Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine,
and the Decline of France by Michael
Steinberger
Success Leads To Complacency, Complacency Leads To Decline
A rich, lively book about the upheaval in French gastronomy, set against
the backdrop of France’s diminished fortunes as a nation.
France is in a rut, and so is French cuisine. Twenty-five years ago it was
hard to have a bad meal there; today it’s difficult to find a good one. An
unmistakable whiff of decline emanates from its kitchens, and many
believe that London, Spain, and New York are more exciting places to eat.
Parisian bistros and brasseries are disappearing at an alarming rate; large
segments of France’s wine industry are in crisis; many artisanal products
are threatened with extinction. But astonishingly, business is good for

McDonald’s: France has become its second-most profitable market in the
world.
How this happened and what is being done to revive the gastronomic arts
in France are the questions at the heart of this book. Steinberger meets
top chefs, winemakers, farmers, bakers, and other artisans, interviews the
head of McDonald’s Europe, marches down a Paris boulevard with alter-
globalization activist José Bové, and breaks bread with the editorial
director of the very powerful and secretive Michelin Guide. The result is a
striking portrait of a cuisine and a country in transition.
Personal Review: Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine, and the
Decline of France by Michael Steinberger
As a longtime columnist for outlets as diverse as Slate, Food & Wine,
Saveur, the Financial Times, and the Economist, Michael Steinberger is
something of an enfant terrible when it comes to food and wine.
Steinberger can leave targets withering at his wrath and those who agree
with his blunt honesty will likely find little to criticize. Many recall him
becoming persona non grata following his Slate article "Grape Rot: The
New Wine Spectator's Distinct Aroma of Fishiness." back in 2002.
Steinberger continues in a similar vein here, and much like Benjamin
Wallace's "The Billionaire's Vinegar," "Au Revoir" criticises what the food
world holds to be sacrosanct: French cuisine. Steinberger criticism of
French cuisine serves as a metaphor for the broader ossification and
decline of French society and culture over the past twenty five years, the
period following the Trente Glorieuses.
As someone who has read much on France, many of the thoughts and
observations Steinberger expresses are ones that have crossed my own
mind and which I've read elsewhere. Whereas once French cuisine set
trends and initiated innovations it has now become rigid, inflexible and
frozen in time. Whether restaurants, wineries, bistros, fromageries or
farms, France has ceased to be cutting edge and instead is in a decline
that appears to be accelerating at a frightening pace. Steinberger points
out many of the usual suspects for this decline but uses illustrative
examples to make his point, and to make that point quite persuasively.
Indeed, Steinberger's writing and arguments are concise and most
persuasive. Rather than focusing solely on the restaurant world,
Steinberger takes a broadfield socio-cultural approach that incorporates
economics, sociology, history and politics in looking at what has lead
France to this place. The result is, sadly depressing and patently true. No
matter how much I wanted to dispute or denounce his observations they
are painfully obvious for all to see.
Quite unintentionally I read this book at the same time as Susan Pinkard's
equally wonderful "A Revolution in Taste: The Rise of French Cuisine" and
found them to be appropriate bookends for each other. Pinkard traces the

emergence and evolution in French cuisine (and France's society and
culture) and Steinberger charts its zenith and decline. Ultimately the
decline of French cuisine and society is hardly surprising; the same thing is
occurring elsewhere as the pace of life changes and evolves, and in that
respect Pinkard and Steinberger both make the same prescient
observations: changing circumstances resulting in changing tastes. As
Steinberger proves French society cannot hold back this sea change in
individual tastes and preferences, chef and restaurateurs will have to adapt
and change with the times or find themselves out of a job. In the end there
is no salvation for preserving things in stasis. If you want to enjoy the old
style of French haute cuisine you had better hurry before it is time to say
au revoir.
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