Mark
Bittman, one of my favorite food writers and providers of recipes, has just
broken my heart. He writes that the French have changed when it comes to food. No longer can
you be guaranteed that anywhere you eat in France will be wonderful.
by Charlie
Leck
“The people of France appear to have lost faith and even
interest. They spend most
of their restaurant dollars at chains, and they no longer trust that restaurants
make a majority of their dishes themselves.” [Mark Bittman, NY Times]
I
want to cry! Je tiens à pleurer!
I
spent several months in France in ’78. I had a little, garret apartment in a
working class section of the city. I could wander out into the city for a lunch
and stop into almost any small restaurant and point to something for the
waiter, asking him politely to bring “ca” for me.
“Merci
beaucoup!”
I’ve
gone back to France several times over the years. I love the nation dearly and
think of it constantly. Even up until four or five years ago I knew I could
depend on the universal promise of wonderful food in all of France.
Moments
later an extraordinary meal would be placed before me. It never failed. It was
always wonderful.
Bittman
says it ain’t so in France of today. If you want that kind of French cuisine,
he says, “you’d better hop in your time machine.”
I
stand prepared, and even anxious, for my friends and family in France to scream
and holler – to rant and rave – and to tell me that none of what Bittman says
is true.
“C’est
une catastrophe! Dites-moi ce n’est pas vrai!” (It is a catastrophe! Tell me it ain't true!)
_________________________
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