to think that the French can't cook?

[Idratherbemuckingout]

I base this on experience, as I live in France. Okay, they have lovely restaurants, but the general public CANNOT cook.
My friend Dominique has just told my husband that she has bought a turkey for her family. She is going to boil it. He explained how the english cook theirs, but she thought it sounded too complicated.
Hmmm.
In the supermarkets you can of course buy fresh food, but having stood behind french people at the till countless times and seen their mountains of ready prepared meals, I doubt that many of them actually BUY the fresh food. Or if they do, that they cook anything interesting out of it.
I have a friend called Isabelle who is quite mad. We asked her once if she liked spicy food, thinking to cook her a curry. She declared that she did, but that she would bring us her signature dish. Chocolate Chicken. Yes, I kid you not, it was like chicken in chocolate sauce and it was NOT very spicy.
She also once asked us if we liked eating snails, and foolishly we said yes. "Ah," she said, "I 'ave a secret recipe zat I will cook for you. I shall collect snails in my garden (!!!!) and put zem in my snail 'otel and feed them special food and zen we will eat them together."
Well, the first year they died (silent sighs of relief) but the second year she did it again, and we were duly invited to her house. The kids refused point blank to go. DH tried to but I made him come with me. She had cooked us 200 snails. TBH they tasted much like all the other snails I have eaten - snaily. Not enough garlic in my opinion. That wouldn't have been so bad, but she followed it up with duck with apricots (very rich too) and then American Peach Pie. We had indigestion for days.
ANd they can't make coffee either. Never have I been to a french house and had a decent cup of coffee, or tea either if it comes to that.
They don't seem to possess kettles you see, so they heat the water in the microwave, to not boiling point. Then they give you the cup of hot water and a sachet (I kid you not) of instant coffee to stir into it, or a teabag to dunk.
My DS was at the local primary school and after the Christmas (not) spectacular, we stayed for the buffet meal. Poo Sausage was the highlight. You know you are mixing with peasants when the offal is high on the menu.
Poo Sausage (my DH called it that)is actually called Andouille, and is a bit like chitterlings, should any of you know what those are - ie made of some horrible bit of the insides of an animal.

I could go on, but I won't or this is going to look like an essay.

Maybe the milk thing is regional. I have been to the South of France numerous times and have shopped in Carrefour, Auchan, Casino, Geant, Super U etc. and none sold fresh milk (they sometimes have a small selection in the fridge, but it is still UHT). I asked a French friend about this and she agreed supermarkets don't sell it, but she is also from the South.

It's too late now for me to look up supermarkets' websites but the Casino I checked earlier was in the South and they did sell it. Odd.

Apparently 95.5% of milk consumed in France is UHT (so there must be somewhere to buy the remaining 4.5%!).

Please note, I've been housebound for a few days as my daughter has been ill and I have a cold, so am now going stir crazy and googling random useless info!

Yes, that's possible- my supermarket has a mountain of UHT and then a small section for fresh. But still, they do have it.

I can't see the big deal either. French food is vile. Snails.... SNAILS FFS.

Is the OP a sacked script writer from 'ello 'ello?

Perhaps it's just not to your taste op.

Although - I have an Italian and French colleague, when we ate out in Germany last month they were slagging off the meal big style, too potato based, too large portions etc etc. To the point of rudeness for all the German team, they both felt that their National cuisine was the best in Europe and smirked at my attempt to bring in UK cuisine and thoroughly belittled anyone elses opinion on cuisine. The French colleague just seems to live on Nutella - i have never seen anyone eat sooo much!

But seriously I've spent 6 weeks in Italy this year on and off and I am soooo bloody sick of the same food over and over again. My colleague spent hours makung us pasta in some tomato sauce and it really tasted no different to me than something I would whip up for DS in the blender, or a jar of Dolmio. A typical week of meals would go Gnocchi, spagetti, pizza, repeated over and over regardless of the varuety of restaurants.

Perhaps my tastebuds aren't attuned to it

Seasons, try Godminster organic cheddar. It's bloody gorgeous! Really rich and savoury, with a beautiful round flavour, and no horrid aftertaste.

Half my family are French - all great cooks. As others have said you are mixing with the wrong French people OP!

IndianOcean, is it Boulogne Billancourt or Boulogne sur Mer that you need recommendations for?

I am American and have a kettle.

That is all.

:o

I love French food - COOKED WELL.
I love English food - COOKED WELL.
Which country has the reputation for being gourmets?

Get the point of this, you lot. It is not saying french food is bad. It is saying that lots of the french can't cook, yet the country has a reputation that says they CAN.
They mock our food, our recipes, our chefs. But WE are actually not all that bad.
I have yet, by the way, to find a shop that sells FRESH cream. Stacks of UHT cream everywhere.
No probs with fresh milk, if you check the sell by of course, as, which no-one seems to have noticed, I already pointed out that it is often for sale today (the 29th) and due to go off today or tomorrow.
And believe me, it does taste funny on the day it goes off.
I always keep a few bottles of UHT in the house, just in case, but I prefer my fresh milk, even if it has been nuked so it will last three weeks.
And breakfast over here seems to consist of chocolate in all shapes and forms. Worked in a french school (well, several, teaching english) and asked all manner of different age kids what they eat for breakfast and it was ALWAYS chocolate.
Had birthday tea at someone's house, and the dad had a bowl of black coffee and then proceded to break up what could only be described as a rusk into it until it resembled some kind of porridge. That was interesting.
This, however, is a generalisation. Some french undoubtedly can cook. But judging from our local shops (super U, Intermarché, Carrefour, Leclerc etc, not many of them do cook.

I have no idea where some of you others live in France, but here, NW, the shop shelves are STACKED with ready made meals, in boxes, tins, packets etc.

You can buy your Christmas Dinner ready made.
Handy if you are on your own, I should think, but really, Christmas Dinner?
It actually sounds quite nice, but it proves my point - they don't cook.

Do you do all your shopping at the supermarkets yourself, OP, or do you shop at the market and go to a butcher, a baker, charcuterie etc?

I no longer live in France, but while I do shop in supermarkets for some things, I rarely buy meat, fish, veg etc there. (We buy from the butcher, farm shop, or grow our own.) So anyone having a gander into my trolley would get a somewhat distorted picture of what we eat.

I have lived in 3 different 'regions' and been invited to share informal and formal meals in both and I haven't come across any really bad food.
However from observations I have made in the supermarkets, there are plenty of homes I probably wouldn't enjoy being invited to!

It seems to me that what is really winding you up is that the French people you have come across think the British can't cook, a view they probably have based on a visit to a poor tourist trap restaurant, an exchange in the 70s when lets face it, the average British meal was pretty bland, or hearsay. But you can't let it get to you! There are lots of generalisations the Brits make about the French based on their holiday/exchange experiences. Someone on this thread said you can't get decent sandwich bread for lunch. But that's because the French don't traditionally eat sandwiches for lunch. It happens more and more now but only over the last couple of decades. Just like a British person without any Asian origins making a proper curry (not one with raisins and apples in!) is something that has happened over the last couple of decades.

I have lived in Nord/Pas de Calais and am currently living in Picardie. The weather is just like in the UK. But I constanly have to put up with comments about the rubbish weather in the UK. I wouldn't mind if I lived in the south, but really!

Just grin and bear it!

I shop around, carefully, knowing exactly where to get the best bargains, the best quality. I don't BUY the rubbish stuff I see in the supermarkets. But I guess if your trolley is stacked full with tins, packets and frozen meals, it pretty well indicates that it is what you and your family live on.

I grow my own veg, have my own chickens and sheep for meat. We eat very well indeed. It isn't what I eat that's important here. It's what others eat. Or rather, how they get it to the point of eating it.
There is a fantastic fish counter in all our local supermarkets, BUT they still have on sale (well, they did yesterday) the SAME oysters they had on sale before Christmas. You can tell a fresh fish by their eyes. Take a look some time. And I've stupidly bought prawns that I've had to chuck away as rotten. Should have looked more closely, but that was obviously a day when I wasn't paying enough attention.

Strawberries - nice on top, rotten underneath. Took them back the next day, but as we'd eaten the decent ones, they only gave us a refund for the half that were rotten! Laughable.
Lemons bought in a net that have gone mouldy in a matter of days. Keep them in the fridge now.
Potatoes black right through, only visible after you peel them. Must add them to my veggie patch this year.
Multipack of chicken legs (this was when I was wet behind the ears, many years ago) that totally honked on getting them home, and only then did I notice the sell by date. Did get my money back for that one.
Just bought some alfalfa chaff for my horses, couldn't prise it apart. Would've needed a hammer and chisel for that.

France is a lovely place, the people are friendly, the roads are much less busy, the countryside is beautiful etc. I like it here. I just don't wear the rosy tinted spectacles the rest of you who think I'm wrong are wearing. Take them off.
I'm happy with it being different. Why do you think I wanted to live here? Most of the time it's fantastic but does that ban me from telling people about the bad bits? Why should it? Freedom of speech etc.
Nobody and nothing is perfect, and we'd be fools to imagine anything was.
BTW they have rubbish blacksmiths too. Anyone wishing to refute this should look at how long it takes to train a blacksmith in the UK and how long they need to train here.

Yes, the Brits have a reputation for bad cooking in France. As somewherelse says it is probably to do with bad tourist food or exchange trips. In fact I have yet to meet a French person who ate well on an exchange trip to the UK (with the exception of the one who came to my house back when I was a teen as my mother is an excellent cook).

That said, our reputation is changing. Cuisine Télé is filled with Nigella and Jamie and Gordon Ramsay shows, and their books are translated into French and sell well. On Masterchef this year one of the candidates was asked to cook something British. She did lamb and minted peas and the judges/real chefs gave a long talk about how much more there is to British cooking than that.

And even my DH, who is French and was a complete Anglophobe when we met, admits that British cooking can be excellent. And more and more people are coming round to the fact that they can eat well outside of France, and, shock horror, drink good non French wine.

But it's like very many other people who have never left their comfort zone. Many French people don't know anything about British food or weather because they haven't been there. So they base their judgement on stereotypes. And that is the same for a lot of Brits who either haven't been to France or who have been unlucky enough to eat in tourist trap cafés in Paris. They very often will say they don't like the French, or French food, or French this or that, because they don't like the sound of eating frogs legs and snails. Or they will say the French have personal hygiene issues which, IME, is no more the case than in the UK.

And as for the tea... the French don't drink much tea other than tisane, and don't need kettles. That's why they often don't have them in the house. Same with toasters. Your basic Monop or Carrefour or Darty should stock them though. It's not a very valid complaint really. It's like them going to the UK and complaining that no-one has a raclette set.

Ooh, raclette. Good idea.

You sound like the unluckiest shopper I have ever come across OP :)

I am not wearing rose tinted specs - or wasn't last time I checked - I have lived in different parts of France for over 12 years - through good times and very bad times.

I just honestly haven't had the same experience that you have had.

Can't comment on the blacksmiths - the one that does our local stables is very good, but as that's the only French one I have come across I can't judge.

To be honest the French judge us the same way we judge them (Generalisation)
Roast beef
Insipid over cooked veg.

Frogs legs
Snails

I've been to France on many occasions and they can cook as can we.

It's time for a bit of Entente cordiale methinks :)

It isn't what I eat that's important here. It's what others eat

What I was getting at is that not everyone does all their shopping at supermarkets. OK, some people eat nothing but junk food, same in the UK, but you seem to be judging the whole population by a section whom you see in Carrefour etc. There will be a host of others who do the same as you and I, buying their fresh food elsewhere.

YANBU, I think. Due to mental ex, dd2 has a french great-auntie who is mental. I don't know whether she is normal for a French person. Ex is also, as previously mentioned, mental. I cannot stress enough the level of mentallness of this particular family. Not all the food was awful, that would be unfair, but the sheer mentalness is the issue- it's not how they cook things, but they will just find any old random stuff and cook it in whatever way first comes to mind. There is no evidence of planning or attempting to cook specific meals with any kind of balance, it's just 'oh hey, I have some cheese, some flour, and a courgette- YAY DINNER'. She would then get very offended if we went into cafes, even if we were out in town with no packed lunch (because no bread or anything in house). With two kids. Then fuss lots about both daughters not eating enough. I eventually managed to get hold of some baby cereal for dd2 who was 1 at the time. The french instructions said to mix it and feed in a bottle, which you are told NEVEREVER to do in the UK. Other than that she was supposed to eat courgette and mashed potato. My personal experience is that French people (inc women) are certainly not all thin, but you could see why they would be when they only get chance to eat random vegetables with the mould cut off and microwaved cake-inna-bag. She also did weird things like asking me to be her mother. No fucking wonder they have psychotherapists on every street. I have tactfully said I am not going back unless I can stay with sane people or afford a hotel, preferably in Austria where they make proper food like goulash etc. Can't speak for restaurants as the only one we went in was a tourist one which served hotdogs. Kids liked it, but drinks were like £500 for a glass of coke. Sorry, am I being all xenophobic? I prefer countries with less of a neurotic national psyche. Germany has awesome food if you aren't veggie, as does a lot of eastern Europe (Vienna we got amazing dinners for very cheap compared to UK, goulash like I said, schnitzel, etc), and Greece was fucking amazing for food (fresh salads, fish, olives, cheese), plus they were so lovely with dd1 when we went when she was a toddler. It's only France that is peculiar like this, ime. Probably a result of a history of food snobbery or something.

Wibbly- yes, you do sound xenophobic. Why would you assume that all French are mental just because your ex and his family were? That's ridiculous.

And what PetiteRaleuse said. I have never, ever come across unfresh fish here and there is NO WAY they are selling a week old oysters

And because there is a section of society that subsists on premade meals and fast food does not mean that this is a case for all of or most of French people.

So just because you seem to live in some horrible place where all the food is sold a day before it's use by date and the fish is rotten and fruit and veg is rotten/wilted and everyone eats ready made meals...it does not give you a right to say that the French can't cook or eat crap

somewhere else - sur mer, please! Good places anywhere in the Cote d'Opale region in general Thank you!

Le Turbot in Gravelines
La Bonne Auberge in Ardres
La Belle Epoque in St Omer
For crepes, Tonnerre de Brest in Calais

can't think of any in Boulogne at the moment

The French have a few food oddities (UHT milk and packet mashed potato have already been mentioned, as has the lack of kettles to make a decent cup of tea) but I think they are generally good cooks. I've lived there for a year and visited numerous times for work and pleasure and eaten in many restaurants and French homes so I have done a fair survey!

The reason that the fresh food in the supermarkets can be sub-par is that in my experience everyone buys fresh stuff at the markets and then uses the supermarkets for store cupboard food. In small towns where there will only be a market once a week, the supermarkets are better, imo. French cooking seems to largely involve good fresh seasonal ingredients that do not have too much done to them.

I struggle to believe the boiling a turkey story. I was actually asked about boiling meat when I lived in France - the French people I knew were all convinced English people did this. It was part of the "terrible cooks" reputation the Brits had. They were perplexed when I said I had never eaten boiled meat of any kind. (Incidentally, my husband tells me that his mother always used to roast one turkey and boil another at Xmas but she's Irish, not English!)