Nouvelle cuisine (French, "new cuisine") is an approach to cooking and food presentation in
French cuisine. In contrast to
cuisine classique, an older form of
haute cuisine, nouvelle cuisine is characterized by lighter, more delicate dishes and an increased emphasis on presentation. It was popularized in the 1960s by the food critics
Henri Gault, who invented the phrase, and his colleagues
André Gayot and
Christian Millau in a new restaurant guide, the
Gault-Millau, or
Le Nouveau Guide.