When any cultural institution becomes truly established, the threat of stagnation is always at the door. When you are idealized worldwide, how do you continue to experiment and improve under the pressure of living up to your own standards?
This is the conundrum French cuisine faces today. Known as an elite subgenre of culinary mastery, French food outside of France is often ridiculously expensive regardless of whether or not it is any good — although, of course, it usually is. And as soon as a “classic French recipe” gets canonized, chefs stop looking for ways to improve it. This is why French chef Alex Gabriel of Alex French Guy Cooking is making it his mission to teach viewers recipes that are healthy, doable, open minded, honest, affordable, and, of course, French.
Gabriel wants you to remember that not all French recipes are difficult and expensive and require an entire market’s worth of ingredients. To him, what makes cooking incredible is its ability to adapt and evolve, whether that means making a vegetarian steak tartare or a tartine with vermicelli noodles. So get lost in Alex Gabriel’s kitchen, and celebrate the new French way of cooking.
