For the world cuisine and fine wines go together with France like a horse and carriage.
Sad to say it now seems that a goodly number of restaurants in France aren't really engaged in cooking, in the true sense, at all. Quelle horreur!
"Daniel Fasquelle wants the world to know the dirty secret in the kitchens of many French restaurants: they don't cook their own food.
The French parliamentarian is pushing a law to restrict the use of the label "restaurant" to establishments that prepare their food from scratch. He reckons many of France's eateries wouldn't cut it because they reheat industrially prepared foods.
If you've ever wondered why French classics such as a "moelleux au chocolat" or a "tarte tatin" tastes suspiciously the same in Paris restaurants, it's probably because it is. About a third of French restaurants say they use industrial food, and Fasquelle and other officials fear declining standards at the nation's 150,000 restaurants threaten a tourism industry that represents 7 percent of France's $2.8 trillion economy.
"The odds are sadly good you'll be eating a pre-prepared dish or two if you dine out at the low to mid-level of the Paris food chain," said Alexander Lobrano, author of "Hungry for Paris" and former European Editor of Gourmet. "I fervently hope that a law with real teeth will be passed in France, since it would not only go a long way to preserving the country's distinguished gastronomic reputation but also reward those chefs who work so hard to prepare 'real' freshly cooked food from quality ingredients."
Sad to say it now seems that a goodly number of restaurants in France aren't really engaged in cooking, in the true sense, at all. Quelle horreur!
"Daniel Fasquelle wants the world to know the dirty secret in the kitchens of many French restaurants: they don't cook their own food.
The French parliamentarian is pushing a law to restrict the use of the label "restaurant" to establishments that prepare their food from scratch. He reckons many of France's eateries wouldn't cut it because they reheat industrially prepared foods.
If you've ever wondered why French classics such as a "moelleux au chocolat" or a "tarte tatin" tastes suspiciously the same in Paris restaurants, it's probably because it is. About a third of French restaurants say they use industrial food, and Fasquelle and other officials fear declining standards at the nation's 150,000 restaurants threaten a tourism industry that represents 7 percent of France's $2.8 trillion economy.
"The odds are sadly good you'll be eating a pre-prepared dish or two if you dine out at the low to mid-level of the Paris food chain," said Alexander Lobrano, author of "Hungry for Paris" and former European Editor of Gourmet. "I fervently hope that a law with real teeth will be passed in France, since it would not only go a long way to preserving the country's distinguished gastronomic reputation but also reward those chefs who work so hard to prepare 'real' freshly cooked food from quality ingredients."
Comments