The State of French Dining

[marcus]

Steve -- I think that we're getting at the crux or our language useage difference here. All artisans are true artisans, by definition. Poillane and Poujerain are superior artisans. Arpege uses not just artisanal ingredients, but the best artisanal ingredients.

[robert brown]

Marcus, I found on the web a few references to Jo Rostang as a Michelin three-star chef, but no dates. I may have to bite the bullet and pay up for the “Trois Etoiles Michelin” book if the Librairie Francaise has it. Otherwise we will have to wait for Cabrales.

You open up (no pun intended) a can of worms about “artisinal”. The word was intended to define a trade that is executed by a skillful use of hands, be it bread making, carpentry, masonry, etc. How it got perverted into some qualitative adjective is something for an etymologist to figure out. Perhaps the French were the first to do it (and recently, I am willing to bet). But the root of the word must be “artisan”. If my wife were to take our herbs to market, there would be nothing artisan-like in the whole exercise. The problem with using the word “artisinal” to describe a product of nature instead of man is that the consumer really has no way of knowing where the product in question has been for how long, and how it has been handled and treated, which I suppose is not really different than buying a lousy loaf of bread baked on the premises. Nonetheless, I still think the work should be done away with in instances of the former. Fat chance of that, however.

[marcus]

Robert -- The amazon.fr site show one remaining copy of Trois Etoiles au Michelin for 36.10 euros. I don't know their shipping charges, but this is bound to be far less than you would be gauged at Librairie Francaise.

Going back once again to artisanal, I just did a search of dictionary web sites and there are actually very few references, none at all to the artisinal spelling. There appears to be more useage in French than English and it means "by an artisan". I don't take this as applying only to hand manufactured products, but also to products significantly nurtured by hand methods, even if they are a product of nature, such as herbs or fish. This appears to be todays common useage both in the US and France, at least.

[Bux]

In Japan an artisan, be he a potter or calligrapher, might well be recognized officially by the government as a "national treasure." Here if you're using a non-industrial process and working on a small scale, you're an artisan if you say you are. Cleary not all artists are artists, while I've known shoemakers and butchers who are. C'est la vie.

There seems to be a widespread difference of opinion not only about the definition of "artisanal" but also how to spell it. Sometimes it shows up spelled more than one way in the same post. For the benefit of the nit-pickers among us, it's spelled just like "artisan" with an adjectival -al suffix tacked on.

Perhaps it's correctly spelled like that, but in fact it seems to be incorrectly spelled on the web almost as often as not. You only have to do a web search on "artisinal" to see that. It's nice to see the Terrance Brennan spelled his restaurant "Artisanal."

When I went to research the word on the web, I was quickly distracted by web sites of artisanal cheesemakers including Jonathan & Nina White's cowsoutside.com Jonathon tells me "I usually define it in opposition to the word "industrial" as follows: an artisanal product is optimized for the joy of the consumer, while an industrial product optimizes the convenience of the producer." That gets a bit too political for me and I don't really buy it, but I thought you'd like that.

[cabrales]

Otherwise we will have to wait for Cabrales.

robert -- It may literally be a month or more before I retrieve the book.

[Steve Plotnicki]

How about this definition in the context we are using it in,

Artisanal - Top quality products with unique attributes that are made, produced or caught by hand. And where the producers interface with the prodoct has raised the level of quality to be the very best available.

[marcus]

Steve -- I can go along with made, produced or caught by hand, but the level of quality is independent and not built into the term artisanal, it needs to be applied as a modifier, such as the very best available artisanal ingredients.

Artisan and Artist are similarly constructed concepts, so lets look at artist which is perhaps easier because we understand their product less ambiguously, which is art. One can view a work of art as great, good, poor, etc., but the term art does not in itself imply the best availble.

[Bux]

I suspect that in France, one might fall afoul of the law if one labeled an industrial product as "artisanal." I doubt there are any laws that would enforce quality.