Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30993 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-23
• Released on: 2009-06-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781596913530
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Customer Reviews

Well-Titled
I started reading Au Revoir To All That thinking it a book on the decline of French cuisine. It is that, but much more, too. The author is a wine columnist and, while the bulk of the work is taken up with food (and wine), it is really about the decline of France itself.

This is not the type of opinion writing wherein the French are simply bashed. Steinberger provides the regulatory detail, changes in French eating and drinking habits, and political and social background to convincingly show why French cuisine has collapsed - and it is a collapse. By way of example: France is the 2nd largest market in the world for McDonalds, the country has lost close to 200,000 restaurants, French wine consumption is down 50% since the 60's, and the living standard has declined precipitously.

Steinberger is a sympathetic writer. He obviously loves France, the French, and French cuisine, and is dismayed at his findings. He writes warmly of most of the chefs, shop owners, and vintners he meets and interviews. All of them are struggling to keep afloat. He conveys their anger and frustration so well you can feel it coming off the pages. A few come across as dinosaurs, notably chef Paul Bocuse. The situation for even the best, however, is grim. Most are on the edge and virtually all of them are among the few left standing.

For once, the French realize that they've caused their own problems, blaming, with few exceptions, the French bureaucracy. In addition, institutions like the Michelin guide come under heavy criticism. France shot itself in the foot - twice - with wine, in that the AOC system was allowed to run completely out of control precisely at the time that global wine competition was ballooning. As the number of appellations rose 3-fold and controlled wines went from 20% to 50% of production in a bid to (falsely) puff up the image of French wine, quality crashed amid appellation scrabbles and scandals.

At the political root of all this is the Mitterand regime. In response to the global economic issues of the 70s and 80s, France chose a socialist government, which proceeded, naturally, to dramatically increase spending, entitlements, and regulation. Steinberger doesn't write as an anti-socialist. I read him as politically neutral in this book. But the globalization context he provides makes it clear that France's actions were a disaster for French agricultural life - and the cuisine and wine about which he writes.

This book is fascinating reading, providing superb food and wine writing in an unusual economic and political framework. Highly recommended. I look forward to Michael Steinberger's next book.

As Goes the Food and Wine, so Goes the Country
France, like the rest of the industrial world, is changing. Of that there can be no doubt. People all over are tightening their belts and when families do that they start eating at home. But that's not the only reason for the decline of the French food and wine industry as Mr. Steinberger points out in this book. France, like America, is a land of immigrants and many are Moslem or people of color and they don't eat French food. Also Micky D's sells Big Macs in France by the zillions and the French youth are gobbling them up.

Then there is the government that taxes fine dining and regulates it too and the wine industry as well. Too much regulation make for smaller profit margins and poorer products. Add the fact that there are fewer and fewer master chefs and that the ones there are are busy trying to enrich themselves out of the kitchen via frozen food lines or restaurant chains and you have a recipe for decline.

And the food and wine industry aren't the only things in decline in France. The economy is too. A result of entitlements, taxes, too much government spending, all the usual things conservatives accuse liberals of doing. But, sadly as a liberal, I have to say that I see what Mr. Steinberger is talking about. I didn't get the impression he was liberal bashing at all, more like he was a neutral observer, reporting on events that saddened him. If you want to understand France today, this book is a good place to start.

Sincere, but just a collection of writings
Based on the books titles I expected some sustained argument that there really is a problem in France. We get some anecdotal evidence, which I don't dispute. I wanted to have a bit more on what the actual problem is in the author's mind. However, after a couple of chapters I realise that we are not going to get more depth on that issue. Instead we get a collection of rewritten articles about various food topics. The essays all describe some kind of decline of French food. I call this a biased sample. There surely are restaurants on the rise as well. Talking to them might have given the author a more nuanced picture.

The author has maybe over a ten year period interviewed a number of people in French gastronomy and there are some interesting bits of information for the person really interested in French haute cuisine. The essays are mostly very readable as long as you don't expect a detailed analysis of the decline of French food.

The book is a very easy read, but I would not recommend it generally.