Other than bread/pastry I don't get the fuss about French cuisine
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Anonymous
| Yes Chinese cuisine has had over 5000 years of refinement is perhaps the most underrated cuisine out there, but French food is still awesome. I'm one of those live all foods all around the world people. |
Anonymous
What did you grow up cooking, pigs feet and rutabagas? 😂 |
Anonymous
Pig feet and cabbage, thank you very much. And better beans and stews the zee French. Plus based on the argument here, the best thing about the French cuisine is that it based on simple dishes for the poor. So, somehow you are now criticizing my poverty-based cooking but praising theirs? |
Anonymous
Interesting that you say that. Central European cuisine comes from Viennese cuisine which was heavily influenced by French cuisine in the 18th century. Although I agree with you about French food being overrated one has to acknowledge that it pioneered techniques and principles that are integral to different cuisines the world over. It is not the best cuisine but it is the most important. |
Anonymous
I am not sure that the French heavily influenced anything. If anything, I would say central European cuisine benefited from the proximity of the Ottoman Empire and had more spices. |
Anonymous
But also, yes, great part of my cooking is of Viennese background. |
Anonymous
Simple food prepared well can taste good. There’s no planet on which turnips and rutabagas will be edible for humans. And you’re the one who sneered at French food first. |
Anonymous
Sorry OP that you have unrefined taste. 
OTOH think of all the money you'll save by never traveling to France and partaking! |
Anonymous
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OP, I agree. I’ve been to some really good French restaurants and the food is fine but I just don’t get excited for it.
Good itialian food, from every region. I could eat every day of my life. If I’m looking at different restaurant menus, frenzy is often my last pick. And my Italian relatives say the French stole all the pastries from italy. |
Anonymous
Yes, I am lucky. I spend my time in Rome and eat well there. |
Anonymous
| I’m vegetarian so when I went to France (early 2000s, it’s been a while) choices were limited. I ended up eating lots of bread, cheese, and simple salads. And it was heaven. So many things were simple in terms of ingredients but so flavorful. I’ve since had similar experiences elsewhere abroad. Might not look fancy or complicated on paper, but it tastes delicious. |
Anonymous
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French cuisine has evolved greatly from the trailblazing days of “The French Chef,” when the average American ate big hunks of underseasoned overcooked meat (beef more often than not) accompanied by equally underseasoned potatoes and probably canned vegetables, if any vegetables at all. People used dehydrated onion instead of fresh, some of them had never seen a garlic clove in real life, and a raft of herbs, seasons and garnishes we routinely use today were either virtually unknown or thought of as very exotic.
Even back then, however, the French focus on seasonal, fresh ingredients, cooking food to the optimum, using various seasonings, and perhaps most of the use of sauces to enhance presentation, texture and palatability was revolutionary in the US. So was the French focus on careful preparation and precise, efficient technique. The various staples of cuisine bourgeoise (onion soup, steak a poivre, and the like) were completely new to many, if not most, American cooks. With today’s year round availability of ingredients, access to once unheard of exotic ingredients like foie gras, and now-multiple generations of readily accessible cooking instruction, it is easy to forget (if one ever even knew) just how comparatively primitive US cuisine was, particularly after the broad introduction of frozen and other convenience foods. It is not that easy, however to define exactly what constitutes “French” cooking nowadays. French cuisine has never stood still and the French have a long history of being willing to eat nearly anything that will stand still long enough for them to masticate it. The ingredients, seasonings and culinary influences in France today are far broader than in, say, even the 1960’s. That said, and as PP’s have noted, the “soul” of French cooking remains fresh (typically local), seasonal ingredients of the highest quality, carefully prepared to enhance their taste and presented as elegantly as circumstances allow. French vegetables don’t come from another continent. Their meat animals are raised more naturally, and everything from chicken on up has remarkably more flavor than what we find in the average US supermarket. This is not to say that one can’t get a bad meal in France, or that with the advent of “super-“ and “hyper-marches,” there hasn’t been a decline in average ingredient quality as compared to specialty shops. There are gradations in everything and even the French are not immune to culinary decline. The good news is that quality ingredients in the US are more available than ever, albeit probably not at the local supermarket. Those ingredients, handled with a French ethic, will yield food to rival any ethnic or other cuisine. Even Jacques Pepin, perhaps the most famous French cook in history, no longer recognizes his cooking as specifically “French”. For him, inputs change, but technique remains constant, and this is what allows any cooking to shine. |
Anonymous
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I love french food with such passion. I could happily live in France and live off bread and foie and cheese and steak frites with bernaise etc etc.
I don't really understand why you feel like you have to disparage French food? I of course love Japanese and Vietnamese and Chinese and Filipino and Italian and Mexican and Spanish and German etc etc food as well. Every country brings flavors and techniques to the table that are spectacular and I have learned from all to take back to my own cooking. LOL though at 'I follow food but have never heard of Thomas Keller'. Lumpia is wonderful but also kind of a 'peasant food'. Most of the most known and loved dishes in a cuisine are not going to be michelin star complicated dishes, they are the food the children of this generation grew up eating. You should really take your elitism elsewhere OP, seems like you're just full of yourself. |
Anonymous
I am still arguing that their cuisine in general does not warrant a pedestal of any sorts. |
Anonymous
French feel the need to disparage much of the world, so yes, I am just like the French in expressing my opinion openly here. Thomas Keller is nothing to me becasue French food is nothing to me, other than their bread and pastries. |