The Death of French Cuisine?

If you watched Anthony Bourdain's 2nd investigative visit to Spain in the series No Reservations, and you trust Bourdain's opinion as much as I do, you'd be convinced French cuisine was all but dead in influencing the next generation of chefs. While El Bulli and Ferran Adria were barely mentioned in the episode, I felt that the whole context for Bourdain for even being in Catalonian Spain was to explore the undercurrents created by the Adria tide. Even the notably regional Basque influences of Arzak, which Bourdain treated as this sentimental and timeless gem amidst the Spanish culinary innovation, demonstrated the unmistakable El Bulli influence that has permeated Spain when they served the accoutrement of freeze dried olive oil. So in one episode, it seemed French Cuisine had been proclaimed dead. While the prospect of this, as we will see, is a complete hyperbole to American and French perceptions, I decided to suspend forming my own opinion until I had time to do a little research; in other words, do like google ... the data never lies.

Search trends for Nouvelle cuisine, Spanish Cuisine, and Molecular Gatronomy ... Molecular Gastronomy now commands equal prominence with Nouvelle Cuisine

Search trends for the same, adding in French Cuisine ... French Cuisine is in mindshare decline

Search trends for the chefs of the 5 best restaurants in the world Adoni Aduriz (Mugaritz, and formerly of El Bulli) is not yet a household name despite having a restaurant so highly regarded that it seems to threaten the Adria brothers (El Bulli) for future influence

Trends for Ferran Adria, Paul Bocuse, Eric Ripert, Daniel Boulud, and Alice Waters Worldwide, the influence of Adria is evident. But look at how the U.S. sees the world through Nouvelle Cuisine glasses; and while Bocuse is huge in France, in America most of us would say "Paul who?"

Trends for El Bulli, Arzak, Mugaritz, Fat Duck, and French Laundry restaurants While Adria, Blumenthal, and Keller's influence is established, the world is only beginning to feel the influence of other Spanish masters at Arzak and Mugaritz

Trends for Ferran Adria & Julia Child If you aren't convinced already, Adria worldwide is as popular as the beloved Julia Child (save the recent hype that Julia was a spy).

While the data above backs up Bourdain's notion that Spain is where the young chefs are going, it also reveals a few other interesting points for hypotheses:
- only in the U.S. and canada is Julia Child drastically more popular than Ferran Adria
- French cuisine mindshare is being progressively eroded or discounted in favor of something else
- The French are still in love with Paul Bocuse as the Americans are still in love with Julia Child, but among chefs, Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, and Ferran Adria are known the world over

In my own exploration of gastronomy, when I first became serious about cooking and attempting to become an accomplished home chef, I sought and found advice from the French masters. Therein, I worked through the teachings of Jacques Pepin and gained an appreciation for Classic French cuisine. In watching series like Top Chef and The F Word, my eyes were opened to what I already intrinsically understood as Nouvelle Cuisine. And in the past 24 months, my American eyes have sleepily been awakened to Technoemotional Cuisine and Molecular Gastronomy. What's heuristically obvious at this point is that Ferran Adria and other members of the Technoemotional school of cuisine are at the reigns right now. The Classic French cuisine gave way to Nouvelle Cuisine, and Nouvelle is begrudgingly making room for Technoemotional Cuisine. While it's an oversimplification to single out any one trend here as the only trend, it seems pretty obvious that Technoemotional / Molecular Gastronomy has gained significant mindshare. It will be curious to see if one day my non-epicurean friends come to learn even one of the names Adria, Blumenthal, McGee, Keller, Achatz, Aduriz, Arzak, and Dufresne, but I won't hold my breath for them to hear through the noise.