fine restaurants need to secure their future supply lines

How Much Longer Is Fine Dining Sustainable?

By Publisher on October 30, 2009

Pierre Gagnaire

With Amelia Island in anticipation of three of the world’s leading chefs to come and participate in P√©tanque America’s Amelia Island Tournament on November 14th and 15th, my thoughts have been wandering around fine cuisine in the last couple of days.

Chef Jacques Pepin’s fame is widespread in the US from the famed Howard Johnson restaurants of the 1970’s to his numerous TV shows. Michel Nischan’s activism in organic food cuisine, and his partnership with Paul Newman until his passing, is widely respected.

So climbing into the Google tree to find some more juicy stories I ran into a much treasured memory from my last trip to Paris in 1998 when I dined at Triple Michelin Starred Pierre Gagnaire on rue Balzac in Paris. Don’t ask me, it was one of those rare opportunities that come along once in a while in life.

Pierre is a giant on the front of creative cuisine these days with his restaurant ranking number three in the world in 2006 and 2007. His approach to fine cuisine has made him one of the world’s most respected culinary practitioners today and that is why people are listening while he is waging an unusual campaign.

He is trying to warn the consumers of fine dining that the environment cannot sustain the demands of a worldwide audience for truly natural food products.

Among his specific warnings:
‚Ä¢ Wild fish will disappear in the next five to ten years, what will remain will be “farmed” fish.
‚Ä¢ Demand for certain species of fish will soon make them extinct. The list includes many species of shark and blue fin tuna.
‚Ä¢ Exotic and in demand fruits and vegetables are getting so hard to find, that there is danger that restaurants without the best and most solid suppliers may have to close due to lack of ingredients.

His bottom line is that suppliers just can’t cope with the demands of good restaurants. He predicts large numbers of closings in the years to come along with prices that may double or triple today’s top-level menu prices.

Maybe that’s why Pierre Gagnaire has decided at age 59 that a move into Las Vegas could be good for him. He’s slated to wave the scepter as Head Chef of the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which is in line to open by December 1.¬† If that happens, we may see Gagnaire soon at one of the P√©tanque America Open Tournaments here in Fernandina Beach. As with almost every chef in France, P√©tanque is the game of choice after lunch and before dinner.

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Hal_Burns

OK, this may be a good time to by stock in Gorton's Fish Sticks. The ocean's of the world are being fished out and many species will become extinct. As for fine dinning and product for great Chef's, it should be their inovations that will keep them moving forward. I have the faith and knife and fork ready,
http://www.searchamelia.com tommylee

Like many of the great chefs, I agree with you Hal. The demand for species is not caused by the chefs but by the visitors. A true great chef works with what he has in his pantry and what he can find on the market. I'm a true believer, in the nature of my mother, to cook up a storm with bare basics. It is the “magical touch” of the chef to create award winning dishes without the exotics in the style of the world's greatest composers Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and the master of improvisations Mozart, and come up with a symphony that is so harmonious and balanced that the phrase of “too many notes” or too many nuances for your taste pallets belong in the extinct category as well.

Go with the flow, exotic ingredients are for the decadent and harvesting beyond sustainability are criminal demands in the current times. But again it is not the chefs of the world to blame, it is the people that “demand” these hard to find, almost extinct species like collecting “game trophies” on their hunting wall, yet in this case on their taste pallets. It's is a bit pathetic to hear the gourmands claim to have eaten rare or near extinct creatures and my thoughts wonder off to my mother's cooking and her flair in which she turned a beef stew into a masterpiece that would have us 5 boys, my dad and the many friends that would mysteriously show up around dinner time stare at the bottom of the pot while looking for that single piece of bread to scrape the last remainders of the delight way too often way too soon.
Hal_Burns

You know, regardless of how famous a world class chef may become, he or she can never replace that special touch Mom had.