"nouvelle cuisine", people have often wondered what exactly the term means and what its coiners strove to accomplish. French Nouvelle cuisine was soon popularized by food writers eager to discover something new, and by journalists, who over praised it. It became the rage, a new creed, and the intellectuals of the movement were the French journalists Gault and Millau. They not only extolled this new way of cooking but set down the cuisine's bylaws with the help of some of the great chefs of France.

A moment in cookery, started in 1972 by two food critics, H. Gault and C. Millau, with the aim of encouraging a simpler and more natural presentation of food. The movement combined a publicity campaign with novel recipes and a new ethic, although the idea itself was not new. Foreshadowing the apostles of nouvelle cuisine.

Advocates of nouvelle cuisine reject the over-rich, complicated, and indigestible dishes that are no longer suitable to a generation conscious of the health hazards of overeating, especially of fatty foods, known to contribute to obesity and cardiovascular disease. To counter this—and the increasing use of processed food—they espouse authenticity and simplicity in cooking. The nouveaux cuisiniers seek to uphold a concept—their theorists even talk of a world vision—that combines the professions of medicine and dietetics. Their guiding principles are: absolute freshness of ingredients, lightness and natural harmony in the accompaniments, and simplicity in the cooking method. This means less fat, no flour liaisons, no indigestible mixtures, and no 'disguised' dishes. Instead, they advise light sauces based on meat juices, stocks, essences, and spices; vegetables prepared so that their natural flavors are retained; and rapid cooking without fat, which allows the food to retain some of its texture. This entails dry cooking in the oven, or under a grill (broiler), steaming, stewing, cooking in a bain-marie, or cooking en papillote. Dieticians agree that quickly cooked food retains maximum nutritional value.