Fooding

Fooding is a brand of a restaurant guide and gastronomic events that was founded in 2000. A contraction of the words "food" and "feeling", the Fooding aims (in the words of Frédéric Mitterrand) to “defend a less-intimidating gastronomy for those who want to cook and nourish themselves in an unstuffy fashion”. This neologism appeared for the first time in 1999 in a Nova Mag article by French journalist and food critic, Alexandre Cammas. It has since become the brand of an annual restaurant guide (in print, online, and smartphone application) and of often charitable international culinary events.

According to Adam Gopnik in his New Yorker piece, the Fooding is to cuisine what the French New Wave was to French Cinema. The hidden goal was to Americanize French food without becoming American, just as the New Wave, back in the fifties and sixties, was about taking in Hollywood virtues without being Hollywoodized—taking in some of the energy and optimism and informality that the French still associate with American movies while reimagining them as something distinctly French".

The Fooding's mission across its editorial activities and events is to liberate cuisine from the traditional codes and conventions that confine it, to give chefs the possibility of expressing themselves more fully, and to give contemporary eaters a true taste of the times. Through opening this “freer channel in the gastronomic universe”, the Fooding emphasizes “the appetite for novelty and quality, rejection of boredom, love of fun, the ordinary, the sincere, and a yearning to eat with the times”. Initially established by Cammas along with fellow journalist and food critic Emmanuel Rubin, the Fooding was supported by Jean-François Bizot (founder of Actuel and Radio Nova), as well as by Bruno Delport, the director of Novapress. Since 2004, it has been under the support of Marine Bidaud, associate director of the Fooding.

As an independent food guide, Fooding pays the bills for its reviewers, proving this by posting meal receipts on its website. It also refuses to give ad space to the restaurants it reviews in an attempt to remain financially separate. These are the essential conditions, says Cammas, for preserving freedom of expression and taste. In 2012, Cammas published an opinion piece in Le Monde, discussing the above conditions and defending the Michelin Guide’s ethics.

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