Articles about Dining In France

We regularly come across various articles and other items of interest.  If an article is "Paris only", it is listed here.  Articles about a specific region of France can be accessed by clicking on one of the following:

Alsace Auvergne Bordeaux Brittany Burgundy Champagne-Ardenne Côte d'Azur Franche-Comté Île-de-France Languedoc Loire Valley Nord Normandy Pays Basque and Midi-Pyrénées
Périgord and Quercy (the Dordogne) Picardy Poitou Charentes Provence Rhône Valley Savoie

Worried that France's global gastronomic influence may be on the wane, 15 of its top Michelin-starred chefs are cooking up a plan to put it back on the menu and enlist the help of the state to promote it.

When chocolate first arrived in France around 1615, the "food of the gods" from Amazonian rain forests was declared by royal decree to be too good for plebeians and strictly for aristocrats only. Today, the fruits of the cacao tree are available regardless of genealogy.

Alain Ducasse, the famous chef behind some of the world's top French restaurants, on Monday accused media of falsely peddling the perception that French cuisine has been left behind by other, newer offerings.

The French government's decision to slash the value-added tax, a levy similar to sales taxes in the U.S, to 5.5% from 19.6% in French restaurants starting Wednesday is aimed at helping one of the country's biggest industries, which has suffered amid the economic slump.

Olivier Roellinger, 53, announced this fall that he is turning in his three Michelin stars and will soon close the Maisons de Bricourt, his restaurant in the small Brittany port of Cancale.

For close to three decades, Patricia and Walter Wells have been fixtures of the American expat scene in Paris, Patricia as an acclaimed expert in French cooking and restaurant reviewer for the International Herald Tribune, Walter as a senior editor at this newspaper, finally retiring as its executive editor in 2005.

Nick enjoys three restaurants in the south of France run by husband and wife teams.

After years of discord, the French might have taken offence at an American yarn about rats in a Paris restaurant. Instead, the country has fallen madly in love with Ratatouille, a Hollywood story about a rat with culinary talent. The new 3-D animation from Disney’s Pixar studios has topped the French box office in the two weeks since it scored the biggest opening day for an animated film in France.

It might not make it on to the agenda of the G8 summit, but a mixture of environmental degradation, economic success and spreading gourmandise has produced so much competition for the best products that they may soon run out, warns Pierre Gagnaire, one of the pioneers of modern, experimental cooking.

Expensive restaurants are now so popular that they are driving certain animals and fish to the verge of extinction, according to one of the world's leading Chefs. Pierre Gagnaire, whose Michelin three-star restaurant in Paris regularly wins plaudits as one of the world's best, said that there were now too many restaurants like his own, ploughing their way through large quantities of certain raw materials considered as delicacies.

The foodie world's latest three-star Chef, Anne-Sophie Pic, joins a very exclusive all-women's club ... She's the first female three-star Michelin Chef in France for over 50 years. She talks to Euan Ferguson about living up to the illustrious family legacy and why women Chefs = quieter kitchens.

Chef Anne-Sophie Pic has become the first woman in 50 years to win three Michelin stars.

In another time, acrobats and go-go dancers would probably not have entertained a Chef at his 80th birthday party. The food would not have been prepared by Chefs from Japan, Australia, Norway and Spain — as well as France. A Chef’s birthday would not have been an occasion for anything like the three days of hoopla this past weekend in Monte Carlo. But if the sedate world of fine dining has become a circus, no Chef has a better claim to the title of ringmaster than the guest of honor, Paul Bocuse.

Antoine Westermann of Le Buerehiesel, the famous restaurant in Strasbourg, France, says he plans to shave 3 1/2 ounces of Périgord truffles — worth about $350 — onto each plate. “For $25,000, what do you expect?” he said. Westermann is one of six three-star Michelin Chefs — four from France and one each from Italy and Germany — commissioned to fix dinner at the Lebua luxury hotel for 40 “Epicurean Masters of the World.” That’s the title for the event, organized by the hotel to promote Thai tourism.

He can measure the pressure inside a chip and has worked out how to produce 24 litres of mayonnaise from a single egg. Hervé This, France's most famous chemist – and inspiration to Heston Blumenthal – gives Ian Phillips the strangest cooking tips he's ever heard.

It is a truism that travel is broadening and travel from France to other countries brings home what’s so great about dining in the hexagon. Recently I had the opportunity to visit and eat in Greece and Seattle and I was struck by several things we take for granted when eating in France.

". . .it is not surprising that even Mr. Hennequin's own family believed his career at McDonald's lacked an element of respectability, much less cachet. Haute cuisine, yes, but McDonald's? 'My grandmother thought I was selling French fries on the Boulevard Saint-Michel,' he said."

Le Figaro's François Simon relishes dishing out judgments that have the gastronomic elite boiling.

Several European countries, including Ireland, Italy and Spain, have recently forbidden smoking in restaurants and bars, and many French people are calling for a complete ban on smoking in public places.

The classic French cuisine makes subtle use of spices and sauces, retaining the basic flavour of the dish

Visitors to French cafés should know that if the waitress lets her hand linger on your arm, she is not encouraging your interest, only a tip.

France once traded hulking Canada for the butterfly-shaped Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, and - without wishing to ruffle any flannels among the lumberjacks - in the bleak midwinter, at least, it's easy to see why it might have struck that bargain.

He's among an elite coterie of Chefs who command the sort of respect usually accorded royalty, but when Thierry Marx comes to Hong Kong there's only one place you'll find him searching for a meal. "I hit the street as soon as I come here," says an excited Marx. "There is nothing like street food, especially in Asia. It is so very important to the development of different cuisines -- I get so much inspiration from the street." For Marx, named 2005 Chef of the year by gastronomic bible Gault Millau, there is no such thing as "slumming it" when it comes to food.

Haute cuisine is stupidly expensive, but some meals are masterpieces.

"There is no shortage of great Chefs in France, but major shifts in the food scene here are few and far between. Nouvelle Cuisine lost its momentum about the same time "Miami Vice" went into reruns and, more recently, Spain has stolen more than a little haute cuisine thunder thanks to the culinary wizardry of experimentalist Ferran Adria."

"As I passed a display of espadrilles in the local supermarket, reading the sign that said "Mettez-Vous en Vacances!" I laughed out loud. 'Put Yourself on Vacation,' of course! Only the French would come up with an idea like that."

"At the risk of trivializing international relations, I've come to the conclusion that the French are just like you and me. Except for how they live."

"There is a culinary tussle under way in France. Old-guard Chefs, whose restaurants were once seen as temples, are being challenged by new-guard diners, who would like to do away with Michelin stars, polished silver and the amuse-bouche. As you might expect in a country that debates everything from the meaning of work to the merits of a president who practically lives with his mistress, the standoff has become a popular topic."