In Defense of French Food

MARIANI, John, In Defense of French Food, Esquire, March 27, 2012.

Abstract : This article deals with the final days of French Cuisine, and the author gives elements of his mind about french restaurant.

Quotation : “ The final days of French haute cuisine have been predicted about as often as those of Broadway, not least in the plaintive title of Michael Steinberger's 2009 book Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine, and the End of France, which details what he sees as a decline in both standards and admiration for the glories of French cuisine.

You hear the objections: No one wants to sit in a stuffy, pretentious French dining room and eat expensive, heavy food full of foie gras and butter. People now want to go to fast, casual places with menus full of pizza, hamburgers, short ribs, mac-and-cheese, pork-belly sliders, and all the other staples of modern gastronomy.

The fact is, though, while the latter assertion is certainly true, the first is not, by a long shot: There is as much French food on the trendiest of American menus as there is American, Italian, or Asian. Those who dismiss French restaurants remind me of Yogi Berra's saying of a restaurant, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." [...] The name on the door may be thoroughly American, but the dishes on the menus of contemporary restaurants owe a great deal to French cooking. It's hard to go anywhere without running into the stuff. So, while it might be accurate that people aren't talking so much about eating French food, the truth is we've always really loved it. ”

Index terms : French Food, french restaurant.

Found with : Google alert “french food”.

URL : http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/in-defense-of-french-food-032712.

MP