Steals from Chefs

Appears in

Nobody Does it Better: Why French Cooking is still the best in the world

Published 2007

About

The French debate everything with verve, passion and unrelenting self-righteousness: from who should leave an overloaded lift, or who should leave the national football team, to who should leave the Elysée Palace (the official residence of the President). Food, cooking and the restaurant business are discussed passionately, as matters of national concern. People who never have and never will dine in starred chefs’ restaurants constantly argue about what they will never eat there.

If you feel like livening things up at the bar in a French café but daren’t take the religion or politics route, discussing French culinary pre-eminence and the Michelin and Gault Millau rating systems will do the trick. Just say, ‘Did you realise that eleven of the world’s twenty top restaurants are in London?’, or, ‘Don’t you think it’s crazy that Alain Senderens gave back his three stars one year and was then given two the next?’, then sit back and rest your vocal chords.