Today, I am going to tackle the very
pragmatic subject that obsesses every one of us during an amazing part of our
days: food!
Food is vital and is one of our primal needs but much more than that, it reveals so many characteristics of a country, a culture and this subject has been explored and experienced so much that it is even considered as art in some cultures. So what are the differences between American and French gastronomy and their eating habits? What impacts does it have on society? What does it say about our different cultures and history?
Food is vital and is one of our primal needs but much more than that, it reveals so many characteristics of a country, a culture and this subject has been explored and experienced so much that it is even considered as art in some cultures. So what are the differences between American and French gastronomy and their eating habits? What impacts does it have on society? What does it say about our different cultures and history?
Fast food vs. Gastronomy?
The first thing people will tell you about
American food is: fast foods.
The first thing that will be on your mind if I say "French food" is gastronomy (or baguette, snails, frog!). But does reality looks (tastes!) like these clichés?
Well, wherever I go in the United States, I am struck by the number of fast food restaurants I see. Moreover, let's notice that the American fast food industry is the world's largest and it pioneered the drive-through format in the 1930s. One of the reasons seems to be the eating habits of Americans who prefer the convenience of eating in front of the television.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, French people are more likely to be found eating as a family around the dinner table. Meals are like a ceremony, a celebration for us. We enjoy spending an evening with friends just having dinner for 4 hours and talking around a table. French people can even take a 2 hour lunch break during a working day! If we have just a 15 minutes break, we will be in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
The importance about food for French people can be explained thanks to France's history. French cuisine refers to a diversity of gastronomic styles derived from French tradition. It has evolved in the course of the centuries, following the social and political changes, mainly with Middle Age and the French Revolution. It is so significant that the «Repas gastronomique des Français» (the gastronomic meal of French people) was incorporated to the immaterial cultural heritage of humanity (UNESCO World Heritage) in 2010 (see video below).
The first thing that will be on your mind if I say "French food" is gastronomy (or baguette, snails, frog!). But does reality looks (tastes!) like these clichés?
Well, wherever I go in the United States, I am struck by the number of fast food restaurants I see. Moreover, let's notice that the American fast food industry is the world's largest and it pioneered the drive-through format in the 1930s. One of the reasons seems to be the eating habits of Americans who prefer the convenience of eating in front of the television.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, French people are more likely to be found eating as a family around the dinner table. Meals are like a ceremony, a celebration for us. We enjoy spending an evening with friends just having dinner for 4 hours and talking around a table. French people can even take a 2 hour lunch break during a working day! If we have just a 15 minutes break, we will be in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
The importance about food for French people can be explained thanks to France's history. French cuisine refers to a diversity of gastronomic styles derived from French tradition. It has evolved in the course of the centuries, following the social and political changes, mainly with Middle Age and the French Revolution. It is so significant that the «Repas gastronomique des Français» (the gastronomic meal of French people) was incorporated to the immaterial cultural heritage of humanity (UNESCO World Heritage) in 2010 (see video below).
American food comes from mixed cultures, due to the American melting pot and, in that extent, it also evolved with American history following the different influxes of immigrants.
American specialties owe their very existence to everywhere else.
Influences from Europe are explained by
the early migrations. For instance, British-Americans have developed the
New-England cuisine, Cajun, Louisiana Creole cuisines are explained by the
French migrations. Influences from Latin America, North America and Asia are
due to late migrations, such as Japanese or Chinese food.
All those characteristics explain the
difference of obesity issues between France and the United States. In the USA,
the number of fast foods and the consumption of food between meals are the
major explanations of what public health officials call the American
"obesity epidemic".
The diversity of French food, the fact
that French people usually don't eat between meals and the quality of food
account for the fact that French people are the skinniest people in Europe.
What is astonishing is that, when you type "French women" on Google,
the first suggestion of typing is "French women don't get fat"!
However, reality is more complex.
Fast foods are vastly contested in America and
the healthy food trend has been growing over the past few decades. Cities like
San Francisco are pioneers in this field.
Contrary to the cliches, there are a
lot of fast-food restaurants in France (one MacDonald in every district of
Paris!) and obesity is becoming a serious issue. Slow food is also important in the United States. We can observe that family
dinners are widely practiced for holidays like Thanksgiving.
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| A Farmers' market in San Francisco |
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| McDonald's restaurants in Paris |
Sources
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/00437
http://www.repasgastronomiquedesfrancais.org/repas-gastronomique-des-francais-unesco/
