A few weeks back, the New York Times published
an article about the growing incidence of restaurants around France using industrialized frozen foods and serving them to diners as house-made dishes. Keep in mind that the author, Liz Alderman, is not just referring to frozen shrimp but entire meals. One server she interviewed denounced a restaurant for serving pre-made lasagna and
blanquette de veau, a French staple, to their unknowing patrons. For anyone who has worked in a restaurant, the fact that kitchens sometimes resort to frozen ingredients for reasons of cost, availability or even convenience, is surely not groundbreaking. So why is this news in Paris? The problem that Alderman raises is that although using industrially produced ingredients is tolerated in establishments worldwide in order to serve crowds of diners on often constricted budgets, France is held - and also holds itself - to a different standard due to its culinary heritage and reputation.
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| Mimi Thorisson's cassoulet, a quintessentially French dish, from her blog Manger. |
French gastronomy drives travelers from around the world. In 2010, the UNESCO even admitted the French Gastronomic Meal to their list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. And in reality, the French actually love their food the most and derive immense pride from their cuisine. This is exactly why it comes as such a cause for concern that restaurants could be skimping on such an integral part of their culture. After all, if that croque-monsieur you are eating at a restaurant was purchased from an industrial food distributor, how do you know it was even made in France using French ingredients? And furthermore, what distinguishes it from any other frozen croque-monsieurs you could have bought and reheated yourself?
I love the culture of French cuisine, with its deference to ingredients, respect for tradition and social nature. And when I go to a restaurant, I like to think that care was taken in preparing my meal, especially given that I mostly cook for myself and would be even more inclined to do so if I knew I was being served a TV dinner. And yet, is there not a point of defense (as mentioned in Alderman's article) in the fact that France, like the rest of the planet, is undergoing various social changes like rising food and labor costs? And that a modern work ethic drives people to grab a quick bite at the expense of sitting down to an enjoyable lunch? Not to mention that some people don't walk into a restaurant just for the food, but also to relish in the human interaction granted by a restaurant's waitstaff. We are all acquainted with a character like Melvin Udall in
As Good as It Gets who insists on going to the same cafe every day to chat with the pretty server, despite the mediocre eggs and coffee.
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| As Good as It Gets |
At the end of the day, restaurants are businesses that must remain economically competitive. The hospitality greats like
La Tour d'Argent are clearly not the institutions exploring industrial options. They have entirely different budgets and revenue and margins. Rather it is the little bistro fighting for a steady lunch crowd and tourist traffic that is pressured to go frozen, and I would argue that most lunch diners and tourists are drawn by reasonable dining rather than haute gastronomy anyway. It does pain me to think of those travelers, anticipating to have some of the best meals of their lives in France, walking into a corner café and being disappointed by what they did not realize was a mass-produced frozen dish. It seems to me that the best solution is for restaurants to adopt a policy of transparency, either by emphasizing their reasonable menu options at the cost of certain shortcuts or by drawing special attention to the dishes made in-house and that command a higher sticker price (some restaurants have already started labeling specific menu items as "fait maison," says Alderman). Since restaurants must strive to please their diners, and some diners seek an integral culinary experience whereas others opt for convenience, surely room can be made for both institutions of French cuisine and little cafés that hold no greater pretention than to serve simple food to hungry customers.
To read the full article, "In France, a Battle to Keep Menus Fresh" by Liz Alderman, visit the New York Times
website.
