Fads and Fashions in Food
Marilyn July 7th, 2006
Having been in the restaurant industry for 30 years Francis and I have seen it all. In the 1970s in Brisbane badly cooked Anglo food morphed into ”Continental Cuisine” (Veal Schnitzel, Duck a l’Orange and Steak Diane). This became over-worked stuffed, wrapped and napped “Modern Food”, and then we lurched into a misunderstood Aussie version of “Nouvelle Cuisine”. You know the sort of thing — tortured, carved miniatures on over-sized plates. In response “Nostalgia or Nursery Cooking” returned to be followed by “Modern Australian” cooking.
I was reminded of these fashions when reading Michel Roux’s book ‘Life Is A Menu’. Only a Frenchman could come up with this:
‘One of the most chilling experiencesof my life was discovering the British pea. I happened on this fluorescent green object … soon after arriving in London. Through a window I saw plates with these peas, a dollop of tomato ketchup and bleached white bread … I was appalled not only by this sight, but also by the fact that people seemed to be tucking in with such gusto. Like a witness to an atrocity, I told myself I had to put this out of my mind.
Boiled vegetables were served swimming in water with no seasoning and no taste. Then there was sudden switch to the new fashion on eating vegetables crunchy. Asparagus as rigid as a pencil…carrots that flew off the plate when you tried to cut them …”
For many years my husband Francis (also a Frenchman) and I have fought about his insistence on cooking peas until they were the colour of army fatigues – in a stock, for a long time. It must be something in the mothers’ milk in France that dictates that peas must not be green!
Michel Roux, by the way, will be in Brisbane for the Hilton Brisbane Masterclass (see previous post). His book is a fascinating read on how far cooking has come in Britain — and and he and his brother Albert were at the forefront of this change. A very interesting man.