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Posted on 04/04/2004 4:55:48 PM PDT by Rebelbase
Frenchman Raymond Blanc roasts our TV cooks and sends for American experts. Amelia Hill reports
As the culinary occasion of the year, it is billed as a noble transatlantic mission to help educate the British public about the joy of good food. The move by leading chef Raymond Blanc to bring over eight of his top American counterparts to talk about cuisine has resulted, however, in an undignified spat between him and Britain's own cooks.
The US chefs, including the woman credited with inventing Californian-style organic cuisine, are coming to Britain this month for a week-long series of debates and celebrations of gastronomy. There will be seminars, a farmers' market, sugar-crafting and pastry demonstrations in a marquee in the grounds of Blanc's Michelin-starred Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons restaurant at Great Milton, Oxfordshire.
But Blanc has caused upset by using the opportunity to accuse Britain's home-grown chefs of being ignorant of real cuisine, copying the French too much and being inadequate role models.
His views have been supported by his fellow countryman, Michel Roux, who runs the Waterside Inn at Bray in Berkshire, one of only three restaurants in Britain to be awarded the maximum of three Michelin stars.
Their opponents also have a high-profile line-up, with Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Rose Gray, of the River Café Restaurant in London, and Gennaro Contaldo, guru to Oliver and owner of another London eaterie, the Passione.
Eight of the most respected young American chefs have been invited to take part in the debates about how to encourage the British culinary industry to embrace change, in what is billed as the American Food Revolution.
'It is intended to create discussions on what concerns us all,' said Blanc. 'What will the food industry of tomorrow be? What type of food retailers? What is the responsibility of the supermarkets and how can we encourage the UK to move from cheap food to "real food"?'
In an interview with The Observer, Blanc laid into the British stars credited with producing their own revolution in the public appreciation of food. 'Jamie Oliver might be very rock 'n' roll but he is all about entertainment and shallow fun,' said Blanc. 'His approach might have demystified food for the masses but what he has not done is to draw a needy British population any closer to developing a healthy relationship with their food.
'Nigella Lawson is the same; if she leaves for America to be the new Martha Stewart she will be no loss to these shores,' he added. 'She's mostly entertainment value.
'Delia [Smith] is the last person to have taught the British people anything worth knowing about food. She makes it clear she's unexciting but she was so damn right that the British needed to be told how to boil an egg,' he said.
Blanc's own attempts to bring top quality French food to a wider audience failed last year after he was forced to place his chain of four Le Petit Blanc brasseries into administration. But his invitations to America have gone to Daniel Boulud from Restaurant Daniel in New York, Nobu Matsuhisa, whose Nobu restaurants span much of the world, Charlie Palmer from Aureole in New York and Alice Waters from Chez Panisse in San Francisco, who is renowned for bringing healthy organic food to the world's restaurants.
'American chefs are at least 20 years in advance of us in Britain,' Blanc said. 'They have realised good food needs to come from the soul and that is something the British chefs still have to understand. British chefs desperately need to sharpen up. They're not connected with their food. They need to reconnect with its soul then teach their public what they've learnt.'
His comments drew an angry riposte from a host of chefs, including Gray, who co-owns the River Café with Ruth Rogers. 'I think this is astonishingly arrogant of Raymond and really unfair,' Gray said. 'Ruth and I are writing our seventh book that teaches people about seasonality and sourcing local ingredients and we're not alone: there are a hell of a lot of British chefs across the country who are also very interested in modern cooking and educating the public.
'Raymond is simply out of date. Perhaps he had a point back in 1985, but Britain has taken massive steps since then. If anything, we're ahead of America now in awareness of modern cooking,' she said.
'I think, perhaps, Raymond, holed up as he is, far away from the metropolis, has lost touch with what is happening in the heart of British cities. It's not as though, with the prices he charges, his cooking is accessible to anyone but a very few.'
Gennaro Contaldo, Jamie Oliver's teacher, declared himself scandalised by Blanc's claims. 'Who is he to criticise Jamie? What British chef has done more to educate people than Jamie? I don't know anybody with more of a passion for food, love and life than Jamie,' he added.
'Jamie's involvement in Fifteen [the restaurant where he teaches trainee chefs] is amazing, and he does not just educate those young people either; Jamie educates thousands of people across the country through his work,' he said. 'After 40 years in the kitchen, I, Contaldo, am still learning from Jamie.'
But Blanc found a supporter in Michel Roux: 'Raymond is making a very valid point. People like Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and the others who are constantly in our faces showing us the dramatics of cooking have not necessarily done this industry any good.'
As the late American President Harry Truman once said, 'If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.'
Come to think of it, I've never seen a British chef on The Iron Chef.
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British believe that water is a spice.
Oh I loved them! When I had cable, we would always watch them on the TV Food Network :-)
A chef named Roux... gotta love it.
/john
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