Sublime

Sometimes we lose all of this magic in the margins. Even though food is everywhere in our social fabric and in our culture, it’s still squeezed into one thing or another. Diet gurus make food the sum of calories and carbs. Self-avowed foodies use food as a code for class. Restaurant critics polish food into a smooth, substance-less thing, while foo

Serving richly spiced stews was no longer a status symbol for Europe's wealthiest families — even the middle classes could afford to spice up their grub. "So the elite recoiled from the increasing popularity of spices," Ray says. "They moved on to an aesthetic theory of taste. Rather than infusing food with spice, they said things sh

I have no doubt there are good chefs working in spas throughout France, but the godfather of them all is Michel Guérard, one of the first modern celebrity cooks. He became a household name in France more than twenty years ago when he inventedcuisine minceur. This was based on the thought—revolutionary in those days, and not all that common even now

Meals inspire comparisons, not just of the food, but of the overall experience. What makes a restaurant memorable? What makes you want to go back to it, to recommend it? How does it achieve those coveted stars? As we drove down through the Cevennes we came to the conclusion that we would never qualify as Michelin inspectors; we’d fail the furniture

Even when I was in the advertising business during those palmy days when the industry motto was “Let’s have lunch!” and the road to success was strewn with menus, I was never able to come to terms with the working lunch. For me, work and lunch are two activities that were never meant to coexist and should never be forced to do so. Lunch is—or it sh

dried pasta was blanched in small, undercooked

If Madame Girand and her husband have the stamina to keep at it for the next thirty or forty years, La Fontaine might join those other restaurants, large and small, that have become institutions. You find them all over France, places like Chez l’Ami Louis in Paris or the Auberge in La Môle. They are not always the most fashionable of restaurants, n

in these modern times everything from asparagus to venison comes to the table by plane and is available all through the year. Heaven knows where it all originates—hothouses, food factories, or different hemispheres, I imagine—but there it is, whatever you want, at a price. Or rather, several prices. It costs more, obviously. It won’t be as fresh as