Visitors to France, especially those concerned about what
they eat, should keep an eye open for a new sign – Fait Maison – intended to
flag up restaurants where the food really is home-made.
It may come as a shock to many that in a nation renowned for
its cuisine, many French restaurants simply re-heat pre-prepared food, rather
than cooking it from scratch...not that this practice is peculiar to France, of
course.
Conservative estimates suggest that barely 50% of restaurant
meals were home-made, while the Union of Hotel Skills and Industries claims
that 85% of restaurants make use of frozen or vacuum-packed food.
To many people this seems at odds with the perceived view of
French culinary traditions, so a law designed to uphold those traditions was
passed earlier this year, and came into force recently.
Now any restaurant that serves a home-made dish can indicate
it on the menu with it new logo – in the form of a casserole with the roof-like
lid. From next January it will be compulsory for all menus to carry the logo. So,
if you don't see it, the food is not fait
maison.
And does it matter? No-one is suggesting that any of the
practices currently adopted results in poor quality food. But a high proportion
of people think that the use of pre-prepared food by restaurants is
incompatible with what they expect.
How will it pan out in practice? No-one can be sure. But
it's an interesting development to watch.
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