Ooh Le Le Fromage… Is French Food The Best?

When you think of the French what is the first image that comes to mind (apart from sexy Olivier Martinez types or cute gappy-toothed Brigitte Bardot)?

Is it chic Parisiennes sitting in chic Parisienne cafés drinking black bitter coffee and smoking thin elegant Gauloises, as they nibble at teeny tiny macaroons from a porcelain plate, while their well-behaved pooch sits patiently on a chair beside them?

Or is it vast vistas of vineyards, les magnifiques chateaux standing on knife-edge cliffs over verdant valleys, les petites villes with streets of stone houses adorned with brightly painted shutters, and, of course, la boulangerie where a French man dressed in Breton stripes and wearing a beret emerges (too much?) early in the morning with a fresh crusty delicious baguette under each arm and a paper bag full of warm buttery croissants…

Ah oui, you have it, it’s the food, the food.

For the French food is more than mere sustenance, it is more than the satisfaction of hunger, it is pleasure, it is culture, it is family. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that food is at the heart of everything and that to truly understand French culture we must first understand their relationship to food.

 

 

 

Behold the wonderful tradition of l’apéritif (or l’apéro)

One tradition I’ve come to love is the French l’apéro. As anyone who went on a school exchange to France and lived with a family can attest to there’s a lot of hanging about and waiting for meals to begin. And a lot of talking. That’s not to say we Irish don’t take the time to prepare our meals… but the French they do love to talk. So l’apéro is great for keeping the hunger monsters at bay…

L‘apéro is usually small pieces of vegetables or crudités, cherry tomatoes, olives, cucumber, cubes of cheese, slices of salted crackers, charcuterie (cured meats) with a glass of wine or soft drinks. It’s a lovely way to sit down and chat casually before a meal and we often carry on the tradition for a week or two after we return from a trip to France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meals are not just a means to an end… and meal times are respected

For the French food is a serious business, they plan their meals and discuss the whats and the hows. Even a simple family dinner will have a few courses. Often l’apéro, starter, a soup or salad, main course, followed by cheese and salad, and dessert.

Outside of the main cities, meal times remain sacrosanct. Banks and public offices close for lunch. Schools have proper lunch hours, sometimes two hours. That means no scoffing a sandwich at your desk or nipping into the cafe next door for 15 minutes. There’s a lot to be said for such rules.

 

Each village and town has its own cheese

France has over 36,000 communes, administrative areas which can consist of a city, a town, a village or 10-person hamlet. And (I’ve been told) that each village and town has its own speciality or cheese.

Himself watches a TV show called Les Carnets de Julie on France 3 where food critic Julie Andrieu travels around France visiting a region learning about its history and its cuisine. She invited into a local’s home where they prepare a traditional meal.

As well as being easy on the eye, Julie is a dab hand in the culinary department, as she pitches in with the cooking of said meal. Think of a French take on Donal Skehan’s Roadshow.

 

According to Les Carnets de Julie there are more than 1,600 varieties of cheese in France. Apparently, former president de la Republic, Charles de Gaulle, once asked: “how anyone could govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?” That was in the 1960s – what would the great General say now if he was still around?

Hey, I don’t know about you, but I love cheese, especially Brie, but overindulge and I’m like Meg Ryan in that scene from that cheesy (sorry) movie where she’s on a train groaning after going a bit mad on the cheese. In the film, Meg’s character follows the boyfriend to France where he falls for a very chic Frenchwoman. She ends up falling for a Frenchman. I remember a beautiful vineyard. Anyway, I think that with cheese, the trick is not to eat too much.