|  Notes
on French Cooking - Indisputably, one of modern
France's greatest treasures is its rich cuisine. The French have
an ongoing love affair with food, and their reverence for time
spent eating is evident in any culinary establishment nationwide.
It is also manifested in the traditional family gatherings around
the home dinner table, particularly the Sunday mid-day feast which
is prepared lovingly over many hours and consumed leisurely through
a bevy of appetizers and main courses, usually accompanied by
a number of wines and often lively discussion which tends to center
on political topics. What is perhaps less widely recognized is
that France's reputation for fine food is not so much based on
long-held traditions but on constant change. In fact, the general
expectation of good eating is a relatively new experience for
the French. At the time the Bastille was stormed in 1789, at least
80% of the French population were subsistence farmers, with bread
and cereals as the basis of their diet, essentially unchanged
since the time of the ancient Gauls nearly two millenia before.
In the mid-nineteenth century, following the demise of the aristocracy,
food was a conspicuous symbol of social position, swiftly adopted
by a new ruling class of bourgeoisie, who recreated the sumptuous
meals of the very aristocracy they had once criticized. At the
same time, two-thirds of Parisians were either starving or ill-fed,
five times more likely to be nourished from vegetable proteins
than from any meats or dairy products. The golden age of haute
cuisine benefited only those at the very top of the social ladder.
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French cuisine is characterized by its extreme diversity. French
cuisine is considered to be one of the world's most refined and
elegant styles of cooking, and is renowned for both its classical
("haute cuisine") and provincial styles. Many of the
world's greatest chefs, such as Taillevent, La Varenne, Carême,
Escoffier, or Bocuse were masters of French cuisine. Additionally,
French cooking techniques have been a major influence on virtually
all Western cuisines, and almost all culinary schools use French
cuisine as the basis for all other forms of Western cooking.
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"The French... have surrounded food with so much commentary,
learning and connoisseurship as to clothe it in the vestments
of civilization itself... Cooking is viewed as a major art form:
innovations are celebrated and talked about as though they were
phrases in the development of a style of painting or poetry...
A meal at a truly great restaurant is a sort of theatre you can
eat."
Richard Bernstein, The Fragile Glory
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