About French cuisine, I haven't tried much, I have the (probably wrong) impression that the portions are really small and it's all about style, looks, and accompanying wine, than it is about the actual food. Reading your comment, I will certainly give it a thorough test (taste?) drive the next time we go out dining.
When I was talking about French cuisine, I was talking about Classic French Cuisine, not that disgusting aberration called Nouvelle Cuisine.
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Your impression is bang on for Nouvelle Cuisine. It's basically a scam perpetrated by restaurants to rip off their patrons. They start with the cheapest ingredients, calling them locally-grown and seasonal, reduce or completely omit more expensive ingredients like butter, cream, foie gras, veal, etc., and then reduce preparation time to save labor costs and kitchen overhead.
They don't take any care in presentation, Instead of carefully arranging foods according to shape and color, everything is piled up in a heap in the middle of the plate, leaving large areas of empty plate exposed. They may try to make up for it by quickly slapping on an inexpensive decoration or two, like a kiwi slice or a couple of un-chopped (more laziness) chives.
Portions are indeed ridiculously small. Even if they were properly arranged aesthetically, they might not fill the plate. Gotta make sure you have lots of room for overpriced desserts and those aforementioned overpriced wines.
It's all about maximizing profit.
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The Classic French Cuisine I'm talking about is the cuisine of Marie-Antoine Careme and Auguste Escoffier, a time-honored tradition developed over the centuries with the emphasis on creating the finest dishes, despite higher ingredient and preparation costs. It was the food of royalty and wealthy industrialists. Quality was the number one consideration.
Rich stocks were simmered from roasted veal knuckle bones with carefully selected vegetables and carefully matched herbs. Roux was cooked carefully to just the right color for the best flavor. Marinades were blended with care. Meticulous hand preparation was used to bone, stuff, glaze, and trim meats for presentation.
Foods were carefully laid out with careful consideration given not only to appearance but also to aroma and temperature. Sauces were not hidden underneath the meats to try to make the small portions look bigger, but served on top of them to preserve warmth and also to distill the essential oils of the garnishes directly to the diners' noses. Garnishes were used primarily as aroma enhancers, not decorations. The foods themselves were used as decoration.
Portions were large enough that dinners often took hours to eat. Needless to say this was not conducive to maximizing restaurant profits. They needed fast food, whip it up fast, get 'em in and out the door fast. Thus Nouvelle Cuisine was born.
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5 of the 9 great cuisines I listed had their roots in Classic French Cuisine.
Nouvelle Cuisine made its debut on the maiden flight of the Concorde. How fitting. Small portions, fast preparation, short meal time. Basically it's airline food.
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Think about the difference between traditional English and French cooking:
The English boil all the flavor and nutrition out of food, throw away the flavorful, nutritious water and serve the washed out food.
The French boil all the flavor and nutrition out of the food, throw away the washed out food, and add the flavorful, nutritious water to more fresh flavorful, nutritious food and serve it.
Which will be more flavorful and nutritious?
Wow, Jimbo, thanks so much for the information. You certainly know your stuff when it comes to culinary matters!
Now I absolutely have to try a Classic French dish...
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