Emmanuel Rubin is co-creator of a new movement in France called
Le Fooding, which aims to bring la bonne cuisine to France’s
younger generation at mere bistro prices. But Le Fooding isn’t just
about good food on the cheap, writes Kitty Morse in
Gastronomica (Summer 2005); it’s about combining
good food and feeling. ‘Le Fooding takes into account the whole
experience of eating out,’ says Rubin. ‘Food, of course, but also
d?cor, service, and atmosphere.’
It’s also about personality. ‘The idea is to promote unknown but
creative talents, to give a chance for gifted chefs to present a
personal cuisine,’ says Alexandre Cammas in an interview with
France Today (Oct. 2005). Cammas and Rubin coined
the phrase Le Fooding in 1999.
‘Everything is possible,’ Cammas enthuses. ‘The only important
thing is to feel true personality in a dish.’
Rubin thinks of Le Fooding as an evolution, one that ensures the
future of fine French food. ‘We must modernize and experiment, or
we will have no good chefs left in France in 15 years,’ he says.
The old guard has been quick to dismiss the movement, but Rubin and
Cammas are undeterred. ‘France is a prisoner of [its culinary]
heritage,’ says Cammas, as he reminds us that most of history’s
greatest chefs were ‘considered revolutionaries.’
Vive Le Fooding!
