French Cuisine: Style and Aesthetics
Classical and Regional Influences to French Culinary Techniques
Oct 24, 2008
As one author wrote, “(meat) is at the heart of the… menu, with seafood… being the soul, and vegetables, the flesh” (http://www.cuisinenet.com/ glossary/france.html). With this in mind, France can be divided into four culinary regions: the Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest. While each region boasts vast tracts of land devoted to agriculture and viticulture (57 percent of the total area of France), they are each differentiated by climate, topography, and historic influences from conquering or neighboring states.
The Use of Seafood:
The Northwest region includes the states of Brittany, Basse- Normandy, Haute-Normandy, Pays de la Loire, and region known as the Loire Valley. This area has a long coastline and a maritime climate: cool summers, warm winters, and heavy rain. Proximity to the ocean results in a cuisine heavily influenced by seafood. Clams, lobsters, Dungeness crab, oysters, skate, mackerel, and Dover sole are all utilized. Wild game including boar, rabbit, duck, and pheasant, along with domestic goat and lamb are all popular. It is important to note that French cuisine exploits every part of the animal including the kidneys, the brain, intestines, tripe, tongue, and blood such as in terrines, sausages, or savory pastries. Inland, the land is very fertile. Other than grapes (grown throughout France) crops include wheat, corn, plums, pears, apples, and pumpkins.
Foreign Influence:
The Northeast region of France includes Nord Pays de Calais, Picardy, Champagne, Alsace, Lorraine, and Franche-Comte. This region’s cuisine is influenced by its neighboring nations: Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. Thus, foods traditionally associated with Germanic cuisine such as sauerkraut and sausages, are popular as are waffles and beets, items of Flemish origin. Pork, wild game, foie gras, freshwater fish, escargots, and frogs are commonly utilized. This region is also famous for its wild mushrooms, most notably truffles. Cherries, asparagus, and cabbage are also grown.
French Specialties:
The Southeast region of France consists of Burgundy, Auvergne, Limousin, Rhone Alps, Provence-Alpes Cote d’Azur, and Corsica, and is home to the city of Lyon, the culinary capital of France. Beef, pork, lamb, duck, and rabbit are all common, as are several types of cheeses derived from cow’s, goat’s, and sheep’s milk. Artichokes, eggplants, tomatoes, garlic, olives, herbs, apricots, and figs flourish in the cool Mediterranean climate. Specialties of the region include Dijon mustard, Le Puy lentils, bouillabaisse, ratatouille, and tapenade.
Moorish Influence:
The states of Midi-Pyrenees, Languedoc-Roussillon, Aquitaine, and Poitou-Charentes make up the Southwest region of France. Bordering Spain, this region is heavily influenced by Spanish cuisine and the Arab Moorish conquerors of antiquity. Seafood is popular including monkfish, eel, tuna, oysters, cod, and mussels. Poultry (turkey, duck, pigeon, Gascony geese, etc.) is the dominant protein. Walnuts, chestnuts, porcini, and chanterelles mushrooms are harvested. The Moors introduced exotic spices such as pepper, cumin, anise, ginger, cinnamon, and caraway, and, as in Spain, almond paste is used a thickener for sauces.
Well known for its vineyards and its wine, French cuisine also offers a vast variety of culinary traditions. Relying on complicated techniques and an array of local produce and proteins, the French palette is the height of European cuisine.
