Croissants are French. Coq au vin is ancient. Vichyssoise was obviously invented somewhere near a château by a man named Henri wearing an alarming amount of linen.
Except, well, not exactly. Welcome to France, where even the origin stories come with sauce.
The very French art of reinvention
Start with the croissant. France’s most famous breakfast pastry has an Austrian ancestor, the kipferl, a crescent-shaped bread that was already kicking around Central Europe before Paris got involved.
Then the French did what the French do: added technique, butter, drama and enough laminated layers to make breakfast require structural engineering. The modern croissant evolved in France, but its family tree definitely has an Austrian branch.
Coq au vin sounds ancient enough to have been served to Julius Caesar between invasions. It wasn’t. Or at least, there’s no good evidence for those heroic old legends.
Yes, coq means rooster. And yes, slowly braising a tough old bird in wine makes considerable culinary sense. But one of the earliest documented recipes dates only to the early 1900s. So much for Caesar’s neighbor asking for seconds.
Then there’s vichyssoise, possibly the most suspiciously French soup name ever assembled. Cold leeks, potatoes and cream. Très chic. Also: very New York.
French chef Louis Diat said he created it at the Ritz-Carlton in Manhattan in 1917, inspired by the potato-and-leek soup his mother and grandmother made back in France. He cooled it, refined it and gave it a name with impeccable French credentials.
So what makes a dish French? Birthplace? Technique? Memory? Marketing?
Probably all of the above.
National cuisines are less like family trees and more like group chats. Everyone contributes something, nobody remembers who started it, and eventually France adds butter.
Featured Country: France
France did not invent the idea of caring deeply about dinner, although it’s spent centuries behaving as though it holds the copyright. Explore Greece on CountryCuisines
What it did build is a remarkable culture around the meal itself: courses, conversation, wine, table rituals and the radical notion that lunch should not be inhaled over a keyboard. UNESCO recognizes the “gastronomic meal of the French” as a cultural tradition built around eating, drinking and gathering together. Formidable!.
Start Cooking: France
Croissants
Butter, folding and patience turn simple dough into flaky layers that shatter beautifully and cover your shirt in crumbs.
Coq au Vin
Chicken, red wine, bacon, mushrooms and onions simmer into a deep braise with very little interest in dieting.
Vichyssoise
Leeks, potatoes and cream become an elegant chilled soup that somehow makes eating cold potatoes feel extremely sophisticated.
Food Trivia: The baguette has papers
The baguette is UNESCO World Heritage. Sort of.
In 2022, UNESCO added the artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread to its list of intangible cultural heritage. That’s a little different from declaring one particular loaf a protected monument, although somewhere in Paris, a baker would probably support that idea enthusiastically.
The recognition covers the skills, traditions and social habits around making and buying baguettes. Which means your daily walk to the bakery isn’t procrastination. It’s participation in humanity’s shared cultural inheritance.
Please use this argument responsibly.
Food Quiz: France Drinks Red Wine. Obviously. Right?
France. Wine. Easy question. Red, obviously.
Careful. French drinking habits have changed, and rosé has become a much bigger part of the picture than the old clichés might suggest.
Our Worldwide Wine Trivia Quiz includes a question about France that may reveal whether your wine knowledge comes from facts or movies where everyone owns a vineyard, has a beautiful neighbor and never appears to go to work.
Go ahead. Take the quiz and defend your honor.
Favorite Find: Peugeot makes WHAT?
I think we’ve got a winner: a Peugeot pepper mill. Not because it has “Paris” stamped on it, but because the backstory fits this entire issue. Peugeot was making table pepper mills in 1874, before the company moved into automobiles in 1896. Its mills are still assembled in France, and the Peugeot Bistro Duo is one of its signature designs. A French icon with an unexpected origin story, inside an issue about French icons with unexpected origin stories. Nicely circular. Visit Peugeot Saveurs
Share The Menu
Know someone who thinks croissants are purely French, coq au vin dates back to men in sandals and vichyssoise must have been invented inside a château? Excellent. Send them this issue. Worst case, you start an argument. Best case, you start an argument over dinner, which is much more French anyway.
Next Week
Next week: We explore one of the world’s oldest cookbooks and what was on the menu. Bring a strong stomach.
