Word: minceur
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...nouvelle cuisine, a form of culinary revisionism that has modified and simplified the classic, cholesterol-laden dishes of Caréme and Escoffier. It is not in fact all that nouvelle. Some 2,000 years ago, the Greek savant Arches-tratus inveighed against "sticky, clammy sauces." There is also cuisine minceur, the cooking of slimness. Michel Guérard, its chef-evangelist, has won a wider following for his ascetic unsauced dishes among dieters than among true gourmands, however...
Michel Guérard, 44, owner of a three-star restaurant in Eugénie-les-Bains, near Lourdes, and foremost practitioner of la cuisine minceur, the cooking of slimness: "The most important tool of a chef is his tongue. Taste, taste, taste! And don't forget color. I combine my vegetables the way a painter arranges his colors-until he obtains the exact effect that he wants...
...simplicity of minceur fare lies neither in its preparation nor its expense. Guérard has meticulously searched out a dozen farmers who supply his vegetables, including one who delivers nothing but green beans. All the ingredients in his sauce base must be chopped up to the size of peas in order to increase the cooking surface for the fast, dry heating he gives them. "I mix my vegetables together the way a painter mixes colors-until he obtains the exact shade that he wants," says Guérard in one of his favorite painting metaphors. But it is deliciously...
Marriage. Altogether, the master of minceur has perfected some 150 low-calorie dishes. He admits that some French specialties simply do not have a minceur equivalent-calf s liver, for example, dries out when cooked a la vapeur, and extravagances like foie gras are obviously not duplicable. Guérard's extraordinary accomplishment has been to create something close to a parallel French cuisine. Says Dr. Georges Halpern, vice president of the French Gastronomical Medical Society: "Guérard has a genius for satisfying the upper part of the body-the tongue, eyes and mind -without filling...
Ironically, the perfectionist who developed the cuisine minceur still prefers to cook with the butter, cream, eggs and flour that he virtually outlaws. "Minceur is much more difficult," admits Guérard. "It demands great care and forces you to push your ideas. In five years, when the minceur is fully developed, it will be easier. But now I still prefer to forget the calories and cook gourmand." In fact, following publication of his minceur book, Guérard will issue one on gourmand cooking. But his longer-range goal is to "marry" the two cuisines-by which he means...