Chapter VI
The 60s
 |
| Vincenzo Campi, "Eaters ricotta end 1500, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon |
The twentieth century is the century that saw the fastest social changes throughout human history. The upheavals caused by wars, the need to revise and renew the economy, to rebuild the city physically, the social and political order, permit renewal and the start to the new era. In the decade between the mid-1960 and 1970, the end of sharecropping, the tumultuous process of industrialization, the mass abandonment of the countryside to the cities, the enrichment of large segments of the population with the resulting increase in quality of life and the growing demand professional services, cause the crisis of the restaurants they see delays in the availability of local products, at the base of their own dining policy. With food and wine culture, perpetuated by many organizations to create professionals in the field of restorative well-defined, we define the new service systems with special attention to the wine and the consequent transformation of modest restaurants in restaurants in which, in part, retrieving and enhance the local products.
La Nouvelle Cuisine
In '60 the French professional kitchen, represented by the classical of Carême and then by 'international of Escoffier, going through a period of great crisis. The flamboyance of the plates and the weight of the preparations, compounded by long cooking sauces and too fat, no longer fall within the tastes of modern man. Some chefs draw from the kitchen of the "Rising Sun" new techniques to renew their own, choosing the shortest cooking, sauces are lighter, decrease the amount of food and different aesthetics of the dish. These new features are immediately appreciated by a large number of people, so much to steal the attention of journalists, and Gault Millot, who wrote in 1973: "Today is dead traditional French cuisine and was born the new kitchen."
In fact, nouvelle cuisine, represented a modernization of the traditional cuisine, based in part on principles set out in the kitchen of the Italian futurist manifesto '30s.
Simplifying the menu with a reduced number of courses and elimination of incomprehensible terminology, daily menu prepared in accordance with market products, reducing cooking times, use of advanced tools such as microwaves, kettles and temperature-controlled mixers, sostituzione delle salse grasse con quelle più leggere, disposte non più sul cibo ma a specchio , particolare attenzione per i principi dietetici e salutistici, creatività nella preparazione delle ricette e nella presentazione dei piatti, furono tutti i punti cardine della nuova cucina francese. Questa fu presentata, forse con troppa enfasi, come rivoluzionaria e si diffuse in tutto il mondo dell'alta ristorazione compreso nei paesi protestanti, che da secoli non avevano più accettato modelli culinari provenienti dai paesi cattolici. Anche in Italia, soprattutto in quella del nord, lo stile francese si estende a macchia d'olio. Con il passare del tempo il nuovo stile diventò una moda, e come si sa, le mode sono passeggere. The glory days of nouvelle cuisine ends in the 80s. In 1985, the Gault decreed death by writing "The nouvelle cuisine has finished its course" , but also tried to repeat the success by launching a new model, la cuisine ouverte (open), which represented a middle ground between the high and nouvelle French cuisine. Unfortunately, the new model of ' ouverte failed to take off. The result of the idea of \u200b\u200ba journalist was not heard from people who actually worked in the kitchen.
The causes of the end of nouvelle cuisine were mainly attributable to the lack of consistency with the principles reflected because instead of seasonal products, if they used some expensive and French as foie gras from Alsace, birds of Bresse, the lamb of Normandy, oysters, raw salmon, shrimp, seafood, truffles of Perigord, and many others. In addition, the authors of the nouvelle, which were undoubtedly of great professionals, followed by the wave without having the appropriate knowledge and techniques, believing he could do just copy the recipes of cooks who conceived this brilliant style, or type in the menu French products. The monotony of the proposals has grown weary customers with high prices are justified in part by the presence of numerous people who work in the kitchens for the preparation of dishes perfect. To this we must add the portions too small, and the use of short-term cooking that anticipated a bit 'too much the taste of raw, in which Western consumers were not accustomed. to nouvelle cuisine must be given, however, the importance of restructuring and rejuvenation of classical cuisine and the changing tastes of the West, opening the way to the kitchen of the new millennium.
The Italian answer to nouvelle cuisine
The contempt for the Italian cuisine was popular and proclaimed. The Italian chefs, impromptu interpreters of the new model, si adoperavano in provocazioni esagerate al fine di sminuire e umiliare i vecchi canoni gastronomici. Negli anni '70 arriva la reazione con la nascita di una nuova associazione, che vede un gran numero di adesioni tra i professionisti nazionali, Linea Italia in cucina. L'obiettivo era di coniugare l'innovazione discreta con la tradizione, cercando la perfezione delle esecuzioni e la raffinatezza del gusto, senza alterare il sapore genuino dei cibi. Si traeva ispirazione dalla letteratura storico – classica, adattando le ricette dei tempi gloriosi alle nuove esigenze e seguendo la tradizione della cucina borghese artusiana, colta, fine, delicata e signorile. Si arrivò così a una cucina alleggerita e aggiornata, con cotture né too long nor too short, a significant reduction in animal fats and sauces too heavy, replaced by more reading based on legumes and olive oil from presentations in good taste without artistic pretensions, but even small portions plentiful. Finally a good value for money that did not penalize neither the customer nor the professionalism of the restaurant. After the dissolution of Italy in the kitchen line, this model was carried out by a new professional association, the ' ORPI (Professional Italian Restaurateurs Order), being able to cross national borders and bringing the Italian proposal to be the most widely practiced and popular throughout the world. In this respect someone spoke of New Renaissance of Italian cuisine.
After the end of nouvelle cuisine and a period of enormous confusion, the new trends in haute cuisine is free from any national identity taking on global issues, in keeping with the process of economic globalization. 
