Sat down to write this blog last nite when I'd come back over from the restaurant - but have just reread what I wrote then, and decided that I was much too grumpy - thrown off kilter by a table who refused to be satisfied with anything, and wanted to change everything - and I'd allowed them to have far too much an impact on my state of mind.

Kenny Shopsin in his book describes customers like that as being people who are insecure and to make a statement and be noted get awkward and demanding. Possibly he's right, but that sort of illogical queriness always has the reverse effect on me. Rather than trying to impress those sorts of people, I do the reverse and back off, becos I can see that no matter what we do, or how far we bend we ain't going to make them happy. By definition they thrive on not being happy.  So I refuse to put the energy into them. Right? Wrong? hmmm.. Call it a survival tactic. To my mind they are bullies, and if you bent over and did what bullies wanted all the time, you would never have a clear system in place for your business. You would be all over the show. And there are enough variables in what it is that we do, without that added complication.

So. Last nite I was grumpy, but have slept on it, and its dissipated, and I'm ready to go over to a cookschool shortly. Ricks headed over a little earlier becos his arm movement is limited, but he assures me he's in no pain. It looks however like I might be stirring a few pots in the class today...

Which in a funny kind of way brings me to this book - a book written about the changes wrought in France over the last few decades, which has meant that it has lost its supremacy in terms of the very best of restaurants. A mantle that the author says Spain has now claimed from the French.

Mort Rosenblum wrote a similarly themed book ' A Goose in Toulouse, And Other Culinary Adventures in France' which I've written about previously. But this book focuses more specifically on the demise of haute cuisine - the top end, Michelin starred restaurants on which France based its reputation for decades as being the most serious, and simply the best country in the world for serious dining experiences. ( I bet no-one asked any of those chefs to heat up a soup that is stated on the menu as being served chilled...)

Now however, France is in crisis. The pre-eminence of the wine industry has been upsurped by other countries; hundreds of artisinal cheeses have disappeared; thousands of bistros and brasseries close every year, and McDonalds has established itself so significantly, that France represents its second most profitable market in the world. ( Behind America, I'm guessing.)

So how could all this come to be in a country that has prided itself for so long on simply being the best when it comes to culinary matters.

The author takes a rather cirular route to explain what has happened, VAT taxes of 19.6%, a youthful population that simply aren't interested in food,  but it makes for fascinating reading. And in the end when I ponder it all, I'm left with the impression that what he says is correct, but it is not quite as dire as he predicts.

He himself, talks about classically trained young chefs, who are eschewing the tradition laden approach to cooking that they were brought up in, and are embracing a more casual, more relaxed approach, that is none the less totally serious, about the style of food they present. Everything is just broached in a much more casual manner.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? Definitely not, if they care about what they do, and are catering to a demand that is there in the market.

Fashions change. And food is caught by that just like most other aspects of desirable living. If, what you offer the public is no longer in demand, then you are not going to generate enough turnover to be profitable, and you are going to disappear, and just becos there is a certain degree of nostalgia generated by your brand, doesn't mean necessarily that you should be continuing to offer something, that people no longer want.

Any business, in what ever field it is in, needs to remain relevant, needs to provoke demand. Some do that by creating a constant blitz of publicity around them, that is forever drawing in new customers. And some prefer to do it, by calibrating what they offer to the sort of customers that they get to see alot off.  I know what camp I consider Somerset to be in!

There is no end point. There is no sense of satisfaction that you have possibly arrived where it is that you wanted to arrive. As a businesss we are constantly evolving and learning and adapting.  Thats just the way it is.

Some of the stuff we control - some of the publicity games we have decided a long time ago to have no part in, and the discussion in the book about the restaurateurs that have decided to eschew the Michelin system made for interesting reading, becos I have long been confused by people who would set such a store on what nameless inspectors would have to say about their business based on one visit.
Been a bit of a natural cynic I refuse to believe that politics and self aggrandisemnet doesn't come into play when it comes to the allocation of stars within the Michelin sytem. The world just simply ain't that simple.

And I've never understood why really good restaurateurs would set more store on that sort of qualification than they would on the nightly parade of customers, happy with what they provide.  Surely those people are more significant to their ongoing business sucess? Yes and no. The irony with Michelin is that it attracts publicity which in turn attracts customers I guess, and that is why the 3 stars is the holy grail for so many restaurant owners and chefs.

Its all very interesting - and in the end I think its as simple and yet as complex as saying that the world is constantly in a state of flux, and you have to acknowledge that in order to survive. If you put your head in the sand and refuse to allow any variation, then you will die by slow degrees, and that is an especially miserable way of living. So why would you?! A number of the top restaurants throughout France have gone into bankrupcy over the last 5 years - they had lost the volume of customers they needed.

We have spent time in both rural Italy and France in the last decade, and the profound impact on us, beyond all the cliches on how beautiful it was, was the lack of people. And an average age well into the 70's. Rural France has emptied out into the cities - there is no cachet attached to agricultural endeavour for the young. And if there isn't a generation coming thru prepared to raise the livestock and make the artisinal cheeses for the great restaurants to use - then where are those restaurants going to go to source the product they need?

I'm a big believer in the pendulum  - it swings backwards and forwards thru history, and it takes a certain momentum of events to change its direction. But I do think that is currently happening - and we are moving back to an appreciation of the land and a slower way of doing things. I get a magazine from America called Culture - which is full of ex professionals who've gone back to a few acres and some goats or sheep and are making cheeses and a more bucolic way of life. Funded however, it should be noted by their previous life in medicine or...

Ironically France is behind the US in that trend. The Slow Food movement that originated in Italy has gained no traction in France whereas its hugely popular in America. I suspect theres a bit of good old fashioned chauvanism behind that - the French really do think they are better than anyone else at this food and wine production, and what this book describes is the waking up that has occurred over the past few years, as those at the forefront realise that they actually do have to adapt and change becos they aren't actually that much better than anyone else, otherwise they will gradually fossilise and become irrelevant.

I guarantee that once they come out of the dumps - they will move forward, and its going to be exciting to watch. And provides yet another excuse to have to go back one day....