For nearly 20 years there have been many noisy arguments in the food world about the merits and status of nouvelle cuisine. At its onset in the 1970s, nouvelle cuisine was so strongly embraced by its apostles that they declared that all cooking styles that had gone before it were outmoded. Chefs like Paul Bocuse became famous as much for their outrageous statements about the "new style" of cooking as they did for the food they served in their restaurants. On the other hand, however, food conservatives looked at nouvelle cuisine with suspicion and indulgent condescension.

A recent phenomenon, the roots of nouvelle cuisine can be traced to the period immediately following World War II. Life styles were rapidly changing and people never fully returned to the more complicated, heavier food and lengthier menus of the prewar period. The father of the new style was Fernand Point, probably the greatest chef-teacher of our times. Point died in 1955 and it was not until the early '70s that someone actually gave nouvelle cuisine a label and pulled together the components into a new creed.

Most of what was advocated under the new name was essentially a return to the kind of cooking that great chefs of many ethnic groups have always practiced. Chefs in restaurants were instructed to have the freshest possible ingredients, that is, to shop every day; to have shorter menus; to shorten cooking times (especially for fish and vegetables); to avoid, whenever possible, complicated cooking procedures; to investigate regional recipes, but to be open in preparing them with new techniques and new equipment, such as the food processor; to make sauces with less fat; to be mindful of the health of their customers, and especially to create new dishes with a mind open to ethnic influences. All of these were good rules, but they led to confusion.

Some chefs mistakenly assumed that nouvelle cuisine was low-calory cooking; others erred by thinking it meant cooking without flour; and yet others thought that it meant they must serve raw fish and vegetables that were merely dipped into boiling water. Nouvelle cuisine was none of those things. Nor did it mean serving miniscule portions of meat and fish with fruit and fruit sauces or decorating oversize plates so they look more like paintings than things normally considered edible. Nor did it mean serving a degustation menu where instead of three standard courses, eight or ten small portions were presented to best reveal the talents of the chef. And, although creativity and invention were important to nouvelle cuisine, it did not give chefs a license to make wild mixtures of the most esoteric ingredients, combined in ways that would shock the diners who came to their restaurants.

For a confused public, a special problem related to nouvelle cuisine came about because of the semantic games many chefs enjoyed. To excite their customers, chefs took words such as "cake", "custard" or "parfait" that were once associated strictly with desserts and applied them to first or main courses. Suddenly menus confronted us offering "custard of leeks", a "cake of goose livers", or a "parfait of chicken" Conversely, some names usually associated with main courses, such as "soup" came into use for describing desserts.

That the days of nouvelle cuisine are numbered is clear. As if to prove once and for all that it is no longer the rage, the great Paul Bocuse, former president of the French Society for Nouvelle Cuisine, now devotes a good deal of his time talking about just what a huge joke he considers nouvelle cuisine and its practitioners. to be. All of which is not quite fair, for if nouvelle cuisine was once over-praised by liberated young chefs and enthusiastic journalists, now that fashions are changing, it is being undeservedly denigrated. However misunderstood it was, nouvelle cuisine changed cooking, for better and for worse.

Nouvelle cuisine did a great deal to improve cooking. Good health is now better understood and has changed the size of the portions served in restaurants as well as the proportion of meat and fat to vegetables and fish. For example, artichoke hearts cooked in the old style would be poached, placed on rice and covered with a rich sauce made of stock, sweet cream, butter and Cognac. Today, those artichoke hearts are likely to be steamed and served on a bed of mixed lettuces with a light vinaigrette sauce. Faster ways of cooking vegetables and fish tend to preserve the vitamins and minerals as well as the flavor of the food for a better diet and less reliance on animal fat, butter and sweet cream has ensured that we will find less cholesterol in our foods.

Out of nouvelle cuisine has also come a generation of professional and household cooks who know how to value ingredients. Ingredients that were practically unknown ten years ago can now be easily found in the marketplace. Throughout the Western world, extra-virgin live oil, fresh herbs, wine and herbed vinegars, a variety of mushrooms, and a host of fruits and vegetables once thought exotic are now every-day fare. And, as both professional and home cooks have become more sophisticated, we have also seen a blossoming in the kinds of kitchen equipment available. With the exception of the abominable microwave oven, one can only be pleased to note the increased use of blenders, food processors, coffee grinders, espresso machines and high quality ovens and stoves.

Nouvelle cuisine itself is on the way out. Happily, what remains are the best influences of a style that calls for light, delicate dishes that values the natural flavor and healthiest aspects of fine food. The following recipe, devised by master chef Alain Senderens, combines the best of nouvelle and traditional cuisine.

Brill with Cider and Asparagus

20 fresh asparagus (about 1 kilo)
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
4 brill fillets, (may also use sole)
2 teaspoons butter
3 shallots, chopped finely
2 large mushrooms, chopped finely
3/4 cup apple brandy or apple cider
1 1/2 cups sweet cream
salt and pepper to taste

Cut off the tough, stringy ends of the asparagus, leaving the asparagus about 10 - 12 centimeters long. With a vegetable scraper, scrape the asparagus gently, rinse under cold water and drain.

In a saucepan bring 6 cups of water and the coarse salt to a boil. Add the asparagus and boil until the asparagus are barely tender (about 5 minutes). Gently lift the asparagus out of the saucepan, taking care not to damage the tips, drain on a cloth and set aside.

Salt and pepper the fish fillets on both sides. In a roasting pan melt the butter. Add the shallots and simmer, stirring frequently, until the shallots are soft and tender. Stir in the mushrooms, lay the fish on the bed of vegetables, add the cider and bake for 8 minutes in a hot oven.

When the fish fillets are done, lift them out of the roasting pan and drain on a cloth. Place the fillets on a serving plate, cover with aluminum foil and keep warm in a barely warm oven.

Place the roasting pan over a high flame and boil rapidly until there are only about 2 tablespoons of liquid left. Stir in the sweet cream, add salt and pepper to taste and boil until the sauce is thick and creamy (about 4 minutes). Strain the sauce into a saucepan, pressing on the vegetables to squeeze out all of the liquids. Taste, correct the seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary, add the asparagus and heat for about 2 minutes (without boiling). To serve, place the asparagus on top of the fish, spoon over the sauce and serve immediately. (Serves 4).

© Daniel Rogov