Traditional cuisine from across the globe – France
The well known term of French Cuisine is something of a misnomer, mostly because ‘cuisine’ means kitchen in French, the actual room, it doesn’t describe food in any way. However when the term of “French Cuisine” is used, it is usually used when reffering to really great French food, not absolutely everything, however French cooking is not as much of a monolith as it might seem from this approach to it.
As it is with the particular food of any other country around the world, French cooking ranges from the seafood and olives characteristic of Provence to the butter and roasts of Tours, and from the simple food that one might find in a local bistro to the fancy confections of the Tour d’Argent.
The reason why French cooking does look like a monolith of sorts, is in large part due to the fact that regardless where in the country you’re looking, there is a clear seriousness in regards to their food. No matter in which region you get your inspiration from, you’ll notive that French cooking involves a large number of techniques, some of which are rather complicted, but all of which serve as basics. The fact of the matter is that French food does not tolerate any type of shortcut when it comes to these core basics.
Whether you’re talking about mastering the process of making sauces or pastry doughs, the core fundamentals of French culinary art have to remain constant and classic and this is why even the simplest preparation must be done in the most careful manner and this means completely disregarding the amount of time required for it. This approach to chooking is somewhat at odds with the hectic life of most other Western countries, especially the U.S., where time and saving it is becoming as important a currency as money is.
Important to note when it comes to French food is that it operated with the strong sense that there is an appropriate beverage for every type of food and occasion, for instance wine is drunk with the meal but rarely without food, and an aperitif – a light alcoholic beverage – precedes the meal while a digestif – a stronger alcoholic beverage – usually follows the meal.
There is a very close relationship between food and wine, and this parallels the fact that great cooking is entwined with great wine making, as evidenced by the fact that arguably some of the best cooking in the country takes place in some of the best wine making regions, places like Burgundy, Bordeaux or Provence.
