A movement away from the elaborate food of classical cuisine to a simpler, more natural presentation. The approach began in the 1970s, and was given emphasis by the French chef Michel Guérard (1933 ). The first consideration is the quality of the fresh produce, with the aim of achieving lightness by using less fat and no flour in sauces. The movement has also been influenced by the Japanese style of food presentation.
Nouvelle cuisine (French for "new cuisine") is an approach to cooking and food presentation. This new style, which was a reaction to the French cuisine classique, called for lighter, more delicate dishes, without heavy sauces and overcooked vegetables, and placed a higher importance on presentation. Nouvelle cuisine became popular in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Food presentation and visual appeal are paramount in nouvelle cuisine. Nouvelle cuisine created light dishes with distinct tastes – combining flavours instead of overruling them – and emphasised less intrusive service. Much of what it stood for – particularly its preference for fresh flavours lightly presented – has been assimilated into mainstream restaurant cooking. While Nouvelle Cuisine's emphasis on small portions (and large plates) has often made it an object of ridicule in popular culture, its influence in haute cuisine and even in more quotidian restaurants is widely felt.
While nouvelle cuisine was once considered a radical departure from the cuisine classique, which was strictly based on the canon of Auguste Escoffier and Antoine Carême, it no longer has the same sense of radicalism. It has been supplanted, in this respect, by the postmodern cuisine or molecular gastronomy of such chefs as Ferran Adrià, Heston Blumenthal and Homaro Cantu.
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