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French cuisine is actually shit and does not deserve even half of the hype that it gets
French cooking techniques however, when applied properly, are golden.
Jacques Pepin taught me how to truss and roast a chicken, along with amazing garlic mashed potatoes. It's so damned easy and looks so impressive on the table. I owe that man so much.
You mean adding fuck tons of butter?
The thing about French cooking was that it was modernized by chefs in the 1800s, so it uses a lot of techniques and the recipes themselves have repeatable modular steps instead of the traditional random page of variable steps borrowed from grandmother.
That isn't to say it doesn't have the second part too. But, to give an example. In most cultures, sauce is a sauce. In french cooking, sauce is a system. Roux, the mother sauces, etc, all have very few steps and the creation of them follows a tree like structure, with roux as the base of most sauces, bechamel the next level down, and so forth. This makes it very easy to cook with and gives you flexibility to follow recipes or create your own steps along the way.
However, I will admit that much of the magic of French cooking involves adding as much melted butter in as many different ways as possible. Roux has butter. Bechamel adds milk with milk fat. Mornay adds cheese with cheese fat. Etc. Mayonnaise is another one, blending egg yoke with as much oil as possible.
I just started getting better at pan sauces after watching way too many chef Jean-Pierre cooking videos. I like the middle finger girl as much as the rest, but watching him do literally every step and explaining why he’s doing it and what’s happening has really helped me. You’re right, once you understand how to create good “base’s” cooking becomes a lot more fun.
Middle finger girl was fun for a few days, but that’s the entire schtick, it gets old.
ONYON
Chinese cooking (particularly the HK/Cantonese style, including sauces) is also a system format -- it's why 1 guy with a jet-fired wok can cook an entire restaurant's menu.
Growing up in farm country with biscuits and gravy taught from generation to generation for 200 years with no written recipes, I realized that white gravy is really just a bechamel sauce after watching a French chef. I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t get why this gets all the hype and prestige. It’s JUST white gravy. Granny made it every morning.
Gravy is an English sauce, made with meat drippings.
White Gravy is bechamel sauce, adopted to English recipes and cooking.
Bechamel Sauce is a French mother sauce that is used as a base for many other sauces and as an ingredient in many recipes. Gravy isn't used in the same way, you pour it on meat or potatoes to give them flavor.
I guess it is like saying tomato sauce is ketchup. Yes, ketchup is a type of tomato sauce. But it is used differently...
Sure, but look at the french overall health, butter is not an issue
I doubt the average French person is eating the type of high class French dining which uses insane amounts of butter every day and probably has more whole foods with a more balanced meal along with smaller portions.
French people I know add butter to everything.
My english grand parents were the same way
Am British, am uncomfortable with my own excessive butter consumption, can confirm.
bahaha I added butter to my beef stew and my mom was amazed cause that was her dad's favorite thing
Only the French from the North. The French from the south, like me, use olive oil as much as possible.
This might be my dumb internalized “Le Europeans do everything better than us STUPID AMERICANS” but it seems like the Mediterranean countries have much more reverence for mealtime as part of their food culture, and I think this is why a lot of their typical foods are much higher calorie but they don’t get fat.
I think it’s pretty common in America to just scarf down your food as fast as you can or to just eat while you work and for me, it’s way easier to overeat when I eat fast. If I actually sit down and lay my food out nicely and slow down to eat, I can eat way better portions even if it’s something I tend to overeat or something that is really high calorie. You don’t even feel full when you’re done, you just don’t think about eating afterwards because your body got the amount it needed.
As someone that moved from Germany to the US, you can eat healthy in the us, but you will be eating subpar produce, woody chicken, rotten tasting fish and avoiding anything processed. EVERYTHING is so heavily sweetened in the US it is mindblowing.
I can't have bread, but my wife insists bread in the US is the same taste as cake in Germany. The peanut butter tastes like the inside of the reeses cups. I've even caught "corn syrup" on the back of a bottle of "honey". It is a two pronged issue. Overly sweet foods and very poor quality "scratch" food.
It's a lot to do with portion sizes, quality of ingredients, nutritional value you're getting, fiber intake, and the fact that they walk a lot more due to access to good public transportation.
Even things like cereal are completely different over there.
This is all true, but American food also has way too much soy, sugar and corn in it which all contribute to obesity more than most people realize. Ultimately it comes down to industrialization of the food industry, a lack of care on consumer ingredients and their effect on health and lack of deep, long historical culture relating to food or certain dishes. We have quite a few but they're all recent developments
We do put a lot of butter olives oil in our food. We don't had sugar (corn syrup) and we don't eat outside of meals. Snacks is practically non existent here
In France we have the goûter which is essentially a planned snack time, and there's of course the aperitif which is just an hour long snack before a meal.
Americans also don't appreciate how little they walk compared to the average anyone-else-in-the-world, and France is no exception.
In Europe, food is healthcare. Vegetables, dairy, meat all have very high standards and preference is for local producers. If citizens have low dietary risk factors, then healthcare spending/costs can be minimized and controlled.
In contrast, for the US, healthcare is business. If the food is terrible quality and causes health-related issues, that drives healthcare spending and profits.
Wow yeah I’ve always found it interesting when I watch those “What British people find shocking about the U.S.” videos when they observed our pharmacies sell junk food.
Hahahah yes!
There's a reason why it's a benchmark for European cuisine. Also because they are some of the earliest to meticulously document technique and preparation. There are bad french restaurants, of course. Theres loads claiming to cook french food but do it poorly.
OP has never had french food lol
He probably thinks the mother sauces are made from mothers.
It only sounds “fancy” to non- French speakers.
Which is funny because a lot of France's best known dishes come from peasant food. Coq au vin, you're going to have eat that nasty old rooster so let's cook him for a long time in wine, garlic and onions to try and tenderise the stringy old meat. It's absolutely delicious but most of their food comes from a time of poverty.
I mean, this applies to pretty much all cuisines, not just French.
Coming from Denmark, we just boiled some potatoes and pulled some beets from the ground and called it a day 🥲
And yea, I agree with you on that!
I also agree that French food isn't that special - masters of pastry though, and I'll die on that hill - but I find it generally hearty and decent. I think the main error for the cuisine is the reputation of being "high-end" which imo doesn't fit it at all, and I do think OP is right in regard to that
The reason for the high-end reputation is because the French developed the modern idea of the restaurant. Our modern ideas of fine dining come from France. The word restaurant is French, 'chef' is French, the entire system of the brigade in the kitchen, used globally, came from France.
Yep, when you think about something like French onion soup, that is some of the least expensive food you can make: broth, onion, a little bit of toast, and some cheese. And yet, it’s pretty hearty food with a complex flavour profile.
Yes. Much like slaves in America, the masses of poor French had to learn to make the cheapest bits of food palatable.
Which is where modern BBQ comes from, and its sooo good.
Like most food I guess. It is just a creative way to make simple ingredients easily available taste great. I remember hearing that pizza was a poor plate with whatever you could bring to cook
Desserts are godlike though, absolute bangers
So is their bread making skills!
I mean come on, the French Baguette is like a top 5 bread of all time!
I thought bangers were English.
This language, I swear to God, every word has like 50 meanings
Yesss! Their pastries game is immaculate, if also suffering from the needlessly complicated situation that the food also has, but in their pastries it seems to pay off more lol
Needlessly complicated > It seems to pay off? yeah okay you know nothing about cooking lmao.
Was about to point out croissant and alike. And your given example "I crave for..." for sure applies to these.
As for main course meals. I think it's fine. But it doesn't quite have that distinct quirk or dish people associate it with in particular. It doesn't mean it's worse than others though.
My absolute favorite food is what you can locally find in Madeira. And it's less about anything specific, although their garlic bread is really to die for, such a simple item, yet so well made just perfect. But a perfect blend of variety of foods that fall under Mediterranean diet with strong portuguese influence, yet still distinct.
Lots of fresh fish and sea food coupled with beef, amazing bread selection of vegetables. Not over seasoned so you can really taste the freshness of it. And that freshness coupled with high protein dishes makes that identity. But you cant really sell it abroad as fast food item.
It's not known for any particular food item and it's distinct flavor, which I think many popular kitchens got famous for. Yet is absolutely best I've ever had the pleasure to enjoy. And would return back to the Island just for the food lol. Even though I'm really not a "foodie" type.
I would guess French share some similarities in that their dishes cannot be easily marketed or shipped as street food like Chinese, Mexican, Italian etc can.
Bottom line, I think your judgement might be a bit unfair based on selective set of parameters which do not quite indicate quality as a whole.
This is like when you see a famous old movie and can't understand what the fuss is about, it's because the innovations have permeated through the rest of the culture to the point where they seem normal and commonplace. and a newcomer doesn't really appreciate it.
If you don't like French food that is completely fine, but there are a lot of influential things about it from techniques to sauces, combinations of ingredients, the overall refinement, etc. that you most certainly are enjoying without realizing it.
100%. I watched the Sopranos a while back and my wife didn’t totally click with because it felt dated.
That’s because so many shows took those elements and used them so much they turned into tropes! Without the Sopranos, there’s no Breaking Bad, Dexter, or any of those “prestige drama” shows with complicated antiheroes that people fawn over now.
My partner loves Silence of the Lambs, I eventually watched it with her. I thought it was quite cliché in many of its elements, then realized it was because thrillers from then all took elements from it. It led the way for those clichés.
Well described, it's frustrating people don't get this!
I'm curious, do you have other examples than Chicken en Vessie?
I'm French and didn't ever heard about that thing, just to tell you about how far OP had to go.
French too and same Was expecting smth like snails and frog legs but nope
Which are, by the way, something we rarely eat if at all.
Still, frog legs are bangers
No, bangers are British sausages
I'm sorry but merguez are the bangers of sausages
Snails too man. Snails too. Anything you wanna cover in garlic butter is fine by me, actually.
Snails are fucking great. Especially with garlic butter. Anyone who hates snails solely because they’re snails is closed minded.
He doesn't
Yeah i see this kind of thing a lot in this sub, providing one niche example to support their opinion. Annoys me more than the any opinion i disagree with
I can't see what's pretentious in french food staples like Boeuf Bourguignon, Quiche Lorraine, Ratatouille, Cassoulet, Blanquette, Bouillabaisse and the likes. All of them, and more than half of the french recipes are simplen, wholesome family recipes, that anyone could do and enjoy. The fact that you use an almost unknown french recipe to try to make a point just highlight your bad faith.
French techniques is what make restaurants works throughout the world, ask any professional chef.
Equating the amount of spices used with quality in food is foolish.
French cuisine is incredibly varied, and is in the top tier of world food with Italian and Japan, for very good reasons. Educate yourself.
It’s so frustrating when people with absolutely no culture or knowledge think they can talk sh*t like that
Even more when the critique is an English, know to be born both hating French and without any gustative sensors
I often see this take. Like "French cuisine sucks" and they the only dishes they know to list are escargots, frog legs and baguette, or on the opposite a super niche dish, likely badly prepped by a non-french place.
Shout out Boeuf Bourguignon. Goated winter food.
We use to joke that it was the meal that scored my GF, pressure cooker Boeuf Bourguignon is a staple.
Winter food ?! I just ate one today ! Good food is good food
Equating the amount of spices used with quality in food is foolish.
Especially when their "spices" are onion powder and garlic powder, while they decry recipes that use those exact ingredients but fresh.
Chef here. French food is often the basis of culinary training because of the techniques. It also highlights how to pair flavours and work with basic flavours and elevate them rather than mask them.
The dish OP mentioned is one I'll have to Google, because I have no idea what it is despite having spent four years cooking with and for French friends (I host French volunteers and help them integrate into my country).
French food might not be for everyone, but the technique has been proven to be vital to the culinary industry. French food is simple yet elegant. An excess in herbs and spices can sometimes be an indicator of a lack of skill - depending on the cuisine. French food, in my opinion, is designed to showcase all the skills a chef should possess despite a lot of French recipes historically being peasant food.
OP - could you please use more common examples of French food not being good? It sounds like you went into the deepest of archives to find a basis for your opinion. Which is fine! I'm just trying to better understand what you mean. I may not agree with your opinion, but I do find it an interesting perspective. It sounds as though you prefer more robust flavours. In which case, give British food a wide berth.
Yeah, French technique is stellar, but I love how hearty and rustic the food can be. Look at a French omelette! Nothing to it, but I’m still learning to master it as a home cook.
Nothing about the technique of a French omelette is “rustic.” It’s great, but no French peasant in the early 20th century countryside is making a perfect folded, custardy omelette.
Anything tastes good if you coat it in enough butter
As an Indian who grew up on butter chicken, can’t like this comment enough.
I do like French food though cos it s super cheesy and I love cheese
Or mayonnaise but I am afraid that it would start a “unpopular opinion” righty here is this comment chain.
So many people hate Mayonnaise, but the entire world uses that shit. The same people probably don't realize that Yum Yum sauce is just mayo
Yeah, and some people go from disliking to loving it when it’s combined with vinegar.
I had a friend admit after many years that the reason he disliked mayo was because of the masterpiece film Undercover Brother.
Learning how to make a basic mayo at home has unlocked so many new sauce possibilities when cooking.
Never heard of yumyum sauce and I do not like Mayo or too much butter in anything like the previous comment mentioned, for me its all Hollandaise, except when it comes to Pasta, then its Bolognese or fries then its Ketchup(but only Heinz)
lol I like mayonnaise but coating anything with it is gross
It hasn’t yet, but it should
Thats how i perfected my fruit salad.
Even pencil erases taste good if you batter and deep fry them.
French is the basis for almost anything "restauranty" Sauces, cuts of meat, how to prepare vegetables. And all the stuff you do with eggs.
But I think you've never had a good hearty French peasant's dish!
Yeah France is basically the godfather of modern restaurant culture. Even the word “restaurant” is French. Hors d’oeuvres, entrées, menu, chef, maître d’, host/hostess are all words of French origin. And of course there are the actual foods & preparation techniques that came from France like you mentioned.
Even the words for foods in English are derived from French words, ex: beef, poultry, pork… etc
There’s two English words for the common meats because the poor peasants spoke English (ham, steak, chicken) while the aristocratic elite often spoke French.
My favorites are duck confit and cassoulet, personally.
Brought my picky 3 year old to Paris and he also could have eaten duck confit every day there, lol
This was basically my reply as well. People just don't realize half the food they're eating is of French influence.
...are any of their vegetable preparation techniques actually unique to French cooking historically though?
Can you help me understand what this means? Like surely there were sauces, cuts of meat, and ways of preparing vegetables before 19th century France. I’m not arguing just genuinely curious
bad bait
There's no high-level cuisine without French cooking. This is like saying Citizen Cane is a bad film; you only think that way because you were born after it became popular and thus its influence seems "normal" to you. Not sure if this is a real "opinion" so much as pure ignorance.
Chicken en vessie ? I'm french and I've never heard of that lol, and I am quite fond of cooking myself.
But for real, instead of trying wierd and obscure French recipes that no French people know or eat, try the food that we actually eat lol. Like just ratatouille and gratin dauphinois for example, cheap and easy to make as fuck. Those are actually my students lunches, and you can make a bunch in advance and eat it through the week. (And I mean the real ratatouille, not the wierd thing that Pixal thought was a ratatouille and that has nothing to do with the actual thing). And also, you don't have to add the fancy ingredients to make it take good or real, so like with gratin dauphinois you don't have to add the nutmeg for example (because I see people coming "you say gratin dauphinois is cheap and easy but it has nutmeg in it!" just skip the damn nutmeg)
If you know how to cook, you don't have to do anything fancy to have something taste good. That's the basis of French cuisine, and Italian too actually.
If you have to drown your food in spices to have it taste good, maybe your food was bad to begin with, like a no longer good chiken that you drown in spices to hide the rotten flesh taste.
Idk I like crepes and french oniom soup. I don't think it being maybe overhyped make it shit that's some edgy teenager thinking lol
Not only is France known for food, but when you learn to cook, you're inevitably going to learn French terms. You learn how to sauté, make a roux, make a béchamel, you julienne something, you make a mirepoix, and so on and so forth.
You just don't like French dishes, that's okay. But there's a reason why French are known for their cooking
- Ratatouille
- French Onion Soup
- Beef Bourguignon
- Coq Au vin
- Quiche lorraine (fucking all quiches)
- Souffle in general - My favorite is Gruyere Cheese Souffle
- Nicoise Salads
- Chicken Fricassee
- Omelettes
- Madeira Ham
- Lobster Thermidor
- Artichokes w/ Tomato coulis
- Escargot - Suck it haters, that shit is delicious
- Châteaubriand
- steak Au Poivre
- Tartiflette
- All things Au Gratin
This list could have literally a hundred more amazing dishes added to it. There is no way you've eaten French food enough to make this opinion, they have so much god damn food that is AMAZING.
If you look at any cultures food you can find absolutely horrendous things coming from their Ancient cultures where people had to find ways to eat everything. You aren't edgy, your opinion isn't unpopular... you're just a racist.
You are also wrong about all those other cultural foods and being racist towards all of them by making such a hyperbolic claim.
OP had to find a dish that even french people don't know just to prove his point lmao
Ridiculous.
I really dislike this "nationalization" of cuisines. It does not matter whether we discuss "china", "french", "german", "american", "greek", "italian".
It's always more about the specific cultural region, not the entire country or nation.
I agree, but there are similarities between national cuisines.
Sichuan cooking is far more similar to Hunan cuisine than "Indian food"
Similarly Kerala cuisine is closer to Bengali than "Chinese".
You do have a point though. How do you compare "American cuisine" to others, when Cajun food is not Southern BBQ, which is not Tex-Mex, etc.?
Of course dishes can vary by region, but is’s still “Chinese” food from CHINA, etc.
Yeah, and it’s also (at least in America) conflated with an ancestral pride that’s pretty silly to apply to cuisine in my opinion.
French cooking and kitchen running techniques are king in the fine dining world, and that’s because it can apply to almost any type of cuisine and they pioneered that. French fine dining, and what French people eat is not the same thing, and that’s when you see all the regional variation.
Similarly, everything can be reductive if you want it to be - “French cooking is just gobs of butter on everything.” Ok - ever see the Jim Gaffigan bit about working in a Mexican restaurant? It’s all beans rice meat and cheese, fine, Italian food is all pasta sauce cheese and meat. It’s a dumb approach, and eliminates all nuance.
All cuisines have merit, and good dining is generally at its best when it borrows from everything well.
You're right. But, Greek food for example, depending on the region might of coruse vary. But the regions have a lot in common in the basics that it isn't that wrong to categorize it all as "Greek food".
You are wrong and have no idea what you are talking about. Simple as that.
It sounds very American, the classic "this isn't incredibly sweet or incredibly spicy so it has no taste!" thing that they love.
Why does every discussion on Reddit turn into “America bad”?
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13d
They lack quality ingredients or they are too expensive.
I am French. Some regions have amazing cuisines (Savoie, Alsace, Occitanie..), other not so much. But they are all wildly different.
Also, it seems that outside of France and especially outside of Europe, "French cuisine" has become synonymous with "haute cuisine", i.e., fancy starred-restaurants cuisine with very little food in some elaborate design and that costs an arm. I've never eaten that kind of thing in my entire life.
Bros gonna be punching the air when he realizes almost all chefs in any restaurant use French techniques
Steak Au Poive slaps so goddamn hard though
I mean, I am pescatarian, so I am sure I'm missing out on some amazing French dishes, but:
French onion soup Escargot Crepes Salade Nicoise Creme Brulé Ratatouille
Just the top of my head.
And many, many pastries, of course.
Everything is a matter of taste, I suppose.
If you're a pescatarian you should try the bouillabaisse, classic fish soup from Marseille.
French food is not meant to be fancy. Perhaps your scared uncultured ass only tried fancy restaurants. Absolute clown yapping about shit he doesn't have a clue about.
But that’s not what we eat everyday. Like occasionally yes.
But in general simple everyday life, it’s simple food.
Most French cuisine isn't expensive outside of Looney tunes representation. Look at the Quiche or fucking omelets.
french guy diddy your girl buddy?
French here. Never heard about Chicken En Vessie. I call bullshit on that post, just a hate bait.
Arab cuisine is very underrated. It's extremely diverse, there's probably thousands of solid dishes.
My biggest complaint after visiting Egypt is how difficult it can be to find great Egyptian restaurants. I used to organize trips there and I painstakingly tried more restaurants than I care to admit, and almost all of them fell flat.
We eventually organized a couple meals at an Egyptian family’s house and the food was always AMAZING. It was my biggest frustration that Egypt has so many talented cooks (and local dishes) and I couldn’t find any restaurants that showcased anything similar.
I had a friend who was a trained chef. He also did a lot of contract work with the USN after leaving the restaurant business (he had previously been in the Navy 20 years).
He came back from a contractor tour in Afghanistan, where he'd been working with Afghani nationals to train them in air recon, but he'd spent a ton of time just living with his guys and getting to know them. He brought back a ton of spices and recipes, and made the entire friend group a huge array of local dishes and it was all just...incredible.
Absolutely. Some of the best meals of my life have been Lebanese, Palestinian, Tunisian, and Moroccan food. Also if you haven’t had harissa you haven’t lived.
Their spice game is top notch! I love how aromatic and flavorful Middle Eastern cuisine is.
I'm from France and I travel a lot, this isn't true imo, all countries does have a lot of great dishes, specialties and talented chefs, but the number 1 thing that makes me go back to France (besides family and friends) is definitly the food, and not only the food but alcohols too.
I did a lot of gastronomic restaurants through the world, nothing can even be compared to what I ate in France.
Damn even Mc Donald's tastes way better in France
I think so too! I dont even eat especially french food but like you said it's like everything in france is made in a better way like something as simple as BREAD. I miss bread so much when i'm away it's crazy. My friends thought so too and they were disappointed about italian food, and i agree for McDonald's. Also the fruits and veggies are so good here for the price. Of course all countries have their own food etc but you can see how it's made with more technique in France, it's like the french take food VERY seriously even too seriously sometimes but it's good.
For example I'm turkish and when i go to turkey i miss the bread and general quality of ingredients the most like butter , my parents think the same about butter .. Oh also about turkish food, ofc you'll find the best in the home country but i can tell you I've eaten some turkish good made in france that was better than a lot of places in turkey. Mix between turkish food and french food is insanely good, i eat croissant butter jam with my feta and shakshouka to the side.
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13d
I really disagree with you here. There's not one type of good french original cuisine. Many great dishes come from many different periods and places. Some of the best are from the average people (what you call petite bourgeoisie) but a lot of french classics are actually inventions from chefs of kings. They didn't just "make it foo-foo" like you pretend. And others were first enjoyed by the poorest of the poor. The truth is a lot of dishes were not exclusive to a certain class of people at a given time. Omelette was enjoyed in different styles by everyone. French cuisine is what it is because of everyone, not just a precise category of person.
You took the worst example possible and I have no doubt you're not french and have just read an article somewhere about french food and went to your local french restaurant twice for saying quenelles are a foo-foo dish. It's the most humble dish you can make : fish fillet, flour, milk, breadcrumbs, béchamel. It's literally a school cafeteria dish today. The only restaurants you can get quenelles at (whether it's squid ink, potato, bone marrow, cheese, chicken or liver quenelle) are bouchons lyonnais and it's dirty cheap.
Comparing french cuisine in the US (where it has a fancy reputation) instead of french cuisine in France (but for that you'd need to visit France), with jewish-american cuisine in the US, is all you need to discredit yourself about french cuisine.
Quenelles in France don’t cost that much money at all. You pay a lot for them in French outside restaurants because it looks exotic. This is the case with a lot of French dishes.
Yeah lol I really didn't understand his argument, quenelles are cheap af.
More importantly they’re delicious. Quenelles de brochet façon Nantua is one of my absolute favorite things to eat
Tell me you don't know anything about French food without telling me you don't know anything about French food. Quenelles are arch-typical French working class food.
I dunno, I definitely crave duck confit or a proper fresh french baguette, nowhere else gets the baguettes right! Salad nicoise is also one of my fave meals. Bouillabaisse is another one I crave, so good!! A good beef bourguignon is also amazing.
Why would you expect a sousvide cooking technique to produce good browning?
God damn so many salty motherfuckrrs in the thread. You simply haven't had good/authentic or real french food then. Also wtf starts talking about french food and goes straight for en vessie. Also you obviously never tried it.
op sounds like a cracker barrel patron
Chicken En Vessie is not a great example. I don't think it's a common dish and the cooking method has been supplanted by modern methods (sous vide etc.) - it's more of a historical/traditional recipe than anything.
Honestly, I find people who hold this opinion are usually just ignorant to what popular French food is. It's so common place you might not even recognize it as French. Not to mention that French food was such an influential force that a lot of other cuisines (English, Italian, Vietnamese, - even American "southern food" from the French colonists) that even if you don't like traditional French food, you certainly will appreciate their contributions to the food you do like - especially if you like anything with bread.
Here are some everyday foods that are very French in origin:
- Charcuterie
- Steak w/ French Fries
- Ham Sandwich
- Crepes/Pancakes
- Quiche
- Omelettes
- Rotisserie
- Beef Stew
This isn't even mentioning the "fancy" recipes that are friggin' delicious like Duck a l'orange, Coq Au Vin, Ratatouille, and anything that uses bechamel or remoulade.
On top of French desserts being first-class by your own admission, I think it's pretty bizarre to call it overrated. I'd also be really curious to know if you're American. I've found so many Americans that have this weird anti-French bias that doesn't have any foundation.
OP outing his 7 years old culinary taste
That’s not an opinion that’s just wrong
Techniques used in French cuisine are superior. That’s why they’re now used everywhere as a standard for quality
You just don’t understand food
OP does not know french cuisine.
OP has never had French food
Christ this is fucking stupid.
Jesus, how full of shit can one person be. Going out of your way to find such a niche example and it doesn't come even remotely to substantiating your bad faith argument.
Looks like somebody has an unrefined palette.
I don’t agree at all.
French cuisine also has a lot of comfort foods though.
When was the last time you had Boeuf Bourguignon? Delicious!
French cuisine is hugely varied , I mean parts of France they eat like the Spanish with tons of fresh, expertly prepared seafood and rice , olive oil, not butter etc
And pretty much all modern cuisine, products you now take for granted , and many international cuisines derive from it or in some way use French techniques - because, science.
Best bread in the world? French. Italy has .. bread sticks , still pointlessly sitting there for your prosciutto. and ciabatta and foccacia. Their bread sucks
u like pho ? It’s French. They didn’t make these rich amazing stocks in Vietnam before French colonizers, let alone bahn mi or other fusion food the country is famous for
You like creole food? Gumbo? Or other American food that use roux? French. Or do you prefer chemical stabilizers
A simple perfect omelette. French style blows them all away. Or do you like a Denny’s piece of rubber garbage hyper pasteurized egg derived product
99.9% you’re American and have only encountered French cuisine at high end restaurants within the US and probably only encountered a few standard dishes , and not the incredible, humble but delicious fare that people binge on every day in that country,
You know less than nothing about cooking. Which is sorta impressive.
Upvote.
French cuisine is the foundation of every modern international cuisine!
Yes, their contemporary haute cuisine can be seen as pretentious but their classic cuisine won't be even recognized as french cuisine.
Namely Cesar Ritz and Auguste Escoffier instituitionalized international cuisine, with their hotels.
In a time when the only people eating Mexican food were Mexicans, they established a unified level of quality transnationally. They didn't just define recepies, they also created the system modern kitchens are run by and the tools. There is a reason the vocubulary of international gastronomy is french.
Over time, things they developed and established became so common that we won't attribute it with France because we can buy it in every supermarket.
Also, their everyday food can be of excellent quality. Butter, sausages, bread, cheese, wine.
France did all of that in a time when other countries were still trying find reliable sources for spices.
Even Italian food and even pasta and pizza weren't international before WW2. But every high class Hotel had a kitchen operating under the "french system".
They were also the first ones to include other nations cuisine into their own.
Have you tried boeuf bourguignon, pot au feu, confit de canard, pomme de terre sarladaises, cassoulet de toulouse ? Those are the salted meal that are very good to me. I don't think chicken en vessie is actually eaten a lot in France.
Regarding pastries, to me it's godlike with crème brûlée, éclair au chocolat, fraisier or paris-brest.
I’m with you there on the French’s pastry game.
Choux au Craquelin, aka, crispy cream puffs, is one of the most delicious and delectable desserts in culinary history imo!
Oui!
Quick question. Have you ever been to France? Because if you haven’t, then, respectfully, you have no idea what you’re talking about. The reason chefs rave about French food is because when you eat proper French cooking you begin to understand how incredible it is. The flavours are so pure and perfect, it can actually bring you to tears. The care, the complexity, the precision required to make something so special that it permanently elevates your palate is a skill acquired by precious few. Insulting the entire cuisine when you’ve probably only experienced some of the worst of it is the equivalent of eating shitty Taco Bell and complaining that Mexican food is awful.
The last time I was in NYC (a city renowned for their food scene), I ate at the two top rated French restaurants in the city, hoping to revisit some of the incredible food I had when I lived in France. What I got was a salty, sopping mess that I’d describe as barely edible. In some senses, I understand your perspective. If you’d had those meals, presented as representative of the cuisine, I’d probably write it off too. But that’s not what it is.
To tears? Come on... you sound like a snooty food critic in this comment. It's WHY its hard to take it serious when people rave about certain foods. You're trying to sound cultured and knowledgeable and you just sound ridiculous and over the top. I see where OP is coming from.
I love good food. No different than if I hear incredible music or see incredible art or watch an incredible movie. I’m sorry you’ve never had that experience. Confusing passion with pretentiousness is nothing new.
french food is so broad, though. you can not like some things the french like to eat, but you need to understand that "french cooking" refers to cooking techniques that are utilized in basically every cuisine on earth at this point. sauteing, braising, poaching, broiling, flambeing... they were all developed by the french and then incorporated by other cultures into their modern cuisines... including italian.
even mexican food utilizes french techniques... especially their famous soups like pozole and menudo.
mexican food is by far the best cuisine on earth and it's not even close, but it wouldn't be what it is without french food
I mean… the French are the ones who are infamous for said cooking methods, but theres absolutely no proof that they “invented them and brought them all over the world.” In fact, it’s extremely likely that many cultures were already doing many of these techniques.
This is not to discredit them: the French have contributed much to cuisine and I adore them for it. But acting like they’re the original pioneers of cooking really discredits other cultures and gives an air of “white savorism” when you say it like “oh those poor Mexicans wouldn’t be where they are without French techniques!” Every culture has learned and borrowed from each other. Let’s not pretend that the French contributed something more superior to the world than other cultures.
i mean, you can draw a direct line from ancient foods eaten by the maya through the time of spanish and french colonialism to the moles and pozoles of today. it's actually an interesting history and part of what makes mexican food the best in the world.... both pre and post colonial elements.
saying the mexican people incorporated elements and techniques from the colonists' cultures isn't "white saviorism"... it's just true. when you eat mexican food, you're eating a rich historical tableau that began with the mayas, aztecas, and more northern native americans and travelled with those people as they became "mexican" due to european mixing. there was no mexican food, or even mexicans for that matter, before the europeans showed up.
the french absolutely contributed more than any world culture to cuisine and cooking techniques if you base that on what you'll actually find on your plate in fine dining establishments around the world. it's not an opinion, and only someone not very knowledgeable in the history of modern cuisine would belabor the point.
that being said, i'm aware that people were eating food before the french came along and that the french didn't "invent" everything. they just happened to influence all of europe and then europe went on to dominate the entire planet for a few hundred years. the chinese may have been flambeing and sauteing, but they did not spread it to other cultures and influence what those other cultures' cuisines are today like the french did.
Yeah the Chinese were braising poaching broiling foods long before we knew who the French were. It’s not that special lol.
I’m pretty sure people around the world knew how to broil stuff lmao without the French telling them how to do it.
Someone in one of the comments above said the French taught us "how to prepare vegetables"
Like okay, before the French taught us how to julienne a carrot, I guess the rest of the world was floundering and crying with no idea how to use veggies.
You are my spirit animal
It's not shit but agree not worth all the hype. I lived in France for six years tried basically all the food there came to Italy for a week and their food blew my mind.
Reminds me of italian food etiquette, Now italian food is very fucking good, cheao ingredients most of the time, good cooking techniques, and im not lying when i say i love 75% of all italian food. Now what i dont like about it its the stupid etiquette "thid fork for that this plate for that" fuck off, ill eat it with the same fork i ate my salad and scratched my back!
You remind me of Pauly from the sopranos when he goes to Italy “ey where’s the macaroni?”
I always hated etiquette like that there is no reason to have 4+ different forks and spoons
Tut tut! We hold our forks tine down and in the left hand in this household! And sit up straight... /s
Wow, hot fuckin take. Not my favorite, but the techniques absolutely made me a significantly better cook.
I think the main problem here is not french food, it's the price, the fact that you quoted a dish that I've never heard of as a french means you don't eat a lot of french food and don't know many dishes, and I can't blame you because... French food is horribly expensive outside of France.
Most of the french dishes are better appreciated if you learn the recipes and do them yourself.
Talking about the price = not knowing about French food. Traditional French food is very inexpensive. Boeuf bourguignon, omelette, cassoulet, quiche, ratatouille, choucroute, cordon bleu... all of them are made from inexpensive or "less quality" meat parts. Crème, cheese, eggs, are inexpensive in France too. People are buying a croissant half the globe away from France, or get a table with a view on the Eiffel Tower and then talk about the price. Get the ingredient from the most random Saturday market and cook it at home, it's very inexpensive.
French cuisine? You mean breeeead?
Thanks, this made my day.
Small portions and little seasoning screw looking fancy I want some grub 🤣
I like all of those you listed.
I do admit I enjoy French food more in the countryside and in smaller towns than I do in Paris. Chill cafes, good local wine, no Michelin stars. Places that get few tourists...so they're actually nice to visitors, even if your French isn't perfect.
Really curious to know what « french cuisine » you ate.
‘Cause it’s not like your « chicken en vessie » is something everybody eats in France (the only time I saw this kind of technique was on youtube in some video about pseudo-fancy really-douchebaggy restaurants, and I’m french).
Have you been to France?
If you have not eaten French food than you really are not one to judge.
It isn't bad, it's just so universally beloved that it's become the default, and what actually makes it good is the skill of the chef rather than a particular ingredient or recipe
Don’t eat it.
Man I really enjoyed French food when I was there, even the regular sandwiches and salads from corner stores. It’s very lean food that doesn’t make you put on weight unlike many other cuisines. Not surprisingly you will rarely meet an obese French person. I once wandered into a backstreet in Montmarte, Paris which was full of street food shops like you’d find in Asia except the food was French. Every single thing I ate there was delicious af.
I wouldn’t say it is shit, but, in my opinion, it is definitely overrated. I’ll take a Thai or Indian dish over a French dish the vast majority of the time. Food is subjective though. What one person likes another person hates. I dislike a lot of the creamy French sauces.
You need to study. French is THE for a reason. You need to look past some of these ridiculous and "fancy" relics amd gimmick dishes.
Take a look at simple, humble classics like ratatouille, French sausage & bean casserole, Beef Bourguignon etc.
Take a look at all the base techniques.
Take a look at all the base sauces.
French food at most of the tourist traps is sh!t, which can be said of most tourist areas. But proper french food off the beaten path is freaking bliss. Especially paired with a good wine.
Have you had cassoulet, coq au vin, bouillabaisse? You seem to have picked one weird dish and extrapolated from there that all French cooking is terrible. It would be like if I talked about how gross and slimy Japanese food is after eating only natto.
The best meal I’ve ever had was near St Emilion, in French Wine Country. It was at a local restaurant where they used ingredients from the local farms.
Absolutely amazing. French food is only overly fanciful at dressed up restaurants attempting the same thing in urban environments.
I think what you really don’t like are overly fanciful restaurants. My ex and I used to jokingly call them “one scallop” restaurants, because you’d order the scallops, and get one scallop in the middle of a huge plate with some colorful glaze on it.
French cuisine is absolutely amazing.
I’ve eaten at over 100 prime steakhouses and “nice” restaurants, and have had many chef prepared meals (courtesy of 20 years with an expense account, where my job was to entertain people, and 10 years working in premium cooking appliances), and good French food is flat out amazing.
You can say whatever you want about french food but the fact that no ones outside of France says "Oh I would like to have french food this evening" is become the actual french food never exported itself like the italian, indian or chinese did. And this has more to do with the fact that a lot of people emigrated from those contries than anything else. Go to France, try some french cheeses and all the meals we can do with them. Also a lot of things that you take for granted are actually french dishes (mousse au chocolat being one of the prime examples when it comes to dessert).
Also I'm french and I have NEVER EVER heard about "poulet en vessie" before your message.
So anyway, just don't say anything until you have tried the real food from the country, instead of comparing it to the "fast food american equivalent" that you have in America.
As a general rule when it comes to food, the further north you go from the Mediterranean, the more nightmarish the food becomes.
It's taste and it's subjective. Everyone says Japanese food is wonderful but I find it upper average at best. It's leagues behind Vietnamese and Thai for me. But i'm a minority.
French people maybe don't make the best dishes out there but there techniques in cuisine are unmatched anywhere else, and the freshness and quality of the ingredients is second to none.
god I’m craving French food for dinner today”? Because for me it’s a never.
Inviting someone to a french restaurant is a phrase i heard a lot.. its fancy and classy and seen as a romantic and all.. people who say "lets eat mexican/japanese/ Italian" food usually means grabbing a pizza, sushi or tacos in an establishement that mass produce them for chaper prices..the French never went down the road of "quantity over quality".
I'm gonna have to defend my culinary culture now :]
French gastronomy, like any other country, is composed of various local and regional dishes that are not always very good I agree. But disliking one or several french dishes doesn't mean you'll hate everything. It's like saying you hate sushis so ramens are shit.
The techniques and basics are really all you need and why it's so well renowned. True, this en vessie and other weird pretentious shit are inedible and just for show, but basic dishes and sauces are mind-blowing and the techniques you learn there can be used to upgrade all of your cooking significantly
Pastries and bread hard carry France
Tartiflette, soupe à l'oignon, bœuf bourguignon, petit salé, cassoulet, daube, poulet chasseur. All superb French dishes that I'm always happy to eat and that are simple to cook. Most cuisines have something they do well, not always what they are most famous for.
My wife is Peruvian and when I started traveling there to see her more I fell in love with the food. Peru consistently wins top international gastronomy awards and I tell people often they need to open their minds. People automatically think French or Italian, as an example when talking world cuisines but Peru is top notch.
https://trexperienceperu.com/travel-news/peru-wins-2023-leading-culinary-destination-world#:\~:text=During%20the%202023%20gala%20ceremony,straight%20award%20in%20this%20category.
French breakfast and dessert is next level when it’s well made. Crepes, croissants, omelettes, French toast. Not a huge fan of the dinner options, but I haven’t tried much. I could eat breakfast for every meal.
How can you say you’re not a big fan of French food (or dinner options) and at the same time say you haven’t tried much of it?
How to say you don’t know what good food is without saying you don’t know what good food is.
You nailed the sub’s purpose though so take my reluctant upvote.
This is one of the dumbest takes I’ve seen
You probably never went to France that's why.
France (and the whole of the Eu) have very high ingredients quality standard compared to everyone else that most french restaurants outside of the Eu don't have (or can have but with a very high price).
You have absolutely no clue of a good meal. Comparing Paul Bocuse chef d'oeuvre to a burrito is a burrito is really sad. You never have a meal from a Michelin star restaurant do you? For normal day I also prefer a simple pizza ( cooked with a real fire) to a traditional french cook meal. But when I have the time to prepare it, french food is simply better. Having a boeuf bourguignon with a good wine, that's life.
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