Saturday, July 18, 2009

Les Metiers de la Bouche

Les locavores should all emigrate to France, so as to save the les metiers de la bouche: the professions which serve the mouth is my rough translation. Our trusted guide to French mores and society, Dirk Beauregard, interviews a local butcher who won the prize for being France's best butcher.

It's a very different food culture, or it was, since the butcher admits the French are going for convenience foods during the week. As I understand it, the French housewife would visit the market every day, getting fresh and local food, saving the energy required for refrigeration (I'm still amazed to see on British television refrigerators which are half size for us).

I'm not sure what sort of regulations French butchers face. If one can trust Walt Jeffries, France must be much less regulated than the U.S. would be under this bill. I wonder why the different food cultures--has France always been more compact and urban, leading to this consumption pattern, while the U.S. has been spread out, putting a premium on food storage and therefore more centralized butchers?

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