Lost in France

Think of France and the odds are that you will think of food.  Whether it be a classic coq au vin; wonderful, auberge style terrines; or delicate crepes served at a roadside café, France has for many years been synonymous with good food.  For a whole generation brought up on dreary, post-war British cuisine, France was a place you went to get the good stuff. 

I remember touring holidays with my family back in the seventies when we learnt to seek out the famous Routiers signs above restaurants.  Even French lorry drivers, it seemed, ate better food than the British middle class!

As Britain succumbed to the seemingly Anglo-Saxon addiction to fast food, American style restaurants and convenience meals, France, or so we believed, stood against the tide of globalization and the slide into mediocrity.

I was disappointed therefore, to receive two news stories from la belle France this week, which indicate that things are changing for the worse.

The first is a report by AP of a new vending machine dispensing freshly made, warm baguettes.  The machine, designed by Jean-Louis Hecht, a master baker from Hombourg-Haut in North Eastern France, is intended to appeal to late night revelers, shift workers or anyone else who is unable to buy bread during the day.  There are 33,000 bakers in France and many of them bake bread repeatedly throughout the day to ensure freshness, but it is almost impossible to buy bread in the evenings or during public holidays.

Jean-Louis Hecht aiming for world domination

The new machines have divided opinion in France, but the fact that they exist at all is a sign of the times and Hecht, who pronounces them ‘the bakery of the future’, claims to have sold 4,500 baguettes during July.  "If other bakers don't want to enter the niche, they're going to get decimated,” he says, and goes on to envisage his machines being installed across Europe and even the USA.

Obviously I haven’t tasted the bread, but I have reservations about whether dough stored in the machines for up to 72 hours and baked in a matter of seconds can really be as good as a hand crafted loaf.  Yet his analysis of how convenience can drive quality out of the market is depressingly accurate and familiar.

The second story is from Le Monde and I would venture is closely related. Chain restaurants, it says, now account for 20% of the entire French market.  Although chains represent only 4% of the number of establishments, they claim almost one in every five Euros spent on eating out.  McDonalds, Subway and the Belgian giant Quick lead the field. Subway opened 57 new outlets in 2010, more than one a week, while MacDo, as it is universally known in France, added 37 new branches including one at Le Louvre.

Longer opening hours and the effect of the financial crisis on people’s pockets are ascribed as the drivers responsible for France finally succumbing to this global trend.  The article claims that the French are still emotionally attached to the ideals of traditional gastronomy but once again it seems money (and convenience) talk louder.

Food in Britain has improved massively in the last thirty years.  I am optimistic enough to believe we have turned a corner and are fighting back with a distinctive British cuisine based on localism, quality and ethical sourcing.  In fact I plan to highlight some of this in future contributions to this blog.  I realize this quiet revolution is still in its infancy, but there is reason to be hopeful.  Let us also hope that France does not have to slip as low as we once did before remembering what made French food great in the first place.