French gastronomy: Is Paris an exception to the rule? • FRANCE 24 English

foreign is famous for the Finesse and flavor of its cuisine but what's interesting is it's actually hard to Define French cuisine there's rather a multitude of regional Specialties that add up to make French Gastronomy wines and cheeses local dishes are all part of the country's Rich history in fact they are the perfect way to explore and learn about France and that's exactly what we're going to do over the next couple of episodes starting here in Paris [Music] when you travel around France one of the first things you ask is what are the local Specialties well wherever you go there's an amazing breadth of dishes that reflect the history as well as the terroir so the essence or identity of each region but funnily enough a lot of people tend to think that Paris is an exception to this rule Paris is the cultural heart of France with some of the best restaurants in the world but people don't really associate it with any particular dish and yet there are dishes that are particular to Paris and the greater ildefons region as well as Wines in fact if you look carefully you might just be able to see some of the Vineyards in and around the capitol believe it or not we're about 20 minutes from the Eiffel Tower here in isi De munino which is a suburb of Paris and here at the isi ganget The Vineyards have been here for about 1500 years and I'm joined by a Jeffrey Finch you are a wine connoisseur you lead guides with the Paris wine walks now when we think about French wines we don't necessarily thinks about wines here in Paris and the Paris region where where how long has these wines been around well I mean there's been Vineyards in in around as you mentioned here 1500 years in Paris it's rep it's about 20 centuries the vines were planted originally by Roman the Romans Paris the Paris region was the largest Vineyard in the entire world when you hear that people go what the IL de France the largest Vineyard in the world yes and the quality of those wines were considered at the time they were considered among the best in Europe they were in all the courts of Europe the kings of France were were very fond of the wines that were produced in in and around Paris the decline was caused by by several things you could say there was phylloxera urbanization a drop in quality uh the invention of the Railway and urbanization industrialization urbanization recently there have been efforts to revive the wines from Paris and in the France can you tell us more about that today since 2016 there's a a Revival there's been a group of of people who've been lobbying for 20 years to try and regain the status uh give the the region of the of Paris again the status of a wine producer so those wines are just beginning to come on now um and uh some of them are I mean already showing extraordinary promise we're really at the um the actual uh the very beginnings of uh of what I would call it a wine Revolution I mean from being the greatest the largest the most important wine producing region of the world to practically being forgotten and then it's coming back so Phoenix from the flame exactly parisians will be again able to drink wine produced at their doorstep which is exciting and are these wines like in Paris and ildefons would you recommend them definitely I mean there's some really good I mean the ones I've tasted of the France and I've tasted several I would say any of them are are great but they're all good The Vineyards of the ildefons have been traditionally producing wines that were uh fairly light mostly White the wine walks that I do with Paris wine walks are an opportunity for people to explore The Vineyards of Paris the hidden Vineyards of Paris that people tend to um ignore or don't really realize that they're there it's a different way of of seeing of seeing the city it certainly is and Jeffrey thank you thank you so much and if you want to find out more definitely book a tour with Jeffrey to learn all about the wines from Paris and Eve de France thank you for being on French connections thank you when it comes to Cuisine it's true that paris's repertoire of recipes is pretty thin compared to other regions of France but there are still some Specialties and to talk more about that with me now I'm joined by Etienne Guerra welcome you are the owner of Cafe De Camaros which is our home base here for French connections what's the most typical Parisian dish would you say here at the Cafe De camel yeah that's a question everybody asked me always but you know when you're in Paris Paris this is a capital so you have no specialty from Paris if you go in Alsace in the south in a little poor little town in France you have a specialty and they are very proud the defense but but when we are in Paris we have all of them together and we don't have something just made in Paris okay so the typical thing you have in Paris this is the Broad Street like you can see today so the history of Parisian Cuisine is really all about the Parisian the restaurant exactly that's quite unique in Paris on the boulevard so operations and some many smaller but they all keep the same same decoration the same story the same identity and they continue to make the same kind of food like ondu yet typical you have a feed pork paneer cook 17 hours six feet sorry right we have uh yeah cow's head yeah that's very special for the tourists do tourists order that food they are they're not so many courage for that but some some of some but that's you you go to find and the big players with many people everybody watch they mix all together the the workers the rich people the tourists and all of those people are together in those place and they share that traditional food that's a very the the Paris identity 18 Commerce so as Etienne was saying there aren't a lot of things that are typically Parisian but there still are a few that started in the French capital one favorite French dish that was invented here in Paris is the Ashi it's basically a French version of shepherd's pie it's a great comfort food that's adored by kids but it also has an interesting story to tell well it was named in honor of Antoine paramountier a French agronomist who back in the 1780s argued that the potato should be part of the French diet to make an Ashish for four people you need one kilo of potatoes 400 grams of ground beef two onions and a clove of garlic you also need 100 grams of grated cheese like gruyere salt pepper and Nutmeg it's super easy to make the first step is to chop up your potatoes and boil them and while they're cooking you'll prepare your minced meat base [Music] there are several variations of this recipe and you can Jazz it up as you like like add a carrot or some tomatoes and parsley and definitely some butter smash up your potatoes with some salt pepper nutmeg and a little bit more butter [Music] in a baking dish set them on top of the base of minced meat and add gruyere on top bake it for 30 minutes at 210 degrees Celsius until it's crispy on top [Applause] bon appetit it's good yum there's one key part of any french meal that the French are pretty sure started in Paris and that's the baguettes as surprising as it may be the exact origin of the baguette is unknown and there are several competing theories but one of the most popular ones is that it was developed by Bakers in Paris in the 1920s so quite recently back then Bakers were not allowed to work before 4 a.m so they had to come up with some kind of other bread that would cook more quickly as opposed to a traditional round loaf another bready dish that people associate with Paris is the [ __ ] masu this literally translates into bite mister or Mr bite and here again there are competing theories about its origin competing theories about its origin but the first time it appeared on a menu was here in Paris in 1910 at a Bistro and it quickly became a favorite with an unshakable following because it's so simple but so delicious a cooked Monastery is ham and cheese that's sandwiched between two slices of buttered white bread what they call Panda me but it has melted gruyere cheese on top it's the ultimate comfort food and if you slap a fried egg on top it becomes a [ __ ] Madam Madam bite speaking of cheesy deliciousness well Paris might not have its very own trademark cheese the eel de France region that surrounds the French Capital certainly has some famous ones France boasts hundreds of delicious Regional cheeses but arguably the most famous one is made just 35 miles east of Paris the soft cow's milk Piece of Heaven that is Brie with its white mold rind and creamy texture brie is France's top cheese export but did you know there are several varieties the one that tends to come to mind is followed by the smaller and stronger brid Mulan there's also brynoir Blackberry which is aged for two years giving it a sharper intense flavor Brie was first produced around the 7th Century by monks in the Brie region modern day Cinema and quickly became the cheese of royalty Legend has it Emperor Charlemagne was one of the earliest Bree lovers and arranged to have it regularly delivered to its Castle ildefons boasts other soft cow's milk cheeses similar to Brie among them the creamier culumiere and burso all to be enjoyed at room temperature and with a crispy baguette we've reached the end of this culinary exploration of Paris but this being France we couldn't leave you of course without a look at dessert Paris is famous for some of the best love pastries in the world the Paris dessert menu is long there are Classics like the milfei literally thousand sheets which is made with puff pastry and pastry cream sometimes called a Napoleon there's also the Pari breast pastry which is praline flavored cream inside a circular pastry shaped like a wheel to honor a bicycle race between Paris and breast and Brittany one dessert that some people tend to forget comes from Paris is the mecca home in fact in French we're quite precise we say the double decker macaroon as we call it can be filled with buttercream Jam or chocolate and it has become famous the world over thanks to luxury pastry shops like LA jove or pierreme each day there are lines out the door and it's not surprising because they're very easy to eat and they're is a flavor for everyone like rose petal now I don't know about Eugenie but all this is making me very hungry me too as for all of you keep tweeting us your questions at philville and we'll see you soon for the next edition of French connections plus we should definitely order something yes stupid [Music]

Channel: FRANCE 24 English

Views: 7,214

Keywords: France, French culture, Paris, food, gastronomy

Id: zgY3jkZmrmU

Length: 12min 21sec (741 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 29 2022