Let them eat foie gras! Radical management in French cuisine

Traditional management is a disease that knows no national boundaries. Today on Bastille Day, it is important to note that even something as irreproachable as French cuisine—the gold standard of international cooking—is subject to decay and ruin. Wall Street Journal highlights the issue here.

The bad news about the traditional management of French restaurants

In recent years, top chefs from Spain, the U.S. and even Denmark have been overtaking French ones on influential "best restaurant" lists. French restaurants in New York City have been closing. Sales of French wine plummet in this country.

As in the rest of the business world, the great restaurants of the 20^th Century are supported by a sycophantic mainstream culinary press, which give all the attention to expensive, overly formal restaurants that focused on luxurious décor. In other words, restaurants out of touch with today's diner. Result: when diners are not delighted, they go elsewhere.

France's rigid and proud traditional management explains why chefs in other countries, such as Spain and Britain, have dominated in the latest restaurant styles such as the rule-breaking creation of molecular gastronomy. It explains why French restaurants remain formal and staid while consumers flocked to small-plate meals. French haute cuisine, with its emphasis on luxury ingredients such as caviar and foie gras, have also clashed with the popular localist movement that elevates things like the humble carrot to culinary greatness.

Radical management and innovation in French cuisine:

Now Omnivore and Le Fooding are publishing guide books that highlight a new generation of chefs in France and holding high-profile food festivals that attract top chefs.

Just as Harvard Business Review remains ossified in the general management world, so the Michelin Guide and even the once-radical Gault Millau represent an unshakeable commitment to 20^th Century cuisine. "Michelin and Gault Millau are really institutions in France and they don't show any modernity or capacity to change," says Mr. Baussaron, brand manager for Badoit, and co-sponsor of Omnivore. The famous old three-star restaurants now cater mainly to tourists and foreigners. These restaurants are living off their history. Unless they will change, they will die.

Comments

[Health News]

I can't believe how much of this I just wasn't aware of. Thank you for bringing more information to this topic for me. I'm truly grateful and really impressed.