Eating My Way Though Europe
An Introduction to French Food
French food is often considered, especially by the French, to be the best food in the world. However, this was not always the case. According to my guidebook, Let's Go: Paris on a Budget, the trend towards fine cuisine began when Catherine de Medicis, a French queen in the 1500's grew tired of dull French food and started importing chefs from her native Florence. These Italian chefs taught the French to appreciate the delicate of art of cooking, especially in seasoning ingredients and preparing sauces.
In cooking school, the "Grandfather of French Cooking" is August Escoffier, who revolutionized French cuisine by reorganizing how the kitchen was run and publishing a voluminous collection of recipes. Escoffier reorganized the management of a kitchen into a hierarchical system, with a head chef and sous chef ("sub-chef") overseeing a number of other chefs who specialize in one area of the kitchen. In culinary school, we spent time learning each of the positions in a kitchen, from saucier (sauce-maker) to garde manger (literally "food keeper", who prepares most cold dishes) to poissonnier (fish cook). Escoffier's hierarchical system means that even cooks in the lowest positions (say a measly fry cook) can work towards becoming a head chef, making the culinary trade a more respectable profession.
One person I can't forget to mention is the woman who made French cooking popular in America: Julia Child. I read her book My Life in France while in Paris. Her goal was to make her favorite cuisine accessible to American housewives, and she has succeeded tremendously with her famous cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She spent countless hours sampling classic French dishes, re-creating them at home, and attending culinary school in an era when women chefs weren't taken seriously. I admire her work greatly and hope to emulate some of her dining experiences while in France.
In cooking school, the "Grandfather of French Cooking" is August Escoffier, who revolutionized French cuisine by reorganizing how the kitchen was run and publishing a voluminous collection of recipes. Escoffier reorganized the management of a kitchen into a hierarchical system, with a head chef and sous chef ("sub-chef") overseeing a number of other chefs who specialize in one area of the kitchen. In culinary school, we spent time learning each of the positions in a kitchen, from saucier (sauce-maker) to garde manger (literally "food keeper", who prepares most cold dishes) to poissonnier (fish cook). Escoffier's hierarchical system means that even cooks in the lowest positions (say a measly fry cook) can work towards becoming a head chef, making the culinary trade a more respectable profession.
One person I can't forget to mention is the woman who made French cooking popular in America: Julia Child. I read her book My Life in France while in Paris. Her goal was to make her favorite cuisine accessible to American housewives, and she has succeeded tremendously with her famous cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She spent countless hours sampling classic French dishes, re-creating them at home, and attending culinary school in an era when women chefs weren't taken seriously. I admire her work greatly and hope to emulate some of her dining experiences while in France.
Selecting Topics
Trying to cover everything about French cuisine would be next to impossible for one author, so I had to select a few of the most interesting topics. The first three topics were easy to settle on, since they were what I missed the most upon returning to the U.S.: bread, cheese, and wine. I decided to include a section on dessert because French pastries exemplify the concept of food being art. I know people are always interested in the foods we don't typically eat here in the U.S., so I've included a discussion of some unusual French foods. Finally, it made sense to include a section on French dining customs, since they are an integral part of any French meal.
