Why is French Food "Fancy"? 

It's not only about the image or the dishes, it's about the general empathis French people put on food. As a a guy who lives in Germany and quite often go to France to visit my mother's family i am always astonished about being able to spend 3 hours just at lunch or having entire conversation about food how you'd talk about football or politics in other countries. As long as this approach to food remains im not worried about French food. French people have kinda adopted to the stereotype of French food being good and feel proud about it. So they continue to live this food culture. The video in general is quite good. But you missed the entire story about escoffier revolutionizing cuisine. Also in my opinion French food cuisine greatly benefits from France's geography which combines a lot of different climates in little space. You have the atlantic with it's seafood, the south with olive oil and herbs which tends towards italian food, the east with heavy dishes similar to germanic cuisine...combine this with the influx of new food from north africa and vietnam and you get a great mix

France must have to best PR in history to have everything associated with them be seen as high status and sophisticated.

Your video was very well researched, as a Frenchman, who is quite used to poor videos about my country, I was quite surprised by how well you presented this part of history. Now I would make a small note. The English speaking world has a specific fascination for French cuisine that does not exists in the rest of Europe. It is true that the idea of restaurant was implemented across all Europe very fast, but the idea of going to a French restaurant in Italy or in Germany is pretty non existant. These countries have borrowed the concept of restaurant but they have adapted it to their own traditions. However, when it comes to fancy restaurants with very expensive menus, let's be honest, these restaurants are usually sold out months in advance, but very few French people ever go to them.

As a french person and an amateur cook myself, I'd say there not one french cuisine. There what we call "haute cuisine", that is what you probably the idea you have in mind about fancy french foods. It's considered more innovative and it is made to be something special, something you could hardly make yourself in you home kitchen, it a experience in itself. Then, there is a more humble french cuisine, with many local speciality foods it is so extremely diverse you could think France is a very geographically large country. And obviously, you can have fusion between local specialty foods and haute cuisine.

Really interesting dive in the ins and outs of French cuisine. I would have to add something tho. The restaurant revolution happened a long time ago, but these first restaurants were NOTHING like ours today. These were brutal places, and chefs were considered pretty poorly even though the experiences were fancy. Not until one guy changed everything. Auguste Escoffier, a french chef, changed everything about the actual workings of restaurants. He standardized and "militarized" the kitchens of those establishments, and revolutionised how chef were viewed a century ago. He changed how kitchen were built, organized, he specialised the different jobs we have today, he made everything more safe/clean. His methods were SO GOOD that everyone wanted to learn from him. His restaurants/palaces in france and london were simply the best restaurants in the world. Every chef wanted to learn from french chefs because they were so efficient. Many chefs were sent all over the world to teach how to actually run a kitchen ( not cook, run a restaurant). THAT's the key difference between all the other cuisines : we just did it first. Also french cuisine is moslty defined by what we call terroir, which translates to the products of the land. Meaning, french cuisine is based on very specific products ( cheeses, weird meats, wines, alcohols...). The same way indian cuisine is defined more so by it's immense library of spices, and spice mixes, french cuisine is indifferentiable from it's produces.

Auguste Escoffier is the father of French "Michelin Star" cuisine. He standardized recipes and good practice in the kitchen along with the development of palace hotels at the end of the 19th century. It's thanks to him that French cuisine is recognized internationaly.

I think a lot of French people remember those family gathering during special days (Chrismas, New year, Easter...) You would stay seated from lunch to dinner, making it a single huge meal made of a succession of different dishes spaced out with Trou normand, coffee, smoking breaks and maybe a little walk outside to tamp all the previously ingested food to the bottom of your belly.

If you wanna know why French food is fancy, just watch an episode of "Top chef France", or "Qui sera le prochain grand pâtissier". Of course, it is not what people commonly make at home, but it gives you an idea on how food can be pushed to the level of art. Culinary arts oscillate between military discipline and pure creative expression. From the product terroir to the choice of the perfect dish, nothing is left to chance, every detail matters.

French cuisine will never disappear for we have what we call "art de vivre". It's not just about food. It's celebrating life as it was an art form in itself. THrough eating, drinking, going out, making love. And all of that we will never let go off

Nice video, as a french cook i think u missed the point tho, the reason why french food has this aura is mainly due to escoffier and ritz, michelin guide and the " nouvelle cuisine" wave in the 70/80's

When I worked in Finance, my company would take us to eat in the French restaurants around my city. I obviously couldn’t afford it myself, but man it was delicious. We would always get the most expensive things in the menu. Fell in love with the cuisine.

Very good video, even as a Frenchman I learned some good stuff here. You could have mentioned Escoffier who had a major impact on French and modern food. Regarding French cuisine, I think there is not just one. - We have the dishes that are our daily consumption in France, with important regional specificities and that is almost endless. This is still the heart of our cuisine, but you have to live here to really feel it I think. - There is the gastronomy, which is a big part of cuisine in the end, and that is still very French based, and stil representing the sophisticated image France has. Michelin's guide, Gault et Millau remains the reference. - And there is also a blooming generation of creative French chefs, that is reinventing French cuisine, adding international influences to it, new techniques...You still learn how to cook like nowhere else in cities like Paris.

I am Cantonese from HK with some partial Kinh ancestry, so I'm quite familiar with the French culinary influence on my region. French culinary influence does provide us with delicious dishes like banh mi and flame on the iceberg so I'm thankful for that.

I'm french and I currently live in Canada and bro... The food is soooo bad here. In fact, I'll move back to France next year. That's not the only reason but it's a big one. I thought when people were talking about french food being "better" they were talking about fancy restaurants (in which no average french eat btw) but no. Sandwiches from the grocery store taste better, meat taste better, candies taste better, even fast foods taste better (McDonald's is fancy in France. We have new burgers every month, like really new. Not the big mac with a different sauce. And every ingredient is local). Here in Quebec you eat the same thing over and over at restaurants. You choose between pizza, burger, poutine, fried chicken... Over... and over... In France you can choose 5 random restaurants and none of them will make the same food. And most likely every one of them will be good. Because there is so much competition you cannot open a medium or bad restaurant. And the price of a restaurant in France is like half of the price of the canadian ones. When I eat food in Canada I feel like there are so many more uneeded calories for no added flavor. Pizzas are just thick and they throw every bad quality (because it's cheaper) ingredient they can on it. Ham is plasticy and water is injected in it. I didn't like the stereotype about french food because I thought people were talking about fancy food but no. Even if you buy a meal to heat up in the microwave at the grocery store it'll taste good.

Also, I think the reason why when you think of Japanese or Italian food you get the dishes' names right away but not for French food is because we don't really have national dishes, it's very regional. Italy and Japan also have very regional food but there are a lot of dishes that are regional variations of the same dish while in France, you don't really have this, they might be some but it's not widespread. Also, French food names might not help to remember them easily. Furthermore, haute-cuisine is what people associate with French cuisine most of the time, so a lot of French restaurants abroad aren't affordable compared to Italian or Japanese, or Mexican. So you are less familiar with it if you aren't from France or living near the border.

I'm French, and thank you for your dedication into this food channel. Continue the great job!

I do think quite a lot of French 'dishes' are rather well known though: coq au vin, confit de canard, paté/terrine/foie gras, bœuf bourguignon, cassoulet, onion soup to name a few. At least in the Netherlands and Belgium their existence is generally 'common knowledge' so to speak.

The bakeries, even if they're not dishes, will remain the main face of French food. There people do know the names, recognize the styles, they've even evolved and mixed with other cultures. Even in France it holds since not everyone is eating a fine restaurants all the time but breads, cheeses, and wines are still super common.

Don't worry about french food continuing to live off and "compete" for the next decades. The reason we think more of french food as an idea than set recipes is because it is always in movement and has been since the Escoffier days. There are trends that come and go every year in French restaurants and its always pushing on innovation more than any other cuisines in the world to me. Sure there are classic dishes, but french people don't often go out in restaurants to eat a classic dish they can do at home. They want a "cuisine d'auteur", to eat the creativity, soul and story of the chef/restaurant they eat at

I think the influx of American fast food also impact how french food is falling off, even in places like Paris. France has the 5th highest number of McDonald's restaurant. And since more people live alone now, why spend 3 hours making a boeuf bourguignon when you can just grab a burger for 3 euros.

As a French person, I wanted to thank you for making this video ! I knew most of it but I also learned new things about my country so thank you ! And yeah, French cuisine is more of a concept and a way of crating dishes. When you go to a good restaurant, most dishes don't have a "proper" or a signature name. Every chef can create dishes with their own touch, and I think this is why we consider it as art. Also, it might be the case for tourist but us French people don't go to restaurants to "appear sophisticated" or something, we really go there for the food haha

An amazing video and wonderfully done! Keep up the good work!

Hello, I am French and I really liked your analysis. Today in France, there is such an ethnic mix that it enriches this cuisine even more. We cook the ingredients in really different ways (in the oven, in the pan, simmered...) and we use a lot of spices, it's a treat. Since the containment of the C.O.V. i.d many people in France have relearned to grow vegetables at home and cook a lot more. We go to restaurants a lot less.

You should look into Augustus Escoffier, he’s definitely a second major reason

From a French man : great video, you put a lot of work into it that's for sure. But the ending got me triggered haha. Comparing French food to Mexican food was kind of cute. The thing is, people don't see "French food" as one dish like we think of Italian cuisine as pizza and pasta, because French food is so diverse and there are so many dishes that vary depending on the region you are in, that it's hard to pin what is the actual star dish. Having grown in France and traveled a lot, I have come to realize that what makes French food "fancy" is the standing you get at the the restaurant. You are not just a customer, you are there to have a great time. You get free bread, free water, a great choice of wine of all prices and over the top dishes. The food is also of high quality. I really don't think it has fallen of any standard. Just avoid touristic places that only sells "steak frites". I actually listed all French dishes I could think of : Socca de Nice Pissaladière Buche de Noël Quenelles et sauce nantua Nougat Piperade Tiele setoise Oeuf moeurette Camembert (truffe, au calvados) Truffe Axoa Tian courgettes Brandade de morue Escargots Moule frite Crêpes de Bretagne Andouillette Kouign Aman Le Welsh Endives au jambon Chipolata / merguez Boudin blanc / noir Ratatouille Tapenade (anchoiade) Bouillabaisse (soupe de poisson) Pot au feu La quiche Lorraine Steak tartare Aligot Gratin dauphinois Les crozets Le foie gras Cassoulet La carbonnade flamande La raclette La fondue (savoyarde, bourguignonne) La tartiflette Hachis Parmentier Choucroute La soupe à l'oignon Omelette sablaise Tarte tatin La galette des rois Macarons Crème brûlée Ile flotante Le vin (blanc, rouge, rose, gris, jaune) Le kir Le pastis Saint Christain Rillettes Profiteroles Le pâté en croute (Pâté Lorrain) Bœuf bourgignon / coq au vin Le cannelé Oeuf en gelée Paris Brest Éclair Madeleines Gâteau au fromage du Poitou Magret de canard (Omelette au canard) Tomates farcies Chaperon Soupe au pistou Blanquette de veau Coquille Saint Jacques Bouche à la reine Saucisson Mirabelle Cuisine aux marrons (crème de marrons, sauce au marrons...) Baeckeoffe Cordon bleu Les cressins Les gougères Les fouées Fougasses Rillauds Fouace vendéen Broyé poitevin Un douillon Steak Rossigny Truffade auvergnate

Am I the only who can actually name french dishes? Ratatouille, Crêpes, Quiche, Foie gras, Onion soup, Soufflé, Tartiflette, Cassoulet, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Coq au vin, Beouf Bourguinon, Escargot....I mean these are super well known dishes, some of which have become mainstream elswhere (like crepes and quiche). Like there are tons of well known french dishes lol

Traditionally the entrée course was exactly what you suggested that it is: a starter course. In France this course might be, for example, a salad, soup, escargots, or pate with small vegetables. The entrée then leads to the plat principal (main dish) and this is where you find the really substantial dish organized around roast meat, poultry, fish. As an American, I think that we imported the term entrée a bit outside of its context. In other words, I do not think that there is a strong food culture tradition in the USA of serving a meal in a standardized and sequential series of distinct and different dishes, one at a time, like acts in a play. As an American who has lived in several European countries (and have now been living in Italy for the better part of a decade) I can attest to the absolute centrality of a structured and historic food culture that is an important part of European culture in general. Great video!

Bro, your level of information and intellectual fascinate me a lot. A person who was cultivated by Le Cordon Bleu institution and trained well by this french chefs and tradition has open my mind about how the history and cooking and art and etc combine into this one finesse nation. Thank you for this content dude. God bless you for existing in this world. F the doubters, haters or losers and keep giving us all this beautiful information and knowledge. Godspeed. Merci beaucoup mon ami. C'est la vie. Cheers. All the best

Your content has improved a lot. Keep up the great work!

Awesome video!

English uses French words like Restaurant, Menu, and many others because, in 1066, William conquered England and forever altered the course of the language.

Fun fact, the 'ratatouille' dish in the movies ratatouille, is actually called à tian in french. Ratatouille is a completly other dish

Damn dude, this is some high quality content

As a French I am so impressed with your well researched your video is and how well you grasped French history and its effect on dining. Merci

Thanks for the video. But you miss 50% of French cuisine. The cuisine from the farmers (France is not only Paris, but a lot of terroirs), local dishes very famous, the quality of the products (bread, cheese, wine, charcuterie etc). And of course the art of the desserts, in another galaxy

excellent video, exactly what i had been searching for, thanks!

As a French guy living abroad and being constantly asked "what are typical French dishes?" all the time, I found myself unable to answer this question and the subsequent "why is that so?". This video was very interesting to reflect a bit on my own food culture! :)

Very nice video. As a french who use to live some years outside I saw the perception of french food can differs from inside reality of what and how people eat in France. There is the fancy "parisian chef" food wich usualy is the "image" of french food but there is the average "every day" restaurants, the multiple local/traditionnals foods, the variety is so important that foods from certains regions can be seen as another country's food. South, east, north, west, center, oversea got completly different food production it's amazing, need more than one life to try everything

I’m glad that I bumped up to this video, as a food lover, your video really gave me some “ food “ for thought 💭 Thank you 🙏

I think it is also important to say, that french cuisine emphasizes nowadays more it’s rich regional cuisines. France has basicaly every european climate, from oceanic to mediteranean to continental_by this they also have very different regional cuisnes.

As a French person, I was really pleased by the amount of work and research you put into this video. And I've learned many things ! Thank you, keep up the great work.

french food is considered fancy because most dedicated french restaurants are higher end. in america literally everywhere has a neighborhood pizza place that is not that expensive. usually a french restaurant is considered fine dining due to the complexity of preparing some dishes.

France still has a very different style of cooking and dishes from region to region. I'm from a region in the North-West and in the regions next to me (Paris and the North of France) the cooking is different. You can see it mostly through the way our grandparents cook but there are some food items that are impossible to find outside of their region and even in national supermarkets, the items vary from a region to the other. I just came back from South-West France and it was so funny to go grocery shopping and see all the differences. It truly felt like I was in an other country the entire time.

I think one of the reasons French food is so hard to actually pinpoint is because of the huge variety of dishes. "Fries and steak", "soupe à l'oignon", "crème brulé" and such amount for 10% of a French menu. You will find them on all menus, all over France. The 90% left are local dishes or creations by the chef, specific to the restaurant and/or the region. "Axoa", "quenelles", "piperade", "fougasse", "welsh", "bakehoff"... you've probably never heard of these dishes because you won't find them in a "French restaurant in Paris", you'll find them in the regions they originate from, or specialized restaurants. They're all equally delicious but they're so different from each others that they might as well come from totally different parts of the world. Cassoulet is a prime example. It originates from the south west of the country and isn't readily available in common parisian restaurants, so a tourist could come and visit Paris and never ever figure out this dish exists. Guess what happens when press articles started talking about it in the US? It became an instant trend.

An interesting approach. However, like all great food cultures, Italian, Indian Chinese, Thai etc, French food is regional. That is how it is defined. And how it is experienced. What we may be talking about is Haute Cuisine. Great video.

Really enjoying the videos from Matthew. Feed us more of your content! lol 😂

A really well made video . Enjoyed watching

I really like your style of interweaving the history of culture to that of food! I do the same, but you do it for topics I don’t know about, but would like to know about.

As a French person, I would like to add that people of France generaly do massive difference between what is call "haute cuisine": which is the fancy food served in expensive restaurant to impress posh tourists and another type of cuisine, more traditional, that you can eat at home or in a bistro. There is also a massive difference between dishes from one region to another: this is why it's so hard to visualise one single plate.

For relatively young channel, this is well-researched & edited. Here's hoping the Algorithm god bless you more.

Here before he blows up to 150k subs hahaha. This guy is awesome

French Canada though...maybe not romanticized, but very good French food and hybrids with Canadian food

I think people that are not from France struggle to understand how our cuisine works. Contrary to most countries we don’t really have like « Headline dishes » such as pizza, hamburgers etc… Of course we have certain recipes that are well known in France, but if you go to a real french restaurant you won’t even find those. It’s because our cuisine is made of ingredients and technics. I work in a classy French restaurant (but no Michelin star), and all the dishes are called *the main ingredient* followed by *how it’s prepared* and in description what comes with it, from a restaurant to another you will normally never have the same menu (unless you go to a place that serves traditional French food that people eat at home). That’s real French cuisine, when we go to a restaurant we want to discover new tastes and not just feed ourselves. I don’t like to say that but I think that especially Americans judge a cuisine by it’s main dishes. Most Americans say that Italian cuisine is the best, but when you think about it, most of the time it’s pizza or pasta and it’s basique, you’ve got a base on which you add ingredients and bam you have a new dish with a name (seems like you love to put a name on stuff). French cuisine is very complex and hard to explain even for me, and must be even harder to interpret by a stranger. But anyway nice video!

French food is comfy food. Mais pour les américains j’imagine que c’est sophistiqué parce qu’en fait, vous pensez à la fine cuisine et non aux plats servis dans les bistrots.

Speaking of soft power, in the Elysée palace, the french president residence, cuisine is considered a diplomatic weapon. Inviting a foreign representative to a succulent meal in order to better the negociations is a real thing. Anyways, great video !

Not all French food is fancy. Everyday food in France, eaten by the average Frenchman and Frenchwoman, can be very different from what's served in over-hyped and over-priced so-called French restaurants, which are essentially bent on selling 'edible illusions' for the 'blasé' ones or for gullible tourists.

Really good content dude ! Nice historic job to get off the menu. Great ! (and as a french, i can tell that our dishes are linked to our many regions' stories, as national story you explained. That offers plenty of flavors, and techniques, that french people keep generations after generations.) I assume that's true for every country in the world, but maybe french have been more educated to cooking because of their "proudness" other countries gave us. ^^^ I'll be happy to see your other countries' food culture videos ! Thx

I’m french and asked myself this and documented myself and got to the same conclusion. What france invented is the modern way of eating. Restaurants, food standards, but also the entrance/main/dessert sequence that didn’t exist at the time. So we invented an idea of eating, and we are still famous for that, which at the end, makes total sense. Everyday french food isn’t sophisticated at all for ghe most part. But the quality of the ingredients and the standards are what makes it french. Hope that makes sense ;-)

Love that question about the entree - i was so confused when i saw a US menu for the first time. Still scratching my head

this is an amazing essay

Hello as a french person i would say that i really loved your video. The evolution of the cuisine throught time was hightly onfluence by the monachy, but there was a major influencer at the end of the 19 th centuary and the beguining of the 20 th centuary that made the french cuisine we know. His name was Auguste Escoffier (1846- 1935). He was a genius regarding the promotion of french cuisine around the world. He also revolutionized the way of cooking, and the organization in the kitchen( basically it is still teached now in cullinary school). There is so much to say about him, that it would take to much space.

Mon ami, I am impressed by the accurate knowledge you are sharing. So bravo! However, I just want to point out that it is not because you don’t know any of the french main dishes that french cuisine is unidentified or just a ‘feeling’ for everyone. French cuisine has the particularity to be either popular or elitist (haute gastronomie). Regarding the popular part, maybe you eat french fries, omelet, crepe, soufflé, bechamel, pistou, tartar, mashed potatoes, croque monsieur and french cheese on a daily basis. On the other side, the french cuisine has created the main technics to make sauce, cook a meat, mijoté, sauté etc and all these technics are used for the popular and elitist french cuisine. The difference with French and others cuisine such as the Italian one, is that France does not overpromote its cuisine. French culture usually focus on quality than quantity. However, yes french cuisine is less affordable compared to other populate cuisine (chinese, italian, mexican…) because it is more technical and requires more expensive ingredients.

Sopt on - this whole piece is not about the food nor France, but society and the way humans think, interact and create. Thank you

saw the vid on So You Wanna fat Podcast. here to see the original!. Good stuff!!

It's funny, being from Portugal I've never found French food to be fancy. That's not to say that it isn't sophisticated or that it had no influence over here, but I don't think I've ever come across a French restaurant over here (that I remember).

I am french and really liked the video, You wrote it to be really intresting, I even learned about my own country history. Thank you for this video dude. Also to the question "how many time this idea will reamin ?", I think that even if french food is becoming kind of rare in our restaurants, the true speciality will reamin in the menues as a part of our history, and theses dishes are still really good. To all the people that will come in France one day, please try the speciality of france and discover this culture of simplicity, I promise that you won't regret it ( exept for snail dudes like wtf why are you eating that, only the butter is good in it)

I think you missed a trick by not incorporating a section on the difference between the classic haute cuisine and the nouvelle cuisine that is currently much more associated with fancy restaurants; plates with very little food on them, but arranged elegantly and artfully. That said, I enjoyed the video and think you did a very good job at presenting French food both respectfully and honestly - because it IS, after all, just a national cuisine... I love it, but nobody can convince me that it's inherently better than, say, Japanese or Moroccan or Italian cooking. (Also, I share your bewilderment at the changed meaning of "entrée" in the US. Weird stuff happens in languages, and that's not just in US English.)

Hello, I'm French, used to be a cook and I love this episode that refresh my memory from culinary school. And like you, I have no idea why you turn "entrée" the salad we eat before main dish, into main dish. It can be from the influence of Julia Child or because when famous chefs start the 15 course dishs they call entrée the fish or the brisket.

I feel like the Michelin stars being french centered also solidified the idea that french cuisine is fancy.

For the record, I like cassoulet, head cheese and the classic non-confit byaldi rattatouille. Neither are considered high end. But they are quite cozy choices.

My hypothesis why French cuisine is romanticized is because of English colonialism. Why? Many French chefs made their way to England, some as cooks for gentry and nobility, and some in high profile hotels like August Escoffier at the Savoy. And when England decided to conquer the world, they brought French food with them, as the more cultured version of European cuisine (at least compared to English food).

FYI, Safran was a local spice at the time. Not only is Safran originating from Europe, but Boynes (France) was safran's world's capital city from the 16th through the 19th century.

French people here. Absolutely loved this video, great research work and great thinking for the future of french food. I don't know if it will fall off sooner or later, nothing is eternal after all, but clearly we have more concurrence now with italian, korean, mexican or even chinese cuisine. Très bonne vidéo :)

Fun fact but the meal served in Ratatouille isn't Ratatouille at all it is a recipe wich was created for the movie itself.

Insane editing

There used to be a chain of French cuisine called Vie de France that wasn't pricey but I don't see them anymore.

Great video, it adresses some key factors of the hype around french cuisine. I do think there’s an aspect that accounts for the disparity between the anglosphere perception of it and the rest of the worlds, namely cooks like Julia Child who popularised french cooking and brought it to fame in English speaking circles in a way that then spread through American cultural hegemony.

The critical part here is that french food came from royal food and the standard to which they were set, other countries food generaly came from the popular dishes and specialties lower classes had, they shine more in their simplicity (Italian cuisine comes to mind for me, with many dishes with fewer ingredients). French food is maybe the only one that hasn't really street food representations. One other thing you can observe is that french cuisines does have their typical dishes, Italy's pizzas, Japan's sushis, but their just regionnal ones. Burgundy has its escargots, wine and mustard (Dijon), Brittany crepes and cider, Normandy butter and camembert, etc... Must of these while regularly revisited and used by big chefs aren't these highly sophisticated dishes we see in restaurants but were originaly popular meals eaten by everyday people.

thank you for the information. I would like to propose that the idea of people going to resteraunts to seem cultured and etc may very well stretch back to those first restaurants

Very well researched and well done video! Congratulations I really enjoyed it. The fascination you mention, however, is mostly Anglo-American. I've travelled extensively in Europe and can confirm that in most European countries French restaurants are just one option among many which are actually often more popular, especially Italian, Turkish, Arabic or Asian restaurants, mainly because indeed French food is usually not quick nor easy to understand (unless you go to a brasserie, but that's already too specific for non-Francophones). That doesn't mean that the fixed idea about French food 'fanciness' is not shared across Europe, it is. It's just that most countries in Europe have learned to value their own culinary traditions, or others in the world that they may have been more exposed to, are easier to communicate or feel more exotic (take Indonesian food in the Netherlands for instance). I confirm that the only European country I can think of with a quasi-cliché approach to French restaurants is the UK-London more specifically.

Most dishes that are iconic in french culture aren't easy to export

Thank you so interesting

I wonder if there's not some connection to the Norman invasion of England in the 11th century. For hundreds of years after that, the entire English court was French, and everything French was considered high class as a result.

Why the French Revolution was awesome for the world:

love the WI - Madison shirt mate, as someone from Wisconsin ! 🧀

In Asia there is no French restaurant that’s not labeled “fancy”. Some of them just serve steamed chicken and vegetables plated nicely. I don’t think that’s French food

As a french, I'm glad to listen to an american to teach me a bit more about my own country xD Good stuff mate, keep it up!

There must be about 200 + years of making food ...first by Kings and their cooks (Vatel is a well known cook..) and then traditions by royals who made experiences and keeping diversity alive...Its the same in Italy and then all the Asian countries who have century old cuisines...they seem to be the best !!

Because in France, in a starred restaurant, there is no difference between a picture that you paint and admire with the view, and a dish that you eat and taste. It requires know-how, passion and creativity.

Too bad you didn't mention Auguste Esciffier, who turned past restaurant into today high end restaurant. He is the one who invented the idea of "brigade" for example

Ok let's put "les points sur les i et les queues dans les q". The idea of fancy in French cuisine is not just around the Michelin stars, the fancy you don't get is the spirit of "Joie de vivre". You can spend sitting in lunch at a bistro (that is btw a very different form of restaurant you should have checked "Bouchon Lyonnais" per example) 5 hours taking your time, talking about the very same thing you eat. The fancy that you perceive as out of reach is accessible to all the French people, we know we produce high-quality food that looks fancy because the ingredients themselves came from the most suitable European agriculture. Ofc it has changed over time to be accessible hence why you can see, during January a truffle market with your local grandpa buying one or two for himself. Now try to find a truffle where you live in the USA, one that won't cost you a kidney to buy it. And what about champagne? It's fancy and it is at every table from any chum who wants to look fancy, but is it? To us, it is not, it's part of the rules, like many wines that go with your dish. It is ritualistic and that's why it looks fancy, everything is deeply ritualistic and barely known by the rest of the world. "Savoir vivre" is the key word here.

I didn't know half of this, thank you ! it made me sad knowing people from abroad would order Ratatouille just for the movie, Ratatouille is literally my favorite dish !! Everyone should try Ratatouille with rice, this is comfort food😋🥰 Adding my little contribution : i think italian and austrian influences (for the fancy pastries) were also decisive in the process of making french cuisine appear more sophisticated than it is. Somehow this video helped me understand what is so suffocating living in France. It's easy to feel alienated in this country comparing what we see of our culture in the medias where luxury lifestyle is overrepresented and what it is in reality (even if the ordinary cuisine is excellent in my books, grandma's cuisine in particular😋). This reputation has a lot of consequences on the lower class : - in some places, there are restaurants aiming at middle/high class and tourists everywhere but barely no "ordinaries" for working people (that we call "Brasseries"), they are often overcrowded, when not completely replaced by fast food. The fact that business owners are heavily taxed doesn't help. - food that was affordable and considered food for the poor (like sea fish, wine, some kind of mushrooms, and recently cow meat) are now gatekeeped by the wealthiest. - when products are lacking, they are sold in priority to restaurants and we have nothing left. To have good products at the same prices as your grandparents had them, like wine, you have to know someone who sells his productions without the State knowing, as most of the good productions are sold abroad making prices skyrocket when demand is higher than supply. This is too much.

You missed an important part : the work of Auguste Escoffier, in the 19th century, who built the modern French cuisine and added a new depth of codification. It also enabled a professionalisation of the job that now leads to basics that are learned all around the world (especially when it comes to sauces). French cuisine also has such a status because it's a cultural thing that is embroided in our norms and values. You mentionned that a few people know what a ratatouille is, but if you ask a French kid, he will for sure, as for dozens and dozens of other dishes, or ingredients. We tend to ritualize the process of eating, taking our time, making the effort to have a starter and a main dish (at least for those who can afford), it is simpler when you eat alone at home, but it comes back almost automatically when you invite guests. Finally, you didn't mention something : France is geographically gifted, we have an agricultural powerhouse with top quality products, and for all sorts of products (meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, you name it), which makes French food of a better inate standard.

underated channel

You put into words something I feel as a Brazilian living in France. I'm constantly ordering Chinese food or Italian food, but every time I feel like eating French food I end up not doing so because there is no such a thing. With other restaurants, no matter which one I pick, I have an idea of what I'll get, but every French restaurant is just completely different from each other, so I don't know what to expect. It's great when you want to explore, but not so great when you are just looking for something more specific, known, sort of like a comfort food. You often don't get disappointed, but you may as well find yourself eating something delicious but which was not what you were looking for/craving.

Well done

At 8:43, the first painting (Freedom guiding the people) is actually depictint the 1830 revolution

there are definitely staple french dishes you can find in any french restaurant. not every one has this super unique michelin star type food

Queen Catherine de Medici arrived in France without a single cook. It's a legend.

french cuisine is creative because every chef has its own recipe