The new face of French cuisine – politico

Three decades ago, I wrote a book entitled “Burgundy Stars: A Year in the Life of A Great French Restaurant” on the rise of Loisseau and I later wrote a magazine article on its suicide and its consequences. And so when I heard about a new chapter in the history of the restaurant, I was impatient to visit and see what was in store.

At a time when the extreme right is in ancestry in France, with the national anti-immigrant rally, the largest political party in the country, a new chef took over the famous cuisine of the Côte d’Or-Louis-Philippe, 40. He is from the Caribbean island of Martinique and it is black. What I was wondering was that the people of this white predominance bastion of the right -wing rise of him?

As a chef in the 1990s, Loison had embodied a particular type of French, straddling modern and traditional. He worked with local craftsmen: Colette, The Goat Cheesemaker; Daniel, the man of honey; Jacques, the genius of jam; And Jean-François, the producer of snails. At the same time, he updated French high kitchenReduce cream and butter in its recipes for an increasingly urban population. Looseau has displayed the promotion of showbiz and global ambition, making frequent appearances on television and opening bistros in Paris and even a restaurant in Japan. He produced frozen foods for supermarkets. And he brought his public business to the Paris Stock Exchange.

But a dark cloud hovered above this beautiful mixture of traditional and modern: Loiseau suffered from manic depression. France considered the shameful, hidden disease, and leisure did not face its self -destructive demons. When the Spanish and Danish chefs reinvented gastronomy with molecular cuisine and festive food, Looseau feared to be overthrown from the pinnacle. In 2003, he committed suicide.

After his death, his widow, Dominique, took over. High kitchen is not friendly with women and one of the secondary scenarios of my book describes Dominique’s struggle to integrate. In a memory that has just published, “a vengeance of a woman”, she tells how she felt “no choice to continue”. Her husband’s inheritance was counting on her. Saulieu needed it – the restaurant is the largest employer in the city, with an 80 -year wage bill. Although the Côte d’Or remained in business, it had trouble. While business stagnated and his stars began to fade, Dominique sold the profitable Parisian branches and was straightened in Bordeaux. The bistro in Japan had been destroyed by an earthquake.

In addition to its star attraction. Saulieu collapsed. The city’s population increased from 3,000 to the turn of the century to around 2,300, with almost a third over 65 years ago three decades ago, the city counted five doctors, four dentists and three architects. Today, he has three doctors, a dentist and an architect. Three decades ago, 12 restaurants cluttered the main national 6 Road, and especially for any French city, five bakeries. Today, only six restaurants and three bakeries remain in business. “We are an aging and dying city,” said Hubert Couillod, the retiree butler And Bernard’s long -standing confidant.