The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine

The London Review of Books has a great review of a new book, Au Revoir to All That: The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine by Michael Steinberger about the role of French Cuisine in tastemaking over time. The book argues that in the past few decades French cuisine has lost its grip on the culinary imagination – but why? Simply put – failure to innovate. While France does its version of haute cuisine well, it does not do innovation as well as the US or Spain (among other locations). This, coupled with changing attitudes about food both inside and outside of France were the death-knell to France’s hold on world cuisine. I’d definitely be interested in this read.