Enthralled with cooking and regions, with architecture and philosophy, Jean-Louis André is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, is agrégé de lettres [certified teacher of language and literature], a former journalist with Saveurs and Le Monde, the author of many books, and a documentary filmmaker for France 3 and Arte TV stations.
Cuisine has been a French passion, from post-war times to the present. The author discusses how in the past meals brought the French together, and how today, eating is very fragmented.
Abundance, the pleasure of eating, being thin, health, ethics. Each generation has its “art of the table,” its obsessions, and its ideals.
Jean-Louis André offers a fresco of French ways and traditions and French food customs; between the lines one discovers the spirit of the times. French plates tell of the daily life and the mythology of a society; the euphoria of the Liberation; the infatuation with the modernity of electrical appliances; the transformation of rural areas through agrobusiness; AOCs [Appellation d'origine contrôlée -- Controlled Designation of Origin] and global cooking; the glory of the great chefs and the success of fast food; Michelin stars and TV series; supermarkets and AMAP [Association pour le maintien d'une agriculture paysanne -- French Community Supported Agriculture movement] carts; diets and allergies; the endless quest for the ideal, local, and organic product. . .