Cooking for the French

Thankfully my mother in her wisdom decided to teach me how to cook, no matter how much I made a complete mess in the kitchen, ruined knives, or 'needed' to buy weird ingredients.  Real cooking, when you know how much a tablespoon of oregano is by putting it in the cup of your hand kind of cooking, and I learned to enjoy it too (maybe not when I'm starving or when I'm expected to, but I cook what I like to eat).  This has come in very handy because I am living with a family while the parents are away on vacation, so I have been looked upon as the chef de cuisine.  I've figured out that with the passing of time, just like in the US, the French have gotten away from the 'homemade' style of cooking and have moved toward Picard frozen meals, jarred ratatouille, and bags of frozen pre-sliced onions.  Which to me is sad because they have such an amazing cultural connection to good fresh food.  This is not saying that they do not appreciate good food but that they no longer take the time to make meals like in the past.  

Since they have been somewhat curiously waiting to see what this American could make for them, they love to make jokes about American food, I have decided to make them some 'American' meals.  Including but not limited to meatloaf, tex-mex, pancakes, banana bread, pizza, use of peanut butter and barbecue sauce, and chili. Let's just say they have been super easy to cook for.  They called meatloaf a meal fit for a king, (what! it's meatloaf I thought).  They are impressed that I make my mashed potatoes 'à la ancienne' or 'the old fashioned way', peeling, cooking and mashing them.  Well purée-ing the potatoes; it is a lot more labor intensive here, they don't have good old potato mashers instead they have large purée mills which are cumbersome and take time to use.  Margaux posted pictures of my tex-mex meal on Facebook, to which one of her friends said that they wanted to kidnap me so I could cook for them, my kettle of chili was gone in 2 days, and now they all want to know which kind of barbecue sauce is was that I used. Yes, I am aware that the French have the reputation for being charmers but hey this American is proving that we can cook too thank you very much.  

Talking about American food, it never fails that someone has tried marshmallow fluff, or deep fried twinkles, or even just rices [ that's Reese's ] They seemed to be horrified that I like Reese's peanut butter cups in my ice cream.  Whereupon the conversation turns to American portion sizes, love of processed foods, the amount of butter, sugar, and obesity.  A couple of the French I've met here have been to the US and love bacon and some other foods that I didn't realize were American.  It's given me a better notion of things to offer to French or other non-Americans when they come to the US.  

Some things that are very important here are presentation, courses, and conversation.  You always eat with both a knife and fork, sometimes I just eat with a fork; for example my pizza was eaten with knives and forks.  Food is not served in the American serve yourself from bowls on the table kind of way, your food is normally served by the host or hostess.  It seems no one asks for a second serving, but like I said normally a meal is expected to have an appetizer [entrée], main dish [plat], and dessert.  The plates and utensils are collected after each course and you move on.  Normally the evening starts with an aperitif like Muscat, then the appetizers and main dish, sometimes followed by some cheeses, then dessert and finally coffee/tea/digestif.  There is always bread on the table, which is normally a cut up baguette.   

 All that said, the French knowledge of taste is amazing, A French person asked me does citrus go with mushrooms and I sat there thinking about it because I had no idea.  They can put things together in the most creative and delicious sorts of ways which is pretty amazing.  Later on I'll write a post about measurement systems and the main differences between French and American styles of cooking as I try out some meals.

à tout à l'heure