ribeirasacra

Is it home made or not home made that is the question!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28313666

kerouac

Unfortunately there are so many loopholes that they had to exclude potatoes from the authorized items because otherwise most of the fast food chains could have claimed that the majority of their offerings were "home made" since they are made from raw ingredients, pink slime nuggets excepted.

kerouac

I just now read the article and it has a number of inaccuracies. For example, the "home made" logo went into effect on July 15th, and nobody is "obliged" to use it. In fact, I think that most ordinary places won't want to use it because it would make their more numerous industially prepared dishes appear less desirable.

In fact, for a lot of places, the contrary is true, because at least the industrial dishes are totally professional with extremely strict sanitary and quality control. The "home made" dishes are at the mercy of kitchen staff who are not necessarily at their best every day.

Obviously, I am not talking about high end gourmet restaurants.

Bedar

Ha, last March we found French food to be most disappointing, a real change from previous decades.
On our return we came across the NYT article, "Can French Food Be Saved?". which mentioned that 70% of restaurants serve food from centralised, industal kitchens. Guess so, just look at menus posted outside. They are all the SAME !!! Wish we could have said the food was expensive but reallu delicious. Instead we had to say it was expensove but dreary.

kerouac

You should have gone to the cheap restaurants then. They buy their dishes from the same place.

ribeirasacra

Maybe this is better reporting ????
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/5...w-pre.html.csp
or this?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...ts-boring.html
Personally I have some really great meals at little cost. However I always seek out those little restaurants that are just made for the French Or a good old Le Routier ;-)

Nikki

There are many sources on line to choose restaurants that make their own dishes and are well reviewed by critics and the public. I have eaten extremely well in Paris. There is an abundance of small chef-operated bistros, but you won't necessarily find them by walking down the street and looking at the posted menus, as many suggest doing, and many of them require reservations as they are fairly small.

flanneruk

" I have eaten extremely well in Paris. "

So have we all. But Paris isn't France, and it really is impossible now in much of La France Profonde to find eating places where anyone with any self-respect could possibly eat - except by cooking at home. In one 15,000 pop town we holiday in occasionally, the Carrefour traiteur counter knocks any real restaurant into a <i> bonnet phrygien </i> - though its cheese and charcuterie are pathetic compared to any Waitrose or even to a growing number of British Lidls.

That absolutely wasn't the case 30 years ago. And the problem isn't with France's still outstanding network of high quality niche food producers.

I've spent today with one of France's best restaurant chefs (well, OK: just 2 Michelin stars, but that'd still put him in the top 110 back home) - who's chosen to spend most of his adult life in England.

Much of the day was taken up with him discussing the challenges he's had finding reliable fruit and veg suppliers in Britain, and how he still has to use French suppliers occasionally for products easily grown in Britain (like artichokes, apricots or even some kinds of plums)

But he also explained why those French suppliers want to work with him. Outside the 1,000 or so French restaurants with a Michelin star, or working actively to get one, he argued, few French eating establishments any more are prepared to bother with the hassle of nurturing and motivating suppliers.

Far easier, he said, most found it to buy from what are called in the jargon "food service corporations" (often called precisely that in France.) Businesses invented to service he needs of France's catering megacorps like Accor or Sodexo, doing so with great professionalism - but fundamentally destructive to the standards the <i> bons bistrots du quartier </i> used to uphold, and that many of us still hope to rediscover whenever we go to France.

Increasingly, though, it's easier to do so (though at a price) in the better English pubs, or in Italy.

Bertrandfr

Hello ribeirasacra,

I'm French, and i live in South of France.

At home is a new law, if a restaurant want keep this logo it must made at home.

But, every law are sometimes by-pass, but there are lot of controls.

Sorry for my English i learn your language actually.

Goodbye

kerouac

Many of the Michelin starred restaurants have taken to having a special personal produce supplier who grows exactly the vegetables and fruits that they ask for -- lots of heirloom and rare items that it would be extremely difficult or impossible to find otherwise. I think that's great, but they probably only represent 0.001% of the restaurants in France.