Can the British who move to France cook ?

[alittlebitfrench]

I don't think most of them can.

I can cook. I learnt how to cook in France.

I think France is a pointless country to move to really if you can't cook.

What do you think ?

[woolybanana]

If you took the trouble to look carefully at the contents of the shopping trollies of families doing a supermarket shop on, say Friday or Saturday, you will see that the national dish of France is now shop bought pizza, followed by pasta dishes.

Oh, and great hunks of hidous old cow that is boiled and roasted and Bobo knows for how long to try and get some taste out of it.

So, let's not pretend that the French are such great cooks.

And biscuits with chocolate pepites.

And barbequed rubbish that I wouldn't give to my dogs.

Ooops, forgot McDonalds

[Gardian]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]I don't think most of them can.

I can cook. I learnt how to cook in France.

I think France is a pointless country to move to really if you can't cook.

What do you think ?[/quote]

Complete codswallop of course, but another nice attempt at a wind-up.

Any other Brits who we know (well enough to have eaten at their homes) are excellent cooks and what we serve here is more than passable. Not 'Masterchef' stuff, but who wants to go through all that?

By contrast, of the French who we know, 3 out of 4 are (with all due respect) pretty ordinary cooks. BTW, the blokes don't go near the kitchen.

[alittlebitfrench]

No, no, no...this is not a wind up thread it is a scientific thread.

Now, I gave on the other thread a perfectly acceptable recipe for 'Tourte au comté' It costs 5 euros to make and will last two meals (for two) if you accompany it with some green veg....or bake beans if you like.No actually, not bake beans.

So why do these muppets who order their food from the UK buy processed cr@p at three times the price (which includes heartburn) and have it delivered to France when you can cook a quality French meal with local fresh ingredients ?

Brits who move to France can't cook. Bet you !!!

[Cendrillon]

I always manage to wow my Fr friends with my excellent cuisine?

I want to know why all the good vegetables on offer appear so rarely in French restaurants.

[alittlebitfrench]

It depends, if you go your to local routier type restaurant I guess you may not find much veg on offer.....well potatoes may be....in the shape of a chip.

If you go to a Gastronomic type restaurant, they tend to rape any veg into a pretty shape and put a half a teaspoon of sauce (not bisto) near it which is intended to bring out the flavours of the veg....or hide the taste..which I'm not sure. They will charge 10 times the price for doing as well.

[Chancer]

I dont think many people younger than me can cook ar can be ar5ed to cook these days.

 

I make my living now providing furnished accomodation with fully fitted and equipped kitchens because people claim that they want to be able to cook for themselves and as the restaurants around here are diabolical and only remain open for the pleasure of telling customers that they are closed I do very well, i have close to 100% occupancy all year round yet the kitchens get no use at all.

 

4 apartments over 3 years and there is not a mark in any of the pans, the hoba, microwaves and ovens all look like new, during in the same period  have had to replace my identical micro-onde and the oven and my hob and pans look like well used items from any other home.

 

As guests just throw all their crap in any bin, recycling or otherwise usually without bin liners I have to spend a lot of unpleasant time sorting through it or the rubbish Na5is will not collect it, what I find Inside is really depressing whether it be French students, young workers or UK families with children (they are the most depressing) 40-50 year old French men, married but working away from the family are the most likely to cook and eat albeit not that healthily, they also keep the places clean.

[mint]

Whichever country you live in, if you wish to eat well, you have to cook.

By eating well, I mean food that is nutritious and enjoyable to eat.  I seldom go to restaurants these days and when I do go, it's mainly to meet up with friends and catch up rather than for the sake of the food.

I worry about resto kitchens not being clean[:-))]  I had 2 bad bouts of noro virus year before last and it's made me very wary of eating out.

[idun]

Yes, I could cook before I moved to France. And just about the last words a good friend said was 'you show 'em'.

Showing

anyone was rather a different matter though. French people were highly

suspicious of food from une anglaise..... as it was well known that we

all eat 'la me r de' en Angleterre.

I did change ideas, but most I knew thought I was somehow the exception.... the only anglaise who could cook.

I have had some dire meals in France, when invited to friends homes. And we have had some very decent food in routier restos, and often better than  restos we have paid far more for. Never been offered steak hache/frites in one.

Seeing what french people ate on a daily basis was disappointing to

say the least. Dry pates for most meals, with maybe a slice of ham...

etc and a bout de pain......... and the salad simply dressed lettuce

leaves, as for me, even now a salad should usually be more of a salad compose.

I am not saying that people will not pull the stops out sometimes, they do, but everyday, which is in many ways a bane......... I'd rather have what I put on the table, or even my mother did.... and she was a decent and sometimes good........ very basic cook........... as was my Dad, when he could still cook.

So ALBF, my experiences for so many years mean that I believe it is ne porter quoi.........a myth perpetrated by the french that the french have the best food and are the best cooks.

[Cendrillon]

A very good answer Idun.

[Lehaut]

All 4 in our family cook. When he moved into his first co-location, we bought our eldest a set of kitchen knives. He has cooked many times for his friends, in his lodgings and even in other peoples kitchens

When we lived in the UK on a narrow boat, we had meals for up to 8, no precoooked food ever.

I don't care much for eating out, over priced and you never really know what you are eating or how old it is.

I am constantly amazed at out local Leclerc when I see 6 fresh pizzas on top of all the other preprepared food in the trolly, almost the value of our weeks shop of stuff to cook.

[alittlebitfrench]

One of the things I noticed when moving to France is how frugally the French eat....even in upper class families. Certainly the family I belong to.

Idun is right that many during the week will just have a slice of ham (or whatever) and some salad. Something simple and something plain. But at the weekends they have a nice family meal.

That is essentially what we do. I eat salad every night. OH has a soup.

Wherever I go back to the UK, I just cannot cope with the amount of food that is offered everyday. It is too much.

But then again, the UK has become a nation of lardies.

I guessing that is why the British moving to France have so much trouble with French food. The French in my experience will have one nice meal a week.

[Judith]

I disagree with whoever said that French men don't go into the kitchen.  Maybe true for some, but one of my best French friends (younger than me, but not that much) cooks and his meals are super ... though his wife, also my best French friend, tends to cook for dinner parties, it does actually depend on what is being cooked, so they share the tasks usually.  And we always eat well and are very well wined and dined as well!

And when I have eaten in other French homes, the meals have always been good, if simple, but tasty.

[Cendrillon]

ALBF

All those glorious, slender French females!!!! In our country area there are rather more very well padded females. In many cases the Fr. slender glamour image is just a distant memory if it ever existed.

Of course, travel to the USA and many of us will feel positively skinny!

[idun]

9/10 french slender females I know smoke.........

And during these elections, IF you have watched french news ALBF, there has been plenty of interviews in the street with les femmes rondes[Www]. And plenty of men with over proportioned bellies.

In fact last time I was back, I was quite surprised at how many fat young people there were. And back to smoking...... we were invited to our sons' friends for a big get together bbq, all the kids we had known all their lives, all grown up, none as it happened fat.......... AND the majority smoked........ shame really!

My husband cooks, could cook when I met him. My kids can cook, one is a professional and the other is as my MIL would say 'a canny little cook', maybe not full roast dinners, but he cooks well.  Many of the french men I know cook.. ............ and usually it is the men who do the bbq. And bbq's are something I could do without for the rest of my life! What hard work they are, stood watching meat and shouting out for more stuff............ oil, or cutlery, platters or what ever is the easy peasy bit of it[:'(] Getting the rest ready and running around after the 'chef', because 'they' cannot leave the fire......... hard work, for me at least............!

[alittlebitfrench]

We are back to the rural France debate...lol.

Women in Paris are wafer thin !!! They are. They have an image to keep. It tends to be like that in all cities.

I know what everyone is saying though...I mean I have travelled a lot in France. I would say therefore that there is a rural city divide in terms of...well....weight. Can't think of a better way of putting that lol. Same for blokes.

I wonder why that is ?? Maybe its boredom. People eat because they are bored. I guess that is why MLP gets on so well in rural areas. She fits in, or blends in. I bet the blokes fancy her as well.

I would say that men cook just as much as women. Well, maybe not in rural areas where life is a bit more chauvinistic I guess. The blokes shoot it and the women cook it.

[idun]

Alors, my son lives in  a french city, so less of the rural divide thingy  thankyou very much. That is where I go and stay when I go to France.

As I said, the skinny ones in my village for the most part smoked, and there were plenty of them. And yes, their 'look' was important........ even in a french village.

[mint]

OK then, my IMPRESSION only...........

Yes, both men and women I know cook.  The women make things that I'd be scared of even trying, in case I kill someone[:-))]I'm serious because they bottle mushrooms, vegetables, fruits etc etc.  Everything that is dehydratable, bottleable, freezable etc.  They think nothing of making their own paté, fois gras, duck legs (can't think of the French name this very minute).  The men make their own eau de vie, pineau, great big meaty stews, all the animals that they have managed to shoot and kill.

Amongst my own friends, I can't count any really lardy ones.  Some are a bit chunky but some are very, very thin.  Granted, all of us are walkers, or cyclists or keep-fit enthusiastes so I suppose that must help.

I am not big by any means, a size 10 to 12 but easily a 40 or even 42 in France.....sigh

[YCCMB]

So, is it a requirement that you have to be able to cook to move to France?

Reminds me of that old Alexei Sayle joke about when he went to Australia and arrived at passport control. He was asked his name, profession etc., and then the officer asked "Criminal record?" To which he replied "I didn't know you still needed one"

[idun]

I have french friends who bottle stuff and make all sorts of strong alcoholic drinks. I never did. I could have, but why would I. We wouldn't have used them.

I freeze veggies and sauces and that was sufficient for our use.

Husband makes the likes of sloe gin and creme de cassis, along with some french delicacies from time to time, the latter usually to give to friends in England.

[Judith]

Idun, totally agree with you re BBQ - we rarely do one ... and guess who gets to scrub the grill afterwards ?? And of course, it won't go in the sink, now will it???

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]I don't think most of them can.

I can cook. I learnt how to cook in France.

I think France is a pointless country to move to really if you can't cook.

What do you think ?[/quote]

I think the answer to that is yes and no. Some can cook and some can't.

I can and so can SWMBO.  I learnt to cook in the U.K.

One of our French neighbour/friends is a lovely cook and we have had a lot of meals in her home. She usually cooks the meat using a 200 year old clockwork rotisary an dit's done on the lounge fire. She uses that fire as much as she does the oven and we usually have to lever ourselves out of the chair at the end of a meal.

We went on a picnic whith her last week. Not the sandwich/cuppa tea either. It was a 4 course meal by the Lak Lampy. Other French friends we have eaten at have been very similar.

Oh, and if you see a fat woman who can speak very good French then she isn't French and here's the proof

We have the book somewhere and I have read it? I'm not sure what galsses the author has but they need replacing![:-))]

[alittlebitfrench]

Yes Betty, under a moderately soft semi hard Brexit deal apparently it will become a requirement for those looking to move to France to be able to cook. I kinda agree. Those 'vans' won't being running anymore so I guess Brian and Brenda will starve to death otherwise. Especially if they can't buy Bisto.

Alexei Sayle, that brings back memories.

Actually, that infamous Triffids sketch could be a British bloke meeting his french neighbours for the first time in Eymet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LocoiW5gXzk