If Fernand Siré has his way, menus in French restaurants will soon have to disclose if a particular dish is made in-house and whether it was prepared with fresh, frozen or canned products.

Sadly, in a country known for its gastronomic heritage, more and more restaurants in France are relying on prepackaged, industrially made products rather than making food from scratch. Some estimates say that up to two-thirds of France’s 120,000 restaurants rely on industrial products.

Two exposés on French television this past year painted a shocking image of the French restaurant industry by filming unscrupulous restaurateurs filling their shopping carts at Métro (the restaurant industry hypermarket) with ready-made traditional French dishes and desserts that only need to be reheated and served to customers. 

In both reports, journalists picked through the trash of restaurants and what they found might surprise you.  The fish soup or bouillabaisse in the Old Port of Marseille may very well have come from a can garnished with frozen farmed fish.  The Île Flottante you had in that quaint Parisian bistro may have been made in a factory with prefabricated meringues and crème anglaise poured from a box.  The hand-cut steak tartare?  Chopped in a factory and simply opened before serving.  And that duck confit which the waiter claims is farm raised in southwestern France might actually come from a factory farm in the Czech Republic.

One restaurateur invited the undercover reporter, posing as a new restaurant owner seeking advice, to see first hand the secret of his success at his popular Basque restaurant.  The undercover camera showed a cellar lined with giant cans of Axoa, a traditional Basque stew, and a kitchen which consisted of 6 microwaves and two Sri Lankan cooks who opened cans, plopped the contents onto the plates and nuked them before sending them out to the dining room packed with unsuspecting patrons.  The helpful restaurateur unabashedly explains that he makes a hefty profit this way, paying a euro or two for dishes that are sold for ten times the price.  He saves on labour costs as well, employing a minimum number of unskilled workers. Vive la gastronomie française !

I was most disappointed to see what lurked in the trash of the Paris institution Chartier, which charmed me as a student some 20 years ago.  Wrappers and cans of industrial products filled the bins and the waitress freely confirmed that there is little cooking in the kitchen at Chartier any more, “c’est assemblage ici” (the kitchen just assembles food here” she said.  Sadly, there’s a line out the door of tourists who think they are getting a taste of traditional French cooking.

To combat this distasteful trend, Siré, a deputy with Sarkozy’s UMP party, who happens to be a doctor and has family in the restaurant business, has recently introduced a law which would make all of this more transparent.  It was examined the week before Christmas and, if all goes well, will be passed into law this year.

The law has its detractors and raises many questions.  How will the government enforce such a law?   What constitutes fresh?  Some argue that it’s better to use a frozen, well-made product over a poorly made dish made with less than fresh “fresh” ingredients.  Critics also point out that there are existing measures out there, like the label “Maître Restaurateur” which is awarded by the State to restaurants which pass a very strict set of criteria including using mostly fresh non-transformed products and have trained chefs cooking in the kitchen. But the initiative hasn’t caught on and chefs must apply for the label.  In November 2010 there were only 1300 restaurants who possessed the label.

Some restaurateurs will say, “what’s the difference if customers don’t notice?”. For one, you have no way of knowing what’s in the food.  Processed food is often full of preservatives, added sugar, salt and fat.  There are of course exceptions but if someone’s trying to save money on kitchen staff by buying already prepared foods, he’s probably not buying top quality stuff.

So until the law is passed what can you do?  

Unfortunately, you need to do your homework.  Go to places that are tested and where you know there’s a chef in the kitchen.  There are many restaurants in Paris using high-quality ingredients and cooking from scratch, you just can’t tell which ones without having done a little research. Paris by Mouth is a great resource in English.

Be wary of extensive menus with low prices.  Offering a huge choice of dishes means you either have a large staff, which is quite expensive, or you’re buying ready-made food.  There’s a reason that most small (good) restaurants only offer a set menu or a choice between 3 to 4 entrées, plats, and desserts–it’s just not possible for a kitchen with a small staff to handle anything more without compromising on quality.

Lastly, look for restaurants that change their menus frequently and offer market-based cooking.

I don’t think the law will solve the issue entirely, but it’s a welcome first step.

____________________________________________

Credit photo: Melissa McAfee, Washington, DC

For more information:  Les vrais états généraux de la restauration

Coming soon: République de la Malbouffe

I was excited to hear that Romain Tischenko, Top Chef winner and Ze Kitchen alumuni, had recently taken over Le Galopin, a neighborhood bistro just a short walk from my apartment on the colorful rue Sainte Marthe.

The Rue Sainte Marthe, if you don’t know it, is worth seeking out.  It’s an interesting street lined with colorful doorways, artist’s ateliers, cheap ethnic restaurants, a few charitable associations and apartments— some of which are pretty run down–but it all makes for an appealing mix.  At the top is the Place Sainte Marthe, a quiet cobblestone square, which is where the pretty blue Galopin sits.

My first visit for lunch, exceeded expectations. Seared calamari, thin slices of brightly colored green meat radish, and crisp fennel made for an amazing dish.  But the main course was even better.  What was simply listed on the menu as Barbue, Parmentier, Câpres (brill, potatoes, capers) turned out to be a wonderfully executed dish with unexpected contrasts of textures and flavors.  Desserts included a heavenly walnut financier with pear and hazelnut and the Agrumes, Piquillos and Meringue-an original apple cake topped with meringue and piquillo peppers.

Lunch was so good that I returned two weeks later for the more elaborate 42 € 7-course set menu at dinner.

Dinner, while good, didn’t make it to the same heights as lunch. The service was somewhat slow and less polished, possibly due to a private group downstairs, and while we enjoyed everything, there was none of the astonishment and wonder, which came with my first meal. It was a reminder that this is young team without years of experience, so it’s no surprise that not every dish would be mind blowing.

Overall I loved the creative, market-based menu and laid-back atmosphere of the place. It’s definitely a table I would return to, with a talented chef who is sure to get more attention in the years to come.

Le Galopin
34 rue Sainte-Marthe, Paris 10th
Métro: Belleville, Colonel Fabien
Telephone: 01 42 06 05 03

Lunch Menu: 25 € for 3 courses; dinner 42 € for 7 courses
Open: Tuesday-Saturday lunch and dinner; closed Sunday, Monday

More photos here 

View Larger Map

Like most American Expats in Paris, there are times when I crave things you can only get back home. BBQ, buffalo wings, a corn beef special, and a great burger all come to mind.

You can get burgers in Paris of course and will find them on just about every menu, but they’re usually average at best and rarely great. So, when I heard about a burger truck that was being launched by a Californian who studied at the French cooking school Ferrandi, I couldn’t wait to try it. Maybe, finally, we’d have great burgers in Paris.

So tonight in the rain, I took my step son to try what I hoped would be a real American burger, at a food truck no less which tweets their location by Twitter (and Facebook) everyday.

The verdict? Amazing. Homemade toasted rolls and freshly ground beef made for a particularly juicy burger with just the right amount of fat*. I had the blue cheese burger with caramelized onions, bleu d’auvergne and port wine sauce which was outstanding. My French guy had the classic with cheddar, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and mayo. These burgers kicked-ass compared to the burgers you normally get in Paris. The fries were unfortunately cold and soggy by the time I got home, but it was clear that these were hand-cut fries and not frozen, another sin most places in Paris make.

I was even a little bit proud eating my burger which proved that Americans can show the French a thing or two in the kitchen, at least when it comes to burgers. I can’t wait to return for their braised pork sandwich, onion rings and macaroni and cheese.

You can find out where they’ll be next, by following @LeCamionQuiFume on Twitter or Facebook or go to their website: www.lecamionquifume.com.

Le Camion Qui Fume
Opening times and location: @LeCamionQuiFume
Burger: 8 €; 10 € for a burger and fries

*This is technically not the first food truck in Paris since there are trucks all over making crêpes, but to my knowledge it’s the first that changes location on a daily basis, using social media to inform clients.

**Beef in France is typically grass-fed and extremely lean which may explain part of the French paradox, but it doesn’t make for a very good burger. Ground beef, or steak haché as its called here, is typically only 5 % fat in France, whereas most good burgers in the US are made with ground chuck-which is 20% fat.

The 2012 edition of Le Fooding Guide appears in newsstands on November 17th, and will list 900 of their favorite addresses, 450 of which are in Paris.  It will also include the 11 winners of this year’s Prix Fooding for best chef, best bistro, best kept secret, amongst others, which will be announced on Monday 14 November.

To celebrate the guide’s release, Le Fooding has put together another spectacular event with an impressive line-up of young chefs (including 2 Americans for the first time) for La Cambuse Effervescente*, a dinner-cruise along the Seine on 18-19 November with:

• Sean Rembold, (Marlow and Sons, Brooklyn USA)
• David Toutain (L’Agapé  Substance, Paris)
• Daniel Rose (Spring, Paris)
• Giovanni Passerini (Rino, Paris)
• Bertrand Grébaut (Septime, Paris)
• Sven Chartier (Saturne, Paris)
• Nicolas Darnauguilhem (Neptune, Bruxelles)
• David-Vincent Loyola & Mathieu Perez (Aux deux amis, Paris)
• Franck Baranger (Le Pantruche, Paris)
• Pierre Jancou (Vivant, Paris)
• Victor Gaillard, (le Chatomat, Paris)
• Keda Black (Cookbook author)

Desserts by Hugues Pouget, pastry chef of Hugo et Victor.

Tickets are 30€ and will be available for those lucky enough to snag them the week of 14 November on lefooding.com.

Proceeds will go to Des enfants du Congo Béthanie

*La Cambuse Effervescente= translates roughly to the bubbling galley in English, Cambuse being the garde-manger of a ship.

More about Le Fooding

Happy Birthday Fooding

No Rules, Is Le Fooding, the French culinary movement, more than a feeling? Adam Gopnick for the New Yorker.

I spent last Saturday at the Comptoir General unloading boxes of the last of summer’s tomatoes and the first of fall’s harvest: bundles of swiss chard, carrots, yellow onions, wrinkled savoy and bright purple cabbages, potatoes, herbs, apples, and pears.  We carried jars of ratatouille, home-made tomato sauce and brown paper sacks filled with walnuts.

I was there for La Ruche Qui Dit Oui (the Hive Who Says Yes in English), a new initiative which brings together local farmers and consumers looking to buy closer to home.  The idea is a cross between online shopping and an AMAP, the French equivalent of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).  Unlike an AMAP however, you buy what you want, when you want, rather than adhere for an entire season.

It works like this: someone starts a Ruche in their community, people and producers join, once every week or fortnight you’ll be notified of that week’s sale, you fill up your virtual shopping cart and a few days later you go to the designated delivery spot with your printed shopping list to pick up your goods.  The producer sets a minimum sale amount to guarantee a certain number of sales. If they don’t reach the minimum, they don’t deliver and that item is deleted from your cart. By taking out the middleman, most of the proceeds go directly to the farmer or producer and more importantly they set their own price.  La Ruche Qui Dit Oui takes 10% for administrative costs and 10 % goes to the person who set up the Ruche.

Last week most of the producers were on hand to give out their products and answer questions but members of the Ruche also helped with the distribution, which is why I was there. I try to buy local produce but have always hesitated joining an AMAP because I love going to the market. The Ruche was the perfect compromise because I could pick and choose what I wanted and still got to meet and interact with the producers.

The Comptoir General was an ideal spot for the distribution, with a decor unlike any other you are likely to see in Paris. The light-filled space is a treasure-trove of strange artifacts where taxidermied crows seem right at home with old phonographs. In the back of the main room is a bar so you can sit and have a coffee after picking up your purchases.

In addition to the vegetables above, they had delicious honey from Fontenay Sous Bois, freshly baked bread, local beer, all sorts of dairy-cheese, yogurt and milk, freshly killed chickens and homemade terrines. Right now there are only 10 Ruches functioning in France, 2 of which are in Paris, but many more are on the way as you can see from this map.

The next sale is on now and will end on Wednesday, 19 October, with distribution on Saturday, 22 October from 11h00-13h00. Maybe I’ll see you there?

To order go to: La Ruche Qui Dit Qui

More about buying local food in Paris:

Eating Local In Paris

Buying Local Vegetables in Paris

My eating habits might strike you as strange. On most days of the week I try to eat vegetarian but then will cross town to buy something like this.  Luckily, I see nothing hypocritical about a person who advocates a healthy diet but still likes to eat a good burger now and then. After reading books like Eating Animals, The China Study, and Food Matters, I find myself eating more and more vegetarian. And while I’m not planning to give up meat altogether anytime soon–I like it too much–I do try to eat as little as possible and often find myself craving healthy foods.

One of my favorite places to go when I feel the need to detox is Voy Alimento, a tiny cantine/shop just off the Canal Saint Martin which specializes in unusual medicinal herbs and plants from Latin America. In addition to selling things like raw chocolate, cat’s claw, guarana, maca and purple corn, they serve a vegan, organic lunch menu Tuesday-Sunday.  I’m not sure I buy into the therapeutic claims of many of their products, but the food is as delicious as it is unusual.  I’d have no problem switching to a vegan diet if it all tasted this good.

You’ll sit on recycled barrels and share a communal table in the airy dining room which shares its space with the shop. Get the menu and you’ll start off with a small plate with tastes of raw coco beans, dried aguagmanto-a deliciously tart fruit native to Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, and assorted biscuits made with algae, curcuma or sesame.  For drinks you can choose from  the Purple Power which is made with purple corn; the Blue Comme Toi, made with Klamath, a bleu green algae; or the Xocolatl, an Aztec drink made with chocolate, urucum, cinnamon and cayenne pepper.  The menu also includes a detox, vitaité, or energizing vegetable soup all enhanced with aztec super-foods and spices.

The main course is a copious plate of vegetables and grains, which on my last visit included quinoa with spirulina, crisp salad greens with shavings of leek and carrots, a delicious potato salad with carrots and zucchini, tofu marinated with a light citrus dressing and Fougatta, a spiced cake, which was a little too dense and dry to my taste. Everything  else was fresh, with clean interesting flavors. The desserts are vegan as well and made from ingredients like raw chocolate, acai berries or purple corn.  Stevia leaves, agave and yacon syrup are used to sweeten. Even my carnivorous French guy was impressed and bought out half the shop.

The shop’s staff couldn’t be more friendly and, when they have the time, enthusiastically explain each unusual ingredient and its health benefits. The clientele is an interesting mix of fashionable, yet health-conscious, locals and a few vegan tourists who most likely read about it on Happy Cow.   If you can’t get to the shop, you can buy their products at both of the organic markets (Batignolles on Saturdays, Raspail on Sundays)  or online.  And if you don’t want to take my word that vegan cooking can be delicious, know that Alain Ducasse agrees and included Voy Alimento in his beautiful book J’aime Paris.

Voy Alimento
23, rue des Vinaigriers
Paris, France, 75010
Telephone: +33 (0)1 42 01 03 44

Map It

One of the trends in cooking this year has been an emphasis on well-sourced products—often local, sometimes wild—and cooking techniques that bring out the best of an ingredient’s natural flavour; at his recently opened Septime, Bertrand Grébaut reminds us that in expert hands, French cooking can transform the best ingredients into something even better.

After having spent 2 years at Arpège, Alain Passard’s three-star restaurant in the 7th, Grébaut went on to earn a star of his own at Agapé, a posh restaurant in Paris’s 17th arrondissement, which caters to a well-to-do crowd. At Septime, he brings the cooking techniques he honed at Arpège, to the 11th arrondissement, a younger, edgier part of town. The atmosphere-young, modern, a bit industrial–fits in well with the lively working class neighbourhood and with Grébaut’s desire to “democratise haute cuisine”.

On a recent visit with friends we decided on the 55 € tasting menu, a bargain considering the quality of the ingredients and cooking. The first course, beautiful white asparagus served with an oyster-infused sauce Gribiche—the classical French mayonnaise made with chopped egg, cornichons, capers, parsley, chervil, and tarragon—was stunning and set the tone for dishes to come.

Next came a wonderfully light gnocchetti with delicious crème de maïs, aged Gouda and beautiful elder flowers. It left our table speechless, it was that good.

We were then served a poulet jaune with orache and mustard leaves. I rarely order chicken in restaurants, too often it’s dry and tasteless, but Grébaut’s chicken was succulent and deeply flavoured. The Banka trout, served with green asparagus and a red wine sauce, was equally good.

We all agreed it was one of the best meals we had eaten in a long time. We loved everything-the food, the wines, and the service, which was exceptionally charming for Paris. In short, Septime is a great restaurant. Affordable, fun, with first-rate products and cooking, I don’t think I could ask for anything more.

Septime
80 rue de Charonne, 75011
Map it
Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Friday, dinner only Saturday; Closed Mondays
01 43 67 38 29
Lunch menu: 2 courses for 21 €, 3 for 26 €: Carte blanche dinner menu 55 €.

Head to Paris by Mouth, for more reviews of Septime

Today marked the 18^th “Grand Prix de la Baguette de Tradition Française de la Ville de Paris”, the annual competition to select the best baguette in Paris.  Every year a panel of judges—mostly bakers and a few food celebrities—gather on the Ile Saint Louis to deliberate over who makes the best baguette in Paris, not an easy feat considering there are roughly 1,200 boulangeries in Paris.  Last year I had the honour of being a judge (you can read about it here) and with my fellow judges we tasted 141 baguettes, an awful lot of bread to eat in one sitting.

The baguettes being judged are not just any baguettes, but baguettes de tradition, bread which according to a French law enacted in 1993 must be mixed, kneaded, leavened and baked on premises, without ever being frozen. They must be additive-free and can contain only four precious ingredients–wheat flour, water, salt and yeast.  So, if you are going to buy a baguette, make sure it’s a baguette de tradition.

Unfortunately, asking for a “une tradition” doesn’t guarantee you’ll get good bread.  It may seem hard to believe, but a lot of mediocre bread can be found in France.  Walk into your average corner bakery and if you don’t know what to look for, or to ask for, you risk walking away with a very average, and at times inedible, baguette.That said, every neighborhood has a great boulangerie, you just need to know where to go and to be willing to walk a few blocks out of your way to find one.

So, how do you judge a great baguette? A true baguette is thin, measures between 50 and 70 centimeters and weighs between 240-300 grams. According to Steven Kaplan, an American Professor considered to be the world’s authority on bread, there are several things to look for: appearance, aroma, a dense yet aerated cream-colored crumb, and of course the taste.

One thing I learned from being a judge in last year’s competition is that any of the top ten winners, or previous winners for that matter, make a very good baguette.

So without further ado, this year’s winners for the best baguette in Paris goes to:

1st Place: Pascal Barillon, Au Levain d’Antan” 6, rue des Abbesses, Paris 18^th

And the runners up are:

2-Gaétan ROMP, 14 rue de la Michodière Paris 2nd

3-Pascal JAMIN « les saveurs du 20eme, 120 rue de Bagnolet Paris 20th

4-Gontran CHERRIER 22 rue Caulaincourt, Paris 18th

5-Le Fournil du village, M.RISSER 12 place J.B Clément Paris 18th

6-Les Gourmandises d’Eiffel, Gilles LEVASLOT, 187 rue de Grenelle Paris 7th

7-Jean-Noël JULIEN, 75 rue Saint-Honoré Paris 1st

8-Philippe MARACHE, 92 av de la République Paris 11th

9-Philippe BOGNER, 204 rue des Pyrénées Paris 20th

10-Le Grenier à pain Saint-Amand 33 bis rue Saint-Amand Paris 15th

And to help you on your search for the best baguette in Paris, here is a map of the most recent winners: Winners of the Best Baguette in Paris Map

The Best Baguette in Paris 2010 My account as a judge in 2010

Watch Kaplan’s hysterical, yet informative, appearance on Conan O’Brien, instructing what to look out for (http://www.noob.us/humor/conan-obrien-and-the-bread-professor)

Et la Meilleure baguette de Paris est…(From the Mairie de Paris)

It was no surprise that Pierre Jancou’s latest restaurant would be beautiful—his last two spots, Racines in the Passage des Panoramas and La Crémerie on the rue Quatre Vents in the 6^th —are both stunning. Even so, I was still struck upon entering by Jancou’s knack for uncovering hidden gems.  This one, located on the Rue des Petites Ecuries in the 10th, was an exotic bird shop in a previous life, hints of which appear in the motif of the bright green Art Nouveau tiles which cover the walls from floor to ceiling.  It may be a new restaurant but you wouldn’t know from the decor, with its faded charm and cool ambiance, it blends perfectly with this part of the up and coming 10^th arrondissement.

Like its predecessors, Vivant serves meticulously sourced products and only natural wines.  On the night of my recent visit there was a small blackboard menu and between three of us we were able to try nearly everything on offer.  We started with a creamy Burrata from the Cooperative Latte Cisternino with tiny capers from the island of Pantelleria off of Sicily; delicate slices of fragrant Parma ham that were slightly salty and sweet; and seared Dupérier foie gras over shaved baby artichokes and a handful of greens—all delicious.  Mains included cochon de lait (suckling pig) with hearty mashed potatoes, Challans Duck and line caught merlu (hake) from Saint-Jean-de-Luz, both expertly cooked and served with an assortment of vegetables that included fava beans, carrots, celery-rave, and spinach.

The wines, as mentioned, are 100 % natural, or “living”[1] as Jancou calls the wines he likes to serve.  So what does that mean exactly? According to More than Organic, Jancou’s website, natural wines are wines “made in small quantities, by an independent producer, from handpicked, organically grown grapes, with no added sugar or yeasts, no adjustments for acidity and no micro-oxygenation or reverse-osmosis[2]“.  So, in short, all you are getting are the grapes and what the wine maker is able to express with them.   If sulphur dioxide is used, it is used in minimal quantities and only at bottling.

Natural wines are fragile and their tastes tend to differ from year to year and even from bottle to bottle.  They can be unstable and unpredictable. Upon opening they might be fizzy and have a funky smell.  Nothing a little decanting won’t normally fix but many people are put off by them and dismiss the natural wine movement. I’m not sure where I sit on the fence, and don’t know enough to make an informed opinion, but I like natural wines and am not put off when I come across a quirky one.

We trusted Jancou’s judgment for the wines and started with 3 different whites by the glass to share.  I was busy catching up with friends in from the US and before I knew it, our chalk board was whisked away and I have no idea what they were.  Next up was a bottle of Moulin à Vent, which was simply delicious.

This is a lovely neighborhood restaurant, serving simple but well-prepared cuisine using only exceptional products. The prices are steep—we paid 180 € for three without coffee or dessert—but these sorts of ingredients don’t come cheaply. If you aren’t interested in knowing where you’re ingredients come from or don’t care what techniques were used to make your wine, you probably won’t get Vivant and there will be plenty of those folks who will walk away disappointed.  But if you do care, you just might walk away feeling delighted, like I did, that little restaurants like this exist.

Vivant
43 rue des Petites Ecuries, 75010
Métro:  Château d’eau or Bonne Nouvelle
Open lunch and dinner Monday-Friday, closed Saturday and Sunday
01 42 46 43 55

Map it

People ask if my eating habits have changed since moving to France, assuming that Americans live off processed junk and shop in giant supermarkets.  Thankfully my upbringing was nothing like that and not all that different from how I eat in France.

My mother worked full time, but managed to make a home-cooked dinner for four kids every night.  We had a milk man who left fresh milk and eggs on our porch and a butcher named Tony who wrapped my mom’s packages in brown paper, tied up with string.  My parents weren’t foodies, but for some reason we never bought meat from the supermarket, only from the butcher. I remember one night my father asking with suspicion if my mom had bought that night’s steak at the Acme, and you knew from the tone of his voice that this was not something you wanted to do.  Produce came from the Amish farmers market up the street and we had a vegetable garden in the summer.   We had all sorts of tomatoes in that garden and I have never tasted better tomatoes than the one’s my father grew.  I learned that eating fresh local food was better.  No one told me it was better, but it certainly tasted better.

There’s a myth that everyone in France shops at outdoor markets or their neighbourhood butcher, cheesemonger and baker. Sadly this isn’t always the case. While many still shop at family run shops, more and more people are opting for the ease and convenience of hypermarchés or giant supermarkets just like Americans. And even if you do shop at outdoor markets in France, it is by no means a guarantee that what you’re buying is from a local farm and may very well be from some industrial farm in Spain.

A recent trip brought this sad truth home.  We were ten renting a beautiful house in the French countryside, with nothing but farmland surrounding us. Being the only non-French person in our group, I wasn’t going to insist on shopping at local markets and kept my mouth shut when everyone headed to the local hypermarché to stock up on groceries for the week.  When it was time leave and there were leftovers to be taken, I took some of the onions we hadn’t used.  Once home I was shocked to see that our red onions had come from Egypt and the yellow onions from Tasmania of all places.  Here we were in France, surrounded by farmlands and the supermarket was selling onions from halfway around the world.  How was this possible?  So you see France is not all that different from America in the food department at times.

Fortunately, every product sold in France must be labelled according to its origin, so things like this can be avoided.  When you’re at the market you’ll know whether your apples are from the Loire Valley or from China if, of course, you take the time to look.

While terms like locavore and “farm to table” have become mainstream in the US, it’s not something you hear often in Paris. It could be because the French have a strong sense of terroir and certain foods are associated with particular regions.  Few realise that Ile de France, the region that surrounds Paris, is an agricultural area with some 5,000 farmers.  There are signs however that this is changing as more and more people are becoming interested in local products.  Yannick Alléno, 3-star Michelin chef of the Meurice, offers a Terroir parisien menu and has a beautiful new book that champions products found in Ile de France.  A handful of restaurateurs have started putting Argenteuil Asparagus, Pontoise cabbage and authentic champignons de Paris on their menus (Racines, Saturne, Agapé and Les Fines Gueules all come to mind) and hopefully more will follow suit.

To make things easier, Ile de France producers announced a new ” Saveurs Ile de France” label in February (green for agricultural products grown in Ile de France, blue for artisan products produced in Ile de France and grey for products that have been transformed in Ile de France) to help consumers recognise products made in Ile de France.

If you want to buy more local products in Paris, here are a few ways to find them:

L’Echoppée Locale

This adorable shop in the 3^rd carries some 300 products, all made and grown within Ile de France, and is the only store of its kind in Paris.

The owners, Barbara Martel and Nathalie Vidal, are passionate about what they do and have worked hard to find the best local products. You’ll find Menthe Poivrée de Milly, a wonderful dried peppermint that makes delicious mint tea, all sorts of artisan mustards, vinegars and oils, rose and poppy scented candies, Gatinais saffron, honey, cider and beer, terrines, sausages and even foie gras, all produced within 90 KM of Paris. It’s the perfect place to find an original gift or souvenir from Paris. My only disappointment was that there were not more local produce.

237 rue Saint-Martin, Paris 3rd. Open Tuesday-Friday  10h00 to 19h00, Saturdays 14h00-19h00

For produce, my favorite purveyor is Terroirs D’avenir, the Paris-based company which sources artisan products in France–often local and hard to find, which I wrote about here. At the moment, you can only find them on Fridays outside of Du Pain et Des Idées, so if you don’t have to be in an office, like I do, on Fridays, this is where I would shop.

At the market

Not all outdoor markets in Paris sell local produce but many do. To find a producer, look for the words “producteur-maraîcher“. You’ll also want to look for someone who only has a small selection of seasonal produce.  If it’s the dead of winter and you see tomatoes and strawberries, it’s not local.  But even if the vegetable seller buys their goods from Rungis, the immense wholesale market outside Paris where most food in Paris is bought and sold, it could have very well come from their “producer pavilion” where the area’s producers gather to sell to restaurateurs and retailers who then resell their products in Paris. You’ll know if something is local if it’s marked “Ile de France” or displays the name or number of one of the departments in Ile de France (75, 77, 78, 91, 93, 94, 95).  For local organic vegetables head to the Marché Biologique on Saturdays at Batignolles or the Marché Biologique on Sundays at Raspail.  But again, you need to look at the labels.  Buying organic string beans shipped from Chile seems to be missing the point.

AMAP or CSA

If you don’t like spending your Saturday or Sunday morning at the market, you can sign up for an AMAP*, the French equivalent of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) whose mission is to support family farmers struggling to compete with industrial farming.  An AMAP is a community group who enters into a yearly, or half-yearly, contract to buy weekly from a local farmer.  You sign up for the year (or half-year) and pick up your basket of freshly picked vegetables (some offer others goods like eggs, cheese, meat, etc) once a week at specific time and location.  You get the freshest of local produce and the farmer is guaranteed a certain number of sales. The downside being you don’t get to choose and need to commit for at least one season.  To find an AMAP in your neighbourhood check out www.reseau-amap.org

If you are not ready to commit to a full season, you can opt instead for one of the “Paniers Bios” or vegetable baskets, which are more expensive than an AMAP but have the advantage that they can be ordered weekly with little notice.  I’ve tried Tous Primeurs, which delivers Joël Thiebault’s, amongst others, beautiful vegetables to you, but in the end preferred going to the market myself where the selection is better. Mr. Thiebault sells his vegetables at the Rue Gros market on Tuesdays and Fridays and at the Président Wilson market on Wednesdays and Saturdays and his vegetables are worth crossing town for.  Other panniers which I haven’t tried include:

Local bio bag: Organic vegetables grown in Ile de France, picked when ripe the day of delivery.

Mon Panier Bio: This is a great resource for finding produce baskets in France as it aggregates most, if not all of them, by region.  You can search by region or city to find a basket near you.

Direct from the farm

If you’re feeling hardcore and want to buy direct from a farm, the following sites can help

CERVIA:
CERVIA’s website (Le Centre Régional de Valorisation et d’Innovation Agricole et Alimentaire de Paris-Ile-de-France) is a good place to start with its interactive map that shows local farms that sell direct to consumers and shops with local products.  The map also displays where to find a “cueillette”, a pick-your-own” produce farm, and explains the different products produced in Ile de France .     www.saveursparisidf.com

Another good website listing farms you can visit in Ile de France www.decouvertedelaferme-idf.fr

And lastly, a great national website where you can search by product.  Want to find a farmer who will sell you organic milk or eggs?  Just put in your criteria and region and you’ll find what your looking for. http://annuaire.agencebio.org/default.asp

So why buy local anyway? For one, the vegetables are more likely to have been picked when ripe and closer to the date when you’ve bought them, which means more flavor and more nutrients.  By the time industrial produce gets to the supermarket, it may have sat in warehouses and travelled many miles,  meaning it’s no longer very fresh.  Vegetables rapidly lose their nutrients once picked—spinach looses 75% of its vitamin C within days of being harvested[1]—so if you’re not buying local, you may be better off buying frozen vegetables.  Local produce is also less likely to have been chemically treated in order to withstand long travel times.   A recent article in the Nouvelle Observateur found that fruits and vegetables coming from outside of France had alarming traces of pesticides, some of which are banned in France, so buying fruits and vegetables from countries with lower environmental standards may expose you dangerous pesticides.

I hope this helps you in your quest for buying local food in Paris and if you have any tips, I would love to hear them.

For More Reading

Eat Here: Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket

Yannick Alléno’s Terroir Parisien