Cultural analysis: the importance of food and family meals in France

Résumé du document

France is widely well-known for having the most appreciated food in the world as well as the best "grand chefs". There is no denying that food (and wine) in France is not considered as a necessity but as an important issue and a pride. Indeed, meals have always been ceremonies that differ according to whether it is a simple meal, a family meeting or a meeting of friends. Even public life is affected by this conception: Paris has an abundance of restaurants and cafés and nobody is allowed to work on Sundays because it is dedicated to family meals. To begin with, I would like to describe some of the implicit rituals that occur during one of these types of meals; a family meal on Sundays. Foreigners are usually very surprised by the number of hours we can spend sitting around a table for a meal.

Extraits

[...] Cultural analysis: the importance of food and family meals in France France is widely well-known for having the most appreciated food in the world as well as the best “grands chefs”. There is no denying that food (and wine) in France is not considered as a necessity but as a great issue and a pride. Indeed, meals have always been ceremonies that differ according to if it's a simple meal, a family meeting or a friends meeting. Even the public life is affected by this conception: Paris has an abundance of restaurants and cafés and nobody is allowed to work on Sundays because it is dedicated to family meals. [...]

[...] If you come a bit earlier, later or without anything, it would be considered as a great lack of respect. Then, everybody sits around a little first table to have an “aperitif”, which consists of alcohols and a lot of different hors d'oeuvre. Children are allowed to miss this step and go playing in their rooms. The ambiance is very casual and the aperitif can last more than one hour. After this, the mistress of house offers to go to the larger table in order to start the meal. [...]

[...] According to the social position of the guests, the code can be strict or more casual. For instance, in my family, the children have to sit together at one extremity of the table however; some families prefer to gather children around a different table in the kitchen. Another example concerns where people sit: alternating a men and women, giving a specific place to the oldest or the most important person, following the mistress “plan of table” or separating couples. The meal usually consists in a lot of successive dishes: appetizers, some meat or fish with vegetables, some regional traditional heavy dishes, then a large plate of different cheeses that goes around the table according a certain ritual. [...]

[...] For instance, if they leave after two hours, it means that something went wrong. I believe that the fundamental principle underlying this ceremony is that the quality of the meal and the efforts of the mistress of house is equivalent of how the hosts perceive their guests. For instance, I would be very offended if some older adults invite me and offer me pizzas from the closest pizzeria in the street because it would mean that I don't deserve or worth better than pizza and that they don't want to impress me. [...]