Paris, the capital of gastronomy The other great revolution in gastronomy goes back to the 18th century and is due to the French cook Beauvilliers who, in 1765, opened a "bouillon", the first restaurant, in Paris. Customers were seated at small tables, which were covered with tablecloths. It became a success, amplified between 1790 and 1814, when the great cooks from the aristocratic houses found themselves out of work once their masters had fled abroad, so they decided to open their own restaurants. That is how, under the influence of the French Revolution, la grande cuisine made its way to the general public.

Where taste is concerned, French flavorings (shallots, spring onions) but also anchovies and, above all, truffles began to replace spices from the 17th century onwards. The contrast between savory and sweet (the latter having been introduced into French cuisine in the 16th century under the influence of Italy) remained one of the main characteristics of French taste until the 20th century. But it is first and foremost the use of butter, first used in Italy in fine cooking, that became the distinctive trait of great French cuisine.

This holds true of the rich, bourgeois cuisine under the Third Republic (1870-1940), consisting of never-ending banquets and menus, a tradition that carried on through to the seventies until the emergence of "nouvelle cuisine", with its health and dietary focus. In 1973, two food critics, Christian Millau and Henri Gault, drew up their ten commandments, calling upon chefs to innovate, lighten their sauces, preserve the flavor of the produce and be more receptive to foreign cuisine's. In less than fifteen years, this minor revolution spread to society as a whole and throughout Europe. Its principal architects were the likes of Paul Bocuse, the Troisgros brothers, Alain Chapel, André Pic... At the end of the eighties, after one generation and some excess, French cuisine at the highest level initiated a return to authentic regional produce, without for all that abandoning the lessons in finesse taught by nouvelle cuisine.

One could make a whole tour around France with its delicious cheeses which are so numerous and have various tastes. As for the quality and the diversity of ducks, it is not less impressive. Emblematic, quite fabulous dishes : duck or goose foies gras (Gers, Alsace) ; soupe au pistou (vegetable soup flavoured with basil), pissaladière (onion and potato tart garnished with anchovies or sardines and olives), ratatouille (fried tomatoes, aubergines, onions and pimentoes), pan bagnat (in the Provence area) ; cotriade (fish soup), scallop-shells, poached turbot with white butter (Bretagne) ; aligot (Auvergne) ; Burgundy snails, meurette eggs, pochouse (fresh water fish dish), Bresse capon and chicken fricassee (Burgundy, Bresse) ; mouclades and eclades (Aunis, Vendée). The Poitou Charente lamb is bred under its mother, and so is the Limousin lamb. And let us not forget the Perigord black truffles, the Jura morels and the cepes which are to be found in very famous dishes.

French people have always known how to mix spices : this eminent know-how, together with the quality of the raw material, is one of the secrets of our gastronomy. So to say, delicacies reflect the landscape : there are mirabelle plums only in Lorraine, black cherries garnish tarts and batter in Limousin, greengages in Touraine, which is the garden of France. In Burgundy, blackcurrant is the king, like nuts in Dauphiné, almonds and fruits in Provence. Hence many most tasty desserts.

But France does not magnify only its own products. The best example is chocolate. Brought in the luggage of Ann of Austria who married Louis XIII in 1615, chocolate had at once a great success. There are no cacao trees in France, but there were many in the West-Indies and in French Guinea. From the very beginning, with Poulain, Meunier, the transformation processes gave very good results. Energetic and nutritive, chocolate became a luxury produce, but everyone could get it. Since then, chocolate-makers contrived to diversify the tastes and presentations. .Chocolate, a delicate and fragrant drink, the symbol of snack, becomes a sweet, coats the cherries, delights people as a " ganache ", gianguja , nougat : it can accompany all kinds of desserts : cream, mousse, éclairs, profiteroles, liquor or icing. Each area gives it a shape and a name : white thistle in the Alps, stick near the woods, reeds in watery areas, praline cork in the Champagne and Bordeaux areas, snails in Burgundy. Still today, French chocolate makers compete to and innovate for our greatest pleasure. Recently at Arbois, one of them invented chocolates to accompany the wines of the Jura area : one with a liquorice basis for a Domaine de la Pinte " pinot noir " ; the other with nuts, almonds and curry for a " Château-Chalon ", or cristallised orangettes for a straw wine... Madame de Sévigné would have been delighted.

At the time of international competition, of standardisation of nutriments, the inheritance of our traditional products is one of our most precious goods.

Rachel Ginsburg President of the FGTPA (French Gastronomivcal and Touristical Press Association)

Monks and religious people played a most important part. They did not only spend their time praying, they also devoted themselves to farming and handicrafts, so as to feed and heal the poor, to provide for their own needs, to cultivate their estates. We owe to them numerous kinds of cheese , vineyards, the champagne wine, some beers, liquors and many a recipe.

A religious man belonging to the monastic order of Saint Benoit imported the prune from Palestine into the Dordogne area, and thus he was at the origin of the famous " pruneau ". Some nuns of the Blessed Sacrament order, who were forbidden to eat meat, invented the macaroon. As for the noblemen, through their ostentatious tables, they used to show their power and wealth as much as a sublime refinement and love for good food. They often raised up their cooks’ talents ( the bouchée à la Reine -chicken vol-au-vent-, the rum baba of the Lorraine court) . Then, great cooks took over. They try to get the feeling, the know-how of the former cooks, they modulate them without betraying them, thus securing their everlastingness at the time of universality. Nowadays the vineyards, either issued from old or more recent vine-plants, are everywhere except at a high altitude or on damp soils. From the most mellow to the driest ones, of any ruby and presenting a thousand aromas, wine is one of our unquestionable wealth. Sublime, it is the motive for many a dish (sauce meurette, cock with wine).

In France, it is as if there were two countries, for in the North, people cook with butter, in the South with olive oil. The green Normandie meadows count more than a million cows with a milk rich in proteins and vitamins, with which butter, fresh cream and very numerous kinds of cheese are made (sauce normande -gravy made of cream and mushrooms-, omelette de la mère Poulard, marmitte Dieppoise -fish pot of Dieppe-, poule au blanc -fowl dish). As in Brittany, apple trees profusely grow there. Thus apples, which are the basis of cider and calva (apple brandy), are used in many dishes (poulet vallée d’Auge). In Brittany, the butter is salted and the cider is stronger.

We offer a large variety of supplies for French chef. French cuisine is a tradition of many centuries of refinement and excellence, a tradition appreciated as much by foreign visitors as by the French themselves. Visit our shopping area to find all you'll need to indulge in the French culinary arts.

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