70 percent of France's restaurants serve "industrial fodder"

French chef says majority of France's restaurants serve "industrial fodder", Global Post, February 4, 2012.

Abstract: Xavier Denamur has criticized 70 percent of France's restaurants for serving ''industrial fodder''.

Quotation: "A well-known Paris chef Xavier Denamur has criticized 70 percent of France's restaurants for serving ''industrial fodder'' instead of the cuisine for which France is famed.
The Telegraph cites Denamur, 48, as saying Michelin stars were a fig leaf, hiding an army of restaurants serving poor-quality, often factory-produced food often touted as ''fait maison'' — home-made.
Denamur, an outspoken advocate of wholesome French food made in-house, appears in "Republique de Malbouffe" ("Republic of Crap Food"), a new documentary that claims to investigate the ''smokes and mirrors behind … a state with lobbyists but no parliament, with restaurants but no chefs, with farmers but no fresh food. A noxious regime whose motto could be; opacity, precarity, obesity.''
The film, directed by Jacques Goldstein, blames falling standards in restaurant kitchens on President Nicolas Sarkozy, who cut restaurant sales tax from 19.6 percent to 5.5 percent.
Denamur also reportedly lamented the rise of restaurant chains, blaming former French finance minister Christine Lagarde, now head of the International Monetary Fund.
Lagarde, he says, bowed to fast-food chains and food industry lobbies.
"Big food groups have gobbled up the little independent restaurants to end up serving uniform food, produced externally in a laboratory," said Denamur, who owns five restaurants in the trendy Marais district of Paris.
And, Denamur said, "Malbouffe" has led to rising obesity in France.
IN 2010, Unesco declared French food a "world intangible heritage," according to a separate Telegraph article.
The UN cultural organization singled out French gastronomy as a "social custom aimed at celebrating the most important moments in the lives of individuals and groups."

Index terms: French chef, french restaurants, "industrial fodder".

Found with: Google alert "french restaurant".
URL: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/french-food-unesco-junk-france-cuisine 

MP

Pancake day !

Electron Libre, Pancake day, France 24, February 1, 2012.

Abstract : This report deals with a french tradition, the Pancake day. A chef presents the "crêpes Suzette" recipe, etc.

Quotation: "It’s an age-old tradition: February 2nd is Candlemas and in France it’s also Pancake Day. Sweet or savoury, nowadays there are all sorts of recipes and concoctions - something for everyone."

Index terms : French recipes, traditions.

Found with : RSS feed "France 24".
URL : http://www.france24.com/en/20120128-2012-01-28-0646-wb-en-france-bon-appetit-pancake-day?page=3

MP

Occupy Oakland arrests reach 400; City Hall vandalized

By Romney, L. The Los Angeles Times. 30th January, 2012

Abstract : Returns to the 400 arrests that happened in Oakland, saturday 30th, 2012.

Extract : "

Reporting from Oakland— 

Officials surveyed damage Sunday from a volatile Occupy protest that resulted in hundreds of arrests the day before and left the historic City Hall vandalized after demonstrators broke into the building, smashed display cases, cut electrical wires and burned an American flag.

Police placed the number of arrests at about 400 from Saturday's daylong protest — the most contentious since authorities dismantled the Occupy Oakland encampment late last year."

Index : arrests / occupy / Oakland


Found with : Twitter


URL :  http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-occupy-oakland-20120130,0,6365053.story 

A. P.

Occupy D.C. protesters vow to carry on despite camping regulations

By Hesse, M, Farhi, P. The Washington Post. 31th January, 2012

Abstract : Explains the phenomena of Occupy DC, their ways of life, motivations and leitmotivs.

Extract : "It had to go, all of it, the bedrolls and blankets and crusty Nalgene bottles, the comfy camp accoutrements that have, over the course of four months, turned McPherson Square into a radical protest experiment, communal living cooperative and REI advertisement.

“Occupy is supposed to mean occupy,” says Eric Kovacevic, as he and a companion methodically piled garbage bags full of their assorted stuff — pillows, clothing, travel-size toiletries — outside his domed tent. “You know, like [the United States] has occupied other countries.” "

Index : tents / occupy / Washington


Found with : Twitter


URL : http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/occupy-dc-protesters-vow-to-carry-on-despite-camping-regulations/2012/01/30/gIQAOw7QdQ_story.html

A. P.