Taking August Escoffier’s 1912 foodie event, Les Dîners d’Épicure, one step further, this evening sees Goût de France hosting a lavish global dinner party, catered by more than a thousand French chefs, with dinner being served simultaneously across five continents. Why? To show the world why our cuisine is still top dog, and is listed in UNESCO’s ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ category.
Since seven percent of France’s GDP comes from tourism, it’s vitally – and economically – important for us to preserve our culinary heritage. Unfortunately the rise of overseas gastronomic expertise (e.g. the US, Spain, the UK, and other European nations), coupled with that anathema to gastronomes everywhere, fast food, is leaving us desperately trying to cling to the top rung of the foodie ladder.
That said, despite some people claiming that where food is concerned, our culinary golden age is well and truly over, tourists are nevertheless still in madly love with our wines, and our classic dishes such as boeuf bourguignon, bouillabaisse, or tartiflette.
Although none of our eateries made it into the top ten of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants last year, it doesn’t signal the end of our gastronomic tradition – it simply means that the rest of the world is catching up with us, which can only be great news for all concerned, right?
Goût de France will honor not only French cuisine but also its innovation, and values of enjoyment, of sharing, and of respect for the highest-quality – and ecologically responsible – food. Values which are the very heart of French society.