THE IMPORTANCE OF FRENCH CUISINE

23 April 2024

Cuisine is really important in France. While choosing, preparing and consuming is the highest expression of the culture of the people, French cuisine is perhaps the world's favourite and further boosts the world's number one tourist resort. 

Popular dishes have evolved over time according to local taste, while there is also "haute cuisine" that depends on the skill and imagination of the countries' top chefs.

But for everyday cooking, everyone's a chef in France and you cook what's available locally from the markets. Quality of ingredients counts and again this is where France excels.

France is a big country with different "terroir" - "terroir" is the combination of climate and soil type, with farming styles, proximity to the coast for your source of protein, and to trade routes for outside influences. 

For example, Brittany on the North-West coast of France and Normandy with its huge orchards and flat wheat fields favour seafood and dairy and apple, such as tarte Tatin (an upside-down apple tart) and a preference for butter, moules marinières or plateau de crustacés.

Alsace and Lorraine are regions up on the German border to the East, so German dishes like choucroute garnished with meats cooked in lard with bay and juniper dominate, and there is quiche Lorraine itself made with lardons.

In Provence and the Côte d'Azur, down on the southwest mediterranean coast, it's especially herbs, garlic, tomatoes and aubergines, for ratatouille or piperade or bouillabaisse and a preference for olive oil from North Africa - bouillabaisse is so Marseille... Marcel Pagnol, Fanny and Marius....olive oil and soap through the port of Marseille from France's ex-colonies.

From Burgundy, across Toulouse and past Bordeaux, it's their rich stews and sauces made with local wines and duck fat. Boeuf bourguignon, and canard à l'orange, cassoulet and saucisses de Toulouse. Some say lamb and spices and green tea for couscous and tajine and mint tea.