The "formula"
Gault and Millau "discovered the formula" contained in ten characteristics of this new style of cooking. The ten characteristics identified were:
- A rejection of excessive complication in cooking.
- Cooking times for most fish, seafood, game birds, veal, green vegetables and pâtés were greatly reduced in an attempt to preserve the natural flavors. Steaming was an important trend from this characteristic.
- The cuisine was made with the freshest possible ingredients.
- Large menus were abandoned in favor of shorter menus.
- Strong marinades for meat and game ceased to be used.
- They stopped using heavy sauces such as espagnole and béchamel thickened with flour-based roux, in favor of seasoning their dishes with fresh herbs, high quality butter, lemon juice, and vinegar.
- They used regional dishes for inspiration instead of cuisine classique dishes.
- New techniques were embraced and modern equipment was often used; Bocuse even used microwave ovens.
- The chefs paid close attention to the dietary needs of their guests through their dishes.
- The chefs were extremely inventive and created new combinations and pairings.
Read more about this topic: Nouvelle Cuisine
Famous quotes containing the word formula:
“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure—which is: Try to please everybody.”
—Herbert B. Swope (1882–1958)
“Hidden away amongst Aschenbach’s writing was a passage directly asserting that nearly all the great things that exist owe their existence to a defiant despite: it is despite grief and anguish, despite poverty, loneliness, bodily weakness, vice and passion and a thousand inhibitions, that they have come into being at all. But this was more than an observation, it was an experience, it was positively the formula of his life and his fame, the key to his work.”
—Thomas Mann (18751955)