{"id":27446,"date":"2026-08-08T19:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/non-categorise\/frederic-menager-when-authentic-flavor-is-uncomfortable\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:19:14","slug":"frederic-menager-when-authentic-flavor-is-uncomfortable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/chronicle\/frederic-menager-when-authentic-flavor-is-uncomfortable\/","title":{"rendered":"Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric M\u00e9nager: When Authentic Flavor Is Uncomfortable"},"content":{"rendered":"

I watched Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric M\u00e9nager’s Instagram video all the way through (WATCH<\/strong><\/a>). Not necessarily because of his rant. Social media is full of those. But because, amid his (measured) anger, I found myself asking a question. Why is a chef who raises his own poultry hearing more and more from his customers that his chicken is \u201ctoo tough\u201d or \u201ctoo dry\u201d? <\/p>\n

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Chef Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric M\u00e9nager at La Ferme de la Ruchotte \u00a9Nidhal Marzouk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Taste Profile<\/h2>\n

The head of the Ferme de la Ruchotte<\/strong><\/a> recently explained that he was receiving more and more comments from his customers criticizing the toughness and dryness of his poultry. A comment that might seem trivial. Almost trivial. Yet when it\u2019s directed at a man who raises his own animals for eight or nine months, who feeds and cares for them, and who builds his entire culinary philosophy around respect for living creatures, it takes on an entirely different dimension. <\/p>\n

Deep down, perhaps it isn\u2019t his poultry that\u2019s being judged. It\u2019s our relationship with taste that\u2019s being put to the test. Over decades, we\u2019ve gradually shifted our standards. Poultry has been bred to grow faster, fruits to be more uniform, and vegetables to withstand shipping better. By constantly being exposed to increasingly standardized products, we\u2019ve also shaped our taste preferences and have come to take this \u201cnormality\u201d for granted. <\/p>\n

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The Hall at the Ferme de la Ruchotte \u00a9Nidhal Marzouk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Consumption Habits<\/h2>\n

So, when we\u2019re served poultry that has lived for several months\u2014that has run around, developed its muscles, and built up its meat naturally\u2014we\u2019re sometimes thrown off balance. The meat requires thorough chewing. Its texture is different. So is its taste. And that may be where the problem lies. We no longer compare a product to what it\u2019s supposed to be; worse yet, we compare it to what we\u2019ve grown accustomed to eating. <\/p>\n

Far be it from me to suggest that a customer\u2019s comments are unwarranted. It can happen that a dish is imperfect or that the cooking doesn\u2019t quite meet expectations. A chef, no matter how talented, is not infallible. But when criticism is directed specifically at products raised using methods that are slower, more demanding, and more respectful, the question deserves to be asked. What if we have, little by little, lost our sense of taste? <\/p>\n

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Free-range poultry at the Ferme de la Ruchotte \u00a9Aurelio Rodriguez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

An Uncomfortable Question<\/h2>\n

Gastronomy has never been solely about providing comfort. It also serves to pass on traditions\u2014to tell the story of a region, a season, or a craft. It sometimes invites us to rediscover flavors we thought we knew, when in fact we were only familiar with a standardized version of them. This is undoubtedly the most valuable role of great chefs: not to pander to our habits, but to challenge them with intelligence. To remind us that a tomato doesn\u2019t always taste the same. That a cheese can be surprising. That a fish doesn\u2019t necessarily have the texture we expect. And that poultry raised with respect for animal welfare doesn\u2019t taste like that from intensive farming. <\/p>\n

Ultimately, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric M\u00e9nager isn\u2019t just defending his poultry. He\u2019s defending a certain vision of French gastronomy. A gastronomy that takes its time. One that accepts that nature sets its own pace rather than that of the agri-food industry. And one that believes a chef\u2019s role is not only to feed but also to educate. So perhaps the real question isn\u2019t whether his poultry is too tough. The real question is much more uncomfortable: do we still have the criteria needed to recognize an exceptional product when it arrives on our plate? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The remarks made by Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric M\u00e9nager, chef and poultry farmer at the Ferme de la Ruchotte in Burgundy, go far beyond the debate over poultry. Behind his frustration lies a fundamental question: Do we still know how to recognize the taste of a product raised according to best practices? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric M\u00e9nager: When Authentic Flavor Is Uncomfortable | Restaurant Burgundy | Edouard Amoiel","description":"The remarks made by Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric M\u00e9nager, chef and poultry farmer at the Ferme de la Ruchotte in Burgundy, go far beyond the debate over poultry. Behind his frustra"},"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_restaurants-par-lieux":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_style-de-restaurant":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[356],"tags":[],"restaurants-par-lieux":[606],"style-de-restaurant":[],"class_list":["post-27446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chronicle","restaurants-par-lieux-burgundy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27446"},{"taxonomy":"restaurants-par-lieux","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/restaurants-par-lieux?post=27446"},{"taxonomy":"style-de-restaurant","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/style-de-restaurant?post=27446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}