nouvelle cuisine

noun

: a form of French cuisine that uses little flour or fat and stresses light sauces and the use of fresh seasonal produce
also : a national or regional cuisine that stresses lightness and freshness in preparation
American nouvelle cuisine

Examples of nouvelle cuisine in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web David Bouley, the American chef who first translated French nouvelle cuisine into the New American style that shaped modern high-end cooking, died Monday at his home in Kent, Conn. Julia Moskin, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2024 The dishes are small and delicate, each one a complicated amalgam of traditional French cooking, Japanese aesthetics, and the practices of la nouvelle cuisine. David Denby, The New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2023 The nouvelle cuisine recipes are tested and altered and worried over until perfection is achieved. Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 30 Nov. 2023 Le Bois Sans Feuilles is both a temple of nouvelle cuisine and a shrine to sensual indulgence, and Wiseman never loses sight of the wealthy customers who keep the place in business, the kind who can afford a €300 lunch (or splurge on a €15,000 bottle of wine). Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 29 Nov. 2023 Pierre Troisgros, who took over the original restaurant from his father, Jean-Pierre, in the late 1950s, was one of nouvelle cuisine’s key players. Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2023 The rainbow trout entree arrives sauced in nouvelle cuisine squiggles of garlic-chive oil and pil pil (traditionally made by blending salt cod, garlic and olive oil) and served over rice pilaf caramelized in corn juice is magnificent. Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2023 French nouvelle cuisine chefs, incorporating influences from Japanese kaiseki, popularized the degustation menu—a.k.a. Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 17 June 2023 Alain Ducasse, the chef and restaurateur who is part of a generation that followed in the footsteps of Mr. Troisgros, Mr. Bocuse and others, said in a statement that the Troisgros brothers had developed the basis for nouvelle cuisine, but that their food was never austere or posed. Florence Fabricant, New York Times, 25 Sep. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nouvelle cuisine.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, literally, "new cuisine"

First Known Use

1975, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of nouvelle cuisine was in 1975

Dictionary Entries Near nouvelle cuisine

Cite this Entry

“Nouvelle cuisine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nouvelle%20cuisine. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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