the bottle, the pharmacist would still take the time to also explain in detail the foods to avoid with it, at least mine does that with me. She always makes sure I fully understand what's to be avoided before she hands over my prescription. I agree with Ptitpois, there are restaurants that serve fatty menus but for the most part you'll see a lot of people who eat plenty of fresh vegetables on a regular basis, this idea of lots of fat all the time is a misconception. In fact I would argue that for home meals, the meat portions are bigger in the U.S. than in France. Steaks for example are a prime example. The American cuts are generally much thicker. All beef, all good, but the ideas on portion size are different. The all meat / fatty French meal in the photos upthread is certainly playing on a stereotype. As for fois gras, this is something that 1) you certainly can order in a restaurant - it is something people generally don't prepare on a regular basis at home, or 2) families may serve at home as part of a holiday meal. There's a big difference between restaurant food and the average everyday French diet, but I think that's universal. In both cultures, everyone knows that restaurant meals can be much heavier than what you might eat on a normal basis at home. Being someone who was born in the States and adopted France as my home, I can say that I am attracted to the aged cheeses and milk products a bit more than my born and raised French friends. This is because the quality strikes me as exceptional. my paradigm is a bit different. I most likely eat a larger variety of aged cheeses on a daily basis than my French friends do.

Dear to some. To others, better as pate.

Yes, Karma is speaking loud and clear. My sentiments exactly on the bitch pate.

Busboy's post gives me insight on what I have considered until now my husband's strange affinity for dissapearing into the kitchen to do dishes. Me, I drift from place to place gathering them, plus the glasses, and bottles, looking at evidence, perhaps too involved in analysis of remainders on a plate, carefully recalling each course, noting in my mind what I might do to improve or what I might do again. I line the glasses up in rows by course and bring the stacks of plates to him as he silently works his way through them. I'm the one who enjoys the dregs of that night's selection from the cave if there are any, and I put my feet up to reflect on what worked, sip wine, and note any new recipes in my book, listening to Loic washing the glasses and his careful way of stacking them to dry. When we put this kitchen in, I was the one who insisted on a dishwasher. Loic said 'but do you think that will be fair?' I struggled to understand his meaning, and he said 'if we have a dishwasher, I won't be doing so much work." I smiled and said, 'don't worry my dear, between the two of us we can find some other work for you to do to make it even.' It still amazes me that Loic considers my job of keeping us fed to be such an important part of my share of the work, and I guess it amazes him how much I cherish that quiet moment after the meal, assured that tomorrow, my little workshop all be in place, tools clean and ready to use. It is a great motivator. I wonder if he knows how much I appreciate that. I think he does, but just in case I'll be sure to thank him again.

Thank you so much for sharing your meal experience with us. I can't wait to read your upcoming reports!

What an amazing trip you had. I'm so sorry you lost the confiture. It's nice to go back to places you remember going to before. Your detailed notes on all of the changes since your last visit illustrates that things are changing so fast in this country. I also enjoyed your reflections on the things that haven't changed. Thank you for sharing it!

I've been, I've seen, I'm impresssed.

European Contribution: Ditto on the rolling technique, I follow Julia Child's method as presented in ther Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I. Note this demo comes from Europe - ingredients differ slightly, as discussed in a thread Here. I herewith submit a demo of a recipe of a pie crust I prepared from an American recipe that was already in the in the RecipeGullet, Here. This pie was a big hit. I had never made a crust with a combination of butter and creme fraiche, and the result was very 'sablee', meaning with the consistency of a cookie rather than the flaky crust. One way in Europe (no crisco available) to incorporate the flaky in an all butter crust is to make a feuilitee or a semi-feuillitee. Although Sam's recipe calls for two types of flour, American All purpose and pastry, I just used the French type 55 which in the end is a cross between the two. Instead of kosher salt, I used fleur de sel, which, when preparing pies where you want to emphasize that sucree/salee effect, does very well. Note this crust is not flaky. However for French tartes this is rarely the goal. Love love love the demos, Wendy. Therein ends the demo from the French anglophone. Again, the recipe for this pecan pie is Here.

Dude, busboy beat me to it. Foie gras and fig go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Yes, its very enlightening. Thanks indeed.

Here's a link to the website for Hameau Albert 1er. I'm in the mood for a day trip, maybe sometime in the next couple of weeks. Hmmm, has anyone tried the traditional (not gastronomic) restaurant?

One more question, do I see dry ice at use in the presentation of the poulet de Bresse and the dessert?