By Iron Chef Leftovers
A couple of days ago, Coltrane sent me the following email from a question that was posted on Chowhound.com to Mark Bittman:
From this thread:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/641046
Q: Do you think Spanish cuisine is the new French?
Bittman A: I do NOT think Spanish is the new French, though that’s a pretty simplistic way to look at it. I think Italian is the new French and French is the new Italian and Spanish is the new Japanese. Get it?
Coltrane asked me one simple question:
How would you interpret that response?
I thought about it for a bit and here is what I thought:
Basically, I think he is sticking a big middle finger up at people who try to put labels on things.
Here is how I see what he said.
The perception of cuisines is this:
French – classic, elegant cuisine (which most of it really isn’t and never was, but it has the perception of being high end)
Italian – rustic, hearty cuisine
Japanese – different from continental cuisine, using exotic ingredients and techniques.
Spanish cooking now is what Japanese was 25 years ago. No one in the US had really ever used the techniques and ingredients that the Japanese used and it was all new and exciting. The Spanish are using old ingredients in new ways with new techniques and that is all new and exciting also.
French cooking has moved away from the high end (the $35 a plate, white table cloth places) to more of the bistro atmosphere where you see the classic French peasant dishes being served – beef bourgonon, cassoulet, rillets, etc. in a much more casual atmosphere. That piece of French cooking has always been around but not in any real capacity in the US. For years, if you wanted French, you spend serious coin.
Italian is the opposite, for years, it was thought of as hearty, rustic, filling; lots of pasta and red sauce. In the last few years, it has gotten a huge face-lift and been brought into the high end. Funny enough, it is usually the same food that has always been cooked, just with a higher price tag.
If you look at French in Seattle, you have the old school white table cloth places like Maxmillien and Chez Shea still around, but all of the newer places are bistros (there are a couple of exceptions, but generally this has been the trend) – heck even the venerable Campagne rebranded itself into a bistro recently. High end French has seemingly fallen out of favor. With the Italian restaurants, all of the new places are high end – I can’t think of a single, moderately priced place that has opened recently and I can think of a number that have closed, purely because people have gone away from those places. I think some of the trend with Italian is that more people are cooking at home and really, pasta and red sauce is something that can be done relatively inexpensively in a short period of time and produce restaurant quality meals in the process.
I don’t know if this is the “right answer”, but is sure seems plausible.
FlatbreadGarden 