Conference - Gastronomy, an opportunity for everyone to eat well

As part of the 2016 Fête de la Gastronomie, Le Cordon Bleu, the leading Global Network of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institutes, is hosting a round table on the theme 'Gastronomy, an opportunity for everyone to eat well' (conference given in French only). The round table will take place on Friday 23 September 2016 from 3pm to 5pm with 3 top culinary experts.

This year, the Fête de la Gastronomie is showcasing 'Grass Roots Cuisine', a theme which highlights French terroir and culinary heritage. A number of high points, including the round table at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, will illustrate the theme. For further information on the programme: www.economie.gouv.fr/fete-gastronomie/homepage?language=en-gb

With the converging perspectives of a historian, geographer and biophysician, this exchange of ideas will explore the theme of 'Grass Roots Cuisine', traditional cuisine and everyday cuisine, from sharing to passing on to future generations, and will revolve around a number of concepts:

• Denis Saillard, history teacher and researcher at the Centre Culturel d'Histoire des Sociétés Contemporaines (University of Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines), will focus his discourse on the initiatives of a number of Chefs (Soyer, Favre, Driessens, Montagné, etc.) in the 19th and 20th centuries to promote the development of gastronomy amongst the working classes. 
• Gilles Fumey, geographer and teacher at Paris-Sorbonne University, will demonstrate what France has in common with a number of countries around the globe including Japan, China, Italy and Mexico, in terms of cultural influence on food.
• Christophe Lavelle, biophysician and researcher at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), will demonstrate that combining taste, health and environmental protection, is the complex task with which the 21st century gastronome is faced. Today, the ideal of 'authentic' grass roots cuisine, using local or organic products, appears to be the model which can resist the domination of the food industry which is slowly, but surely, eating away at the ability of the consumer to be in control of their diet. Only a cook with sound scientific and technical know-how will be able to retake control of what they are eating.