As French idea of restaurant changes, so does law
PARIS (AP) -- The country that gave us the words restaurant, bistro and cuisine is changing how it eats.
For the first time in France, fast food overtook traditional restaurant receipts as the economic crisis deepened, and the share of people who pack a lunch for work is rising faster by the year. Meanwhile, lurid reports of the increasing number of traditional restaurants resorting to frozen pre-packaged meals to hold down their prices have shaken France's sense of culinary identity.
French lawmakers have swung into action to protect their cuisine, which the government officially considers a matter of national pride - even to the point of persuading UNESCO in 2010 to put French cuisine on its World Heritage List.
"I don't want chefs replaced by microwaves," said Daniel Fasquelle, a lawmaker in the French Assembly who voted recently for a measure that would require restaurants to print `'fait maison" - or homemade - on menus next to dishes that were created from scratch.
Fasquelle said the legislation, which was approved in the lower house and goes to the Senate in the fall, is weaker than what he and other culinary warriors want but represents a step in the right direction. Fasquelle is part of a movement seeking to limit what can be called a "restaurant" to places where more than half the food is made in-house. The idea is to protect "true cuisine" and force the fakers - who would have to find a more appropriate word, such as "caterer" - to fess up.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_DEFINING_DINING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-06-02-35-37
xchrom
(108,903 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)I appreciate that some for a variety of reasons do not eat bacon but personally in a roll like that bacon would be obligatory
xchrom
(108,903 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)when the wife , kids and I went to Marbella for a for a few weeks each year I'd change my diet to just ham and cheese toasted sandwiches / croque-monsieurs and lager for the duration. In those days I never weighed more than 9 stone.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)brie and a baguette on my person.
you know -- i might want a knosh.
dorkzilla
(5,141 posts)You never gained more than 9 stone?
Upon return from my summer in Ireland I was always a stone thinner in spite of my Auntie stuffing me like a Christmas goose...her cream cakes were divine!
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Did manage to get up to nine an a half stone in 1981 with a stacks of protein and working out. And then.....about 5 years ago I put on 2 stone almost unnoticed just chilling out and relaxing which may have been what I needed to do before. Since stuck at 11 stone - never shifts.
dorkzilla
(5,141 posts)I have to eat like a bird and power walk at least 5 miles a day to stay at 10 stone! When I was young I under-ate and ran 7 miles a day and I think I permanently screwed up my metabolism.