Secret Ingredients Response

Is there a Crisis in French Cooking?
Adam Gopnik

                In the book, Secret Ingredients, one excerpt that I really liked was Adam Gopnik’s piece about the crisis in French cooking. One thing for sure that made me interested in this piece was the way it started, opening up a scene for me to picture, with a cook creating the tomato dessert. Then he goes on to describe the two assistants, David and Guilhem, and then so on to the rest of the kitchen. It brought me to a sense of seeing what it meant to be a cook in France.

                I was interested, however, in what the piece was saying. French food is in a crisis. Reading this piece made me sad, for the idea of tasting real French food and travelling to Paris and walking the bistros seemed like a dream, one that I wanted to pursue and live out at some point. Growing up in South Texas, I wanted to taste and eat something other than the typical BBQ plates or the Mexican food that was given to me. Reading and watching TV opened French culinary for me, and I was in awe of it all. However, now reading this piece, I don’t know what to think.  Gopnik states, “Two of the best chefs in the London cooking renaissance said to a reporter not long ago that London, along with Sydney and San Francisco, is one of the capitals of good food, and that the food in Paris- ‘heavy, lazy, lacking in imagination’- is now among the worst in the world” (69). Seriously? Maybe my information and what I have grown up to believe is outdated but I would not have expected London or even Sydney to be those with the best cooking in the world. Granted, I have never travelled to either, much less France, so I do not actually know what food they have. However, when I have had conversations with chefs or food journalists back home, it was the dream to travel to France and taste the food there, not knowing what would even be on the menu. To hear that French food has gone down in preference is quite astonishing.

                Continuing on throughout the piece, I did not know that French food was so structured. Gopnik talks about Alexandra Guarnaschelli and her experience cooking in France. She mentions an experience where she made a sauce, but an argument arose about the seasoning of it. This amazed me, for one thing, because when I think of cooking, I think of creating something you wish, following some basic rules but not always sticking to them. From Alex’s perspective, that does not seem to be the case in France. It's either do it the traditional way or don’t do it at all. It’s absurd, for this notion expects each cook to follow a definitive recipe. This then causes me to question why would there be different restaurants. Why would there be variety in food if it was supposed to be made and done in the exact same way? This idea for French food is odd, and I, for one, definitely do not agree with it.

                I finished reading the piece, and my roommate brought me some pasta they had made. I was starving, but looking at it, I could not help but wonder what a ‘true’ French chef would think. Would the sauce be creamy enough? Would the pasta be undercooked or overcooked? It frustrated me. I ate it, though. Gopnik truly did open my eyes into French cooking, and to answer his question of whether there is a crisis in French cooking, I think yes. The crisis of wanting to stick to their traditional values and ways but not being able to innovate or stay in fear that their cooking is lacking interest is valid. I think that for cooking to truly be great and remembered, it has to be created by the chef, not tradition. Yes, the basics of a sauce or plate are basics, but that is not everything it can be.

                I don’t know what I feel towards French cooking now, but I think I would want to attempt at tasting it and see what Gopnik has discussed first hand. Never will I be a cook, but I think attempting French cooking would be a challenge I am willing to take on.