John Whiting

It's worth remembering that Chez Panisse started as an unashamedly French bistro, growing out of Alice's college experience during a summer's foreign study. Her first models were Elizabeth David's French Country Cooking and (later) Richard Olney's Simple French Food (see my history of Chez Panisse at http://www.gfw.co.uk/stirwords/words0499jw.html ). It's useless, I think, to argue as to whether French cuisine is essentially haute or bourgeoise. It's one of the less productive forms of class warfare. [Edit: URL corrected]

A multi-layered assertion. In another thread, it could be argued that Chez Panisse is the most authentic French restaurant in America. Both claims would be based on that ambiguous and much-argued word "terroir", the essential aspect of which is a wholistic approach to cuisine which centers on its integral relationship to the area in which it is practised.

Re pronunciation: Countries which contain sizeable linguistic groups which have been forcibly united (not counting those merely swallowed into anonymity) usually have spelling and pronunciational variations from area to area. England and France are particularly good examples. In the south of France the “langue d’oc” (i.e. the language that says “oc” instead of “oui”) still has a strong influence, with bilingual signs in many towns. Such conflicting usage was a primary motive is establishing the Acadamie to make the French language consistent. Such an institution in Germany, where every word can be accurately transcribed merely from its Hochdeutsch pronunciation, would have been superfluous.

Thank you, this is eloquent stuff. Those who have the time should search out Marion Nestle's magnum opus, _Food Politics_ and _Safe Food_, UC Berkeley Press. A professor of nutrition who is also a self-confessed foodie, she has been documenting the food industry's machinations for a quarter-century. Many of the contemporary journalistic protests against the Big Sell have been lifted uncredited out of her research.

Slow Food is the sort of thing that can happen when large parts of a country have been poor enough for their traditional foods to continue to be made in a time-consuming labor-intensive way, while other parts of the country suddenly become prosperous enough to support such producers on a large scale. Knowing Carlo Petrini, the "political positions" which you question were, rightly or wrongly, the underlying motivation of the entire movement. Without them, it would have become merely a fancy food warehouse dedicated to making lots of money. P.S. Thanks, Russ for being, as usual, so generous with your time. Edit: spelling correction.

Exactly! And context includes not only the ambiance but also the relationship of the elements of the meal with each other -- including, of course, how the food and the wine bring out each other's qualities. A "wine tasting" combines the worst aspects of an orgy and a gang-bang.

A sense of history would remind the over-earnest that food/wine matching is governed more by fashion than by absolute criteria. In 19th century Britain, the great German wines which balanced sweetness and acidity were even more highly prized than the French classics. Sauces tended to be sweet, and so the aim was to match them with a wine that exactly complemented their sweetness. Such an approach is open to argument, but one thing is certain -- gastronomically, the Victorians were no fools.

Sounds promising. Address?

Sorry, I've been away from eGullet for a few days. It's on the west side of the Finchley road, i.e. the left side going north, in the last block of shops before the North Circular.

Just to respond to this without following the rest of the thread: When the brewers were required to sell off a large proportion of their pubs in order to "encourage competition", they were bought up by conglomerates who cared nothing for beer or for anything else except coining money. They immediately realized that the greatest profits would come from herding teenagers onto the premises and selling them bad beer and alcopops at inflated prices. This has in turn driven away the genuine beer fanciers who want to drink carefully cellared brew in surroundings quiet enough to permit civilized conversation. Such pubs still exist, but they are an infinitesimal proportion of the total financial turnover, and they must be sought for with the same diligence as traditional French bistros in France. If you seek quality beer, you must be an anthropologist, or even an archaeologist.

If - God krows why! - you're in the north end of the Finchley Road, just before you reach the A1, there's an ancient Salt Food cafe run by a venerable Jewish couple. Very decent meat, available either in a fat sandwich or on a heaping plate. And proper pickles. Worth travelling out on the 82 bus if you're either a salt beef fancier or an anthropologist.

Decide which.

Even at Terminus Nord opposite Gare du Nord -- the ultimate in transient clientelle -- we've eaten very acceptably, the last time only a few weeks ago. You can tell them when you must leave to catch your train and they'll keep to schedule, warning you if you've ordered something that would take too long. And all done pleasantly.

Having stayed and eaten at Scottish fishing ports, I have been appalled at how difficult it can be in local shops to buy fish that are being landed within sight. Banff was almost unique in having a fish shop at the docks, complete with a tank of live crabs and lobsters.

In a self-contained island like England/Scotland, buying local can in a sense mean supporting British food producers. British cheeses, for instance, now include world-class products, as has long been the case with British beers. The same with meats of all kinds. On a narrower scale, the Ludlow Food Fair succeeds in exhibiting dozens of fine food products which must come from within a fifty mile radius.

Bux, I think it's fair to suggest, as you do, that the Flo chain restaurants are probably in better shape than if they had remained independent -- or, even more likely, sunk without a trace. I used to enjoy La Procope when it was still a tatty student hangout -- dirt cheap, threadbare grandeur. Now it's tarted up and full of tourists, and the food is rather expensive. But it is edible; in the old days it was school cafeteria standard. Edit: If the Flo chain were in London, I (and a lot of others) would be raving about its excellence.

There speaks a woman who has earned the right to generalize. If any proof were required, one need only mention the phrase "spice trade".

There are general principles here which cannot be applied universally and inflexibly. On the one hand, "local and seasonal" is a largely workable policy in California but not in Reykjavik. But the demand for food which is above all cheap has led British supermarkets into gradually strangling excellent and varied local food production by means of Third World exploitation.

A fine, even useful book. What comes out of all this is that there are still very good traditional bistros scattered across the country, but you can no longer assume that one will magically materialize exactly where you want it. In a couple of weeks I'm about to experiment with a whole new way of exploring France (at least for me). I've acquired and restored a classic VW Westfalia campervan, vintage 1981. I've also joined a French club called France Passion which publishes a guide to French auberges and vineyards that offer free overnight parking on their property, together with recommendations of local bistros and restaurants. Some of these farms even offer meals in situ, prepared from their own produce. They seem to have no commercial incentive ( the spaces being free); just a desire to perpetuate a certain tradition. When I return, I'll start a new thread with a report of our experiences, whether positive or negative.

A very good analysis, I think, written from a larger perspective. Wilmott seems to have written deliberately out of his experience on the road as an "eyewitness" report, with little reference to history. My own experience of meandering about France by car suggests that the areas where local customs and cuisine are thriving are those that are inherently picturesque and thus attract tourists who are interested in the local hospitality as well. Wilmott starts his journey in one of the least attractive parts of France, where one is unlikely to linger except from necessity. These are the places where the food and lodging chains are able to offer the reliable, the predictable and the anonymous.

Maybe he was thinking of gros pois rather than petit pois. However, such a lapse shouldn't blind us to his wider and more perceptive observations.

Nigel Wilmott's report on his walking tour of France didn't appear in our edition of the Guardian, but fortunately it's on their website. It makes the changes in the French countryside (and local eating) much more obvious than what is seen by those of us (including me) who traverse the country on four wheels. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,474...-110633,00.html

If you are interested in visiting a half-century-old bistro which was a favourite of Waverley Root, Orson Welles and Francois Mitterand, and which is likely to disappear next month, try Bistro 121, whose obituary I wrote here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=10&t=25775&

He couldn't be, when his researches are carried out in a lab in the winter and then served up to the public during the summer.

It can be argued that the food cooked in expensive restaurants, though interesting in itself, is no more representative of the standards enjoyed by the great mass of the food-loving populace -- and there are indeed many such people -- than the haute couture of the fashion shows is representative of the quality of dress one sees on the street. In both cases, the latter can be either high or low without reference to those tastes which only the well-off can afford to indulge. The relative standards of highly competitive celebrity chefs are hardly to be taken as a guide to the quality of food one might obtain in a good local restaurant. Edit: Please note that this is not a condemnation of expensive restaurants. It is merely a reminder that generalizations about the quality of a country's cuisine should not be based entirely on its upper echelons.