The Food of France

French Cuisine Today According to Le Fooding & French Chefs - Huffington Post

An interview with Alexandre Cammas of Le Fooding.

10am

The Americanization of The State Dinner - NYTimes.com

Despite our presidents’ homegrown tastes, White House state dinners have almost always been distinctly French in flavor. Even the Kennedys, who made a point of serving American wines on state occasions, never thought to pair them with American cooking.

10am

Organised crime mushrooms as French fungi trade becomes lucrative - Times Online

It is a great French autumnal tradition that furnishes an essential ingredient in some of the nation’s finest dishes. Yet the once tranquil pastime of mushroom hunting has fallen victim to organised crime as city-based gangs descend on the countryside in search of a fungus that brings quick, easy profits.

7pm

Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse and More French Chefs Take on Fast Food - WSJ.com

Plenty of chefs in the U.S. and France have opened bistros, brasseries and other relatively affordable alternatives to their Michelin-starred eateries. France’s master chefs now have taken the next step—designing and serving their own takes on fast food. Their interpretations are American-style lunches of salads and sandwiches, often priced as meal deals and packaged to be eaten on the run.

11am

Endangered Wine — Preserving a Future for Classic Winemaking in the Northern Rhône « The Rare Wine Co. Blog

Almost every wine aficionado knows about the divide between “modern” and “traditional” winemakers in Piedmont. But far less has been written about a similar clash of philosophies in the Northern Rhône. Both disputes date back to the 1980s; yet, the results have been very different.

11am

Jeremy Clarkson eats an Ortolan bunting.

3pm

Ortolan

dailyfrench:

Scott Simon talks with Michael Paterniti about former French President Francois Mitterrand’s last meal, which consisted of a rare — and illegal — dish of Ortolan, a bird about the size of a thumb.

Via french du jour

3pm

Daniel Bulliat, head of the Beaujolais-Beaujolais Village association, told a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday that selling the wine in plastic bottles runs counter to the growers’ traditions and image.

3pm

A new pro-wine lobby with a budget of some 2m has been created to counter the effects of the French government’s ‘vilifying’ of wine. The move against the ‘prohibitionist agenda ravaging France’ was announced at the Hospices de Beaune last Sunday.

1pm

Michelin awards Tokyo most 3-star restaurants in blow to Paris - Telegraph

“Tokyo remains by far the world capital of gastronomy and also has the most three-star restaurants,” said Jean-Luc Naret, the director of the legendary French food guide. Tokyo just pipped the City of Light to the post in the latest edition of the Michelin guide to the Japanese capital, with 11 eateries awarded the maximum three stars, compared to 10 in Paris. New York has four three-star restaurants and London was awarded just one in 2009.

9am

Helping You Know Your Bordeaux - NYTimes.com

A new Web site set up by the promotional body for the Bordeaux wine region of France will allow wine drinkers to get a little practice the night before, in the privacy of their own homes. On the site, people can post questions to a panel of sommeliers, who answer via video chats. The site, www.enjoybordeaux.com, is part of a €2 million, or $3 million, campaign by the Conseil Interprofessionel du Vin de Bordeaux that is aimed at lifting sales of the region’s wines in the United States, where they have fallen sharply during the recession. The campaign aims to introduce casual drinkers to wines priced at less than $35.

3pm

Why Wine Ratings Are Badly Flawed - WSJ.com

Given the high price of wine and the enormous number of choices, a system in which industry experts comb through the forest of wines, judge them, and offer consumers the meaningful shortcut of medals and ratings makes sense. But what if the successive judgments of the same wine, by the same wine expert, vary so widely that the ratings and medals on which wines base their reputations are merely a powerful illusion? That is the conclusion reached in two recent papers in the Journal of Wine Economics.

3pm

A bottle of wine, a shoe, and a brick wall. (via cptmarco)

7pm

Critics doubt French wine-makers’ boasts of a vintage year - Times Online

It is the harvest of the century in Bordeaux, with exceptional weather conditions producing grapes so fine that dogs are turning vegetarian to eat them. That, at least, is what the region’s wine-makers would have you believe as they lavish praise on this year’s pickings. But the claims have prompted wry smiles from French critics and drinkers, who recall that Bordeaux’s châteaux said much the same thing about the 2005 vintage — as they did about 2003 and 2000.

2pm

Crémant - Wine of the Week - Slashfood

Generally, crisp and celebratory, wines like cava, brut, Champagne and American sparkling wines probably won’t turn any heads if you bring them to an occasion that calls for bubbles. But Crémant, a French sparkling wine, can make a fashionable entrance. Although still a nouveau import to many areas of the U.S. it’s tres affordable. Most Crémants are priced under $20 a bottle.

1pm