A third of all French restaurants serve dishes prepared largely or entirely elsewhere; Restaurateurs may be forced to draw up new, more honest menus

French restaurateurs may be forced to draw up new, more honest menus

Jul 6th 2013 | PARIS |From the print edition

GIVEN the state of France’s economy, its politicians ought to have bigger worries. But one of the hottest topics in parliament these days is how to force restaurants to reveal whether they make their boeuf bourguignon on the premises or rip open packets and warm up the contents.

On June 27th the lower house approved an amendment to a consumer-rights bill that will force restaurants to label the dishes they prepare from fresh ingredients in their own kitchens as “fait maison”, or “home-made”. This is tougher than the optional label the government proposed, but less stringent than the obligatory description of every dish on every menu as either home-made or based on industrial products, which some want. If the reform goes through, in 2014 the menus of every establishment, from little brasseries in the Dordogne to multi-starred restaurants in Paris, could be sporting truth-in-eating symbols instead of appetising but misleading tags such asfaçon grandmère—“just as grandma used to make it”.The French are known to prize good food. But almost a third of all restaurants serve dishes prepared largely or entirely elsewhere, says Synhorcat, a big group of hotel- and restaurant-owners. Xavier Denamur, a restaurateur and campaigner for openness who showers details on diners in his own establishments, says the proportion is far greater. Improbably long menus at small eateries are one giveaway.

The rising cost of raw materials and staff has put cooking from scratch beyond the reach of many restaurants. It is cheaper to buy frozen ingredients and ready-made dishes from industrial producers such as Métro, Brake or Davigel. Falling purchasing power adds to the pressure. More workers now bring sandwiches to the office, like the English they used to pity. Mobile vans peddling snacks are increasingly common. When people do eat in restaurants, they are often counting every cent.

Different studies produce different figures but all point to problems for restaurateurs. Synhorcat says that restaurant turnover fell by 5.5% in the year to March. According to Gira Conseil, a consultancy, almost three-quarters of all meals eaten outside the home are now in “super-cheap” establishments charging less than €10 ($13) a head, and fast food accounts for 54% of restaurant sales. The NPD Group, another consultancy, worries that the downturn is beginning to affect parts of the country that once seemed resistant, such as the south. Even fast-food joints, until recently growing rapidly, are beginning to feel the pinch.

For years most restaurateurs and politicians did not take seriously the need for menus to be honest with diners, Mr Denamur maintains. And France’s agro-industrial lobby is powerful. Recent scandals over mislabelling of meat, and consumers’ consequent suspicion of all links in the food chain, focused minds. It is not that mass-produced food is always bad, says Bernard Boutboul of Gira Conseil, but customers have the right to know whether what they are paying to eat in a restaurant is any different from what they warm up at home. Will the fait maison regime be tough enough to tell them?