French Cuisine Is Haughty: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

[[File:img013 copy 4200.jpg|frame|If you can't read the menu, you obviously aren't worthy to eat it.]]

'''French Cuisine Is Haughty''' refers to the association in many works of fiction between French cooking and high class gourmet dining. For factual information about French cusine, see '''[[Snails and So On]]''' and the [[Wikipedia]] article on [[wikipedia:French cuisine|French cuisine.]]

Line 14:

Line 13:

[[Sub-Trope]] to [[Hollywood Cuisine]]. Compare to [[French Jerk]] for a character type common to the French restaurant, and [[Chez Restaurant]] for a naming convention commonly used to make things sound high-class.

== Anime and Manga ==

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* France from ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' says his cooking is absolutely divine. He's right.

* ''[[Antique Bakery]]'': The titular cake shop has a menu entirely in French to evoke this idea, the head pâtissière learned his trade and title in France, and the apprentice goes to France for advanced cuisine instruction. The waitstaff, thankfully, don't manage the snooty part of the stereotype.

Line 22:

Line 21:

* ''[[Yumeiro Patissiere]]'' has the lead character study to be a pâtissière in a French baking school.

== ~~Comics~~ ==

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The cook at the Lodge house in ''[[Archie Comics]]'' is Gaston, a very temperamental French chef.

* [[Robotman and Monty]] has one strip where a condescending waiter laughs in secret after forcing Monty to pronounce "Pourri cerveau de singe kyste" (since the waiter gave a transparent excuse of not having his reading glasses). When the order is revealed to be "stewed rotten monkey brain" Monty is, of course, appalled and asks why they would even have something like that on the menu. The waiter responds that they found it to be quite popular when putting it next to a picture of hamburger.

* Chef Pierre, the Rich family ~~(ie,~~ [[Richie Rich]]~~) chef~~ is a French chef..

* Chef Pierre, the chef of the Rich family from ''[[Richie Rich]]'' is a French chef.

== [[Film]] ==

Line 33:

Line 32:

{{quote|"You can't have the duck. Do you think with a financial statement like this you can have the duck?"}}

* In ''[[National Lampoon's European Vacation]]'' the Griswolds go to a French restaurant and are served by an incredibly rude and insulting waiter who tells them (in French, a language that none of the Griswolds speak) that he'll serve them dishwater rather than what they actually ordered because they won't be able to tell the difference, then he makes lewd remarks about Helen and Audrey before telling Clark "go fuck yourself."

* In the otherwise rote Burt Reynolds film ''Paternity'', Burt tries to impress his date by quizzing the French waiter:

* In the otherwise rote Burt Reynolds film ''[[Paternity]]'', Burt tries to impress his date by quizzing the French waiter:

{{quote|'''Reynolds''': Waiter! What is the ''soupe du jour''?

'''Acidulous waiter''': "Soup of the Day." }}

* In the second ''[[Trinity (film)|Trinity]]'' movie, the two borderline-illiterate outlaw brothers suddenly find themselves really rich, buy smart suits and go to an expensive French restaurant. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* In the original ''[[Sabrina]]'', the titular character goes to France to attend culinary school, though the bulk of the story takes place after she returns to America.

⚫

* ''[[Ratatouille]]'' actually does a great deal of subverting this trope. Gusteau's philosophy was that "anyone can cook", which is derided by snooty food critic Anton Ego, and there is a sequence showing how ''un''-snooty the cooks at his restaurant are. At the end, Ego is won over by the titular stew, considered a lowly "peasant dish", which brings forth warm memories of his childhood.

⚫

* ''[[The Aristocats]]'' featured a dish called Prime Country Goose a la Provençale, which is apparently "stuffed with chestnuts" and "basted in white wine."

== Literature ==

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[P. G. ~~Wodehouse|PG~~ Wodehouse]], in his ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' stories, has Anatole, a French chef of renown that is on the private staff of an British ~~upperclass~~ family. He tends to be very temperamental and prone to threatening to quit whenever he feels like his work is not being appreciated.

* [[P. G. Wodehouse]], in his ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' stories, has Anatole, a French chef of renown that is on the private staff of an British upper-class family. He tends to be very temperamental and prone to threatening to quit whenever he feels like his work is not being appreciated.

** Attempts to lure Anatole into the other employment make the plots of several stories.

* In the children's book ''Clarence Goes to Town'' they go to a ~~french~~ restaurant where nobody ever eats (because it's new). Clarence [who is a dog btw] is ~~initally~~ disinvited from staying in the restaurant because it might disturb the other customers. Gascon the chef replies, "what other customers?" The chef makes a special meal for Clarence, who eats it in the window. A lot of passers-by see the dog enjoying the meal and come in to the restaurant. By the end of the book it's a big hit.

* In the children's book ''Clarence Goes to Town'' they go to a French restaurant where nobody ever eats (because it's new). Clarence [who is a dog btw] is initially disinvited from staying in the restaurant because it might disturb the other customers. Gascon the chef replies, "what other customers?" The chef makes a special meal for Clarence, who eats it in the window. A lot of passers-by see the dog enjoying the meal and come in to the restaurant. By the end of the book it's a big hit.

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

* When the characters on ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' want fine dining, they tend to go to a local restaurant whose waiter always insults them. When one of the boys takes a girl there for a dinner date, they end up just ordering salads because they can't afford anything else.

* The [[Cooking Show]] ''The French Chef'', featuring Julia Child, both invoked and attempted to subvert this trope. It reinforced the association between cooking and France, however the message of the show was that ordinary Americans could prepare French cuisine at home.<ref>Perhaps ironically, a great deal of what Julia Child cooked on TV was in fact French home cooking, albeit a little dated and pre-WWII in style. Heavy duty restaurant cuisine was a rarity (mostly limited to pressed duck and a number of rather elaborate cakes) and every once in a while she drifted into street food like pizza, crepes, and the decidedly non-French original Caesar salad.</ref>

* The [[Cooking Show]] ''[[The French Chef]]'', featuring Julia Child, both invoked and attempted to subvert this trope. It reinforced the association between cooking and France, however the message of the show was that ordinary Americans could prepare French cuisine at home.<ref>Perhaps ironically, a great deal of what Julia Child cooked on TV was in fact French home cooking, albeit a little dated and pre-WWII in style. Heavy-duty restaurant cuisine was a rarity (mostly limited to pressed duck and a number of rather elaborate cakes) and every once in a while she drifted into street food like pizza, crepes, and the decidedly non-French original Caesar salad.</ref>

* In ''[[In Death|Indulgence In Death]]'', one victim is a famous "French" chef who was actually born in Kansas.

* Jacques Roach on ''[[The Jim Henson Hour]]'', and his [[Expy]] Yves St La Roache on ''The Animal Show with Stinky and Jake''.

* In ''[[Good Eats]]'', one of the recurring [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis]] characters is "Mad French Chef". Like many of the recurring foes for Alton, he represents an "evil" of cooking, in this case, snooty, uptight traditional cooking "establishment".

== Radio ==

== [[Radio]] ==

* ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]'' has Café Boeuf, an elite restaurant with Maurice the maitre d', who tends to be especially snooty, sometimes even insulting customers that do not meet their standards of class.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

⚫

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' exaggerates this trope by having a French chef that tries to kill Homer Simpson after Homer gives him bad reviews.

⚫

* ''[[Ratatouille]]'' actually does a great deal of subverting this trope. Gusteau's philosophy was that "anyone can cook", which is derided by snooty food critic Anton Ego, and there is a sequence showing how ~~unsnooty~~ the cooks at his restaurant are. At the end, Ego is won over by the titular stew, considered a lowly "peasant dish", which brings forth warm memories of his childhood.

⚫

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' gives us an embodiment in the griffon chef Gustave le Grand.

⚫

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' exaggerates this trope by having a French chef that tries to kill Homer Simpson after Homer gives him bad reviews.

⚫

* ''[[The Aristocats]]'' featured a dish called Prime Country Goose a la Provençale, which is apparently "stuffed with chestnuts" and "basted in white wine."

⚫

* ''[[My Little Pony: ~~Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony~~ Friendship Is Magic]]'' gives us an embodiment in the griffon chef Gustave le Grand.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Skyrim]]'' has a very irritable Breton (who're basically a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of Brittany that have both human and elven ancestors in place of Celtic and French ones) who works as a chef in Markarth, complains about the quality of food and refuses to acknowledge the fact that he and Nords share the same ancestors. {{spoiler|His snootiness makes killing him one of the bonus objectives in one of the Dark Brotherhood quests really cathartic.}}

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' has a very irritable Breton (who're basically a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] to Brittany that have both human and elven ancestors in place of Celtic and French ones) who works as a chef in Markarth, complains about the quality of food and refuses to acknowledge the fact that he and Nords share the same ancestors. {{spoiler|His snootiness makes killing him one of the bonus objectives in one of the Dark Brotherhood quests really cathartic.}}

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' there is a Turian chef on the Citadel that exhibits a haughty, condescending attitude that is typically associated with French chefs/waiters.

* Zig-Zagged in Case 3 of ''Ace Attorney Investigations 2''. One of the competitors in a cooking competition is revealed to be French, but it turns out they can't actually cook, {{spoiler|they're a sculptor by trade.}}

== ~~Other~~ ==

== [[Real Life]] ==

* There is a common saying, with several variations, that "Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and it is all organised by the Swiss."<ref>"Hell is where the police are German, the cooks are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and it is all organised by the Italians."</ref>

== [[Real Life]] ==

* In November 2010 the French gastronomy was added by UNESCO to its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

* During the Ancien Regime, the nobles were keen on having the best cuisine in all of Europe. When the nobles were killed or exiled during [[The French Revolution]], their cooks and such were hired by rich bourgeois instead and the ones who were not hired invented the restaurant.