Can anyone save French Food? (NYT)

Last year, outraged headlines worldwide announced that as many as 70 percent of the restaurants in France were using ready-made meals produced offsite at large industrial kitchens. The real surprise was that anyone was surprised. France’s culinary tradition has been withering for decades, the decline reflected in any number of data points — from the disappearance of raw-milk cheeses (less than 10 percent of all French cheeses are lait cru now) to the fall in French wine consumption (down by more than 50 percent since the 1960s) to the fact that France has become McDonald’s’ second-most-profitable market in the world. Since the late 1990s, Paris has come to be regarded as a dull, predictable food city. The real excitement is in London, Tokyo, New York, Copenhagen, San Sebastian.

With folks here falling all over themselves announcing their gastronomic visits to Paris - I’m surprise this didn’t gather more comments?

I’m not sure about French food in France, but I wish we had more classic and modern French restaurants in L.A… There are ten thousand Italian restaurants. If a new place isn’t Italian, it’s most often some variation of gastro-pub cuisine. The more Formal french restaurant is an albatross these days. I’m constantly itching to go to Melisse.

Well this blows, since I’m headed to France for (sadly) the first time next month

True classic french food in the Sf Bay Area is not very popular outside of the Bouchon bistro casual renditions. San Francisco has several French bistros as well but decidedly they are in the minority. Definitely no one is doing the pre-nouvelle classic formal stuff.

The restaurants doing the formal nouvelle/haute French stuff are dying out. Le Papillon in SJ (who goes there anymore?), Emiles in SJ is long not worth talking about. Hubert Keller’s Fleur de Lys has never impressed me. Passot’s La Folie I actually enjoyed, and is priced a bit lower than its peers. Siegel’s French-Japanese food couldn’t survive at the Dining Room in the Ritz. Chez TJ has had a revolving door of chefs. The French Laundry might be the only successful one left, and we know the board here is very mixed on that restaurant.

My opinion on French food in france is that it has a history of dogma and a long, tough apprenticeship. Modern youths these days can not stand either. Japan can do it because of their culture. The other western countries aren’t so bound by dogma and tradition, so their “French” restaurants tend to be an amalgam of techniques, ingredients, and cultures and not just “French”.

I still enjoy French food in Paris, but I find the most enjoyment in the midrange restaurants and not the staid, ponderous 3 star joints.

You’ll have a great time Todd, even I’ve enjoyed France. But I think the elephant in the room is that France is no longer food & wine’s “be all, end all.”

I think everyone who does that goes to the other 30%

True, in my case. When in Paris, 90% of the time, I dine at restaurants I’ve been going to for years.

Personally, much as I enjoy Paris, I like the eating in Burgundy a lot more.

Best,

N