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French find they need cooking lessons

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The French value fine cuisine, but it turns out they don’t cook that much anymore. And they’re buying a lot of their meals ready-made at supermarkets. So the city of Paris is offering cooking lessons. Genevieve Oger reports from Paris.

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MARCO WERMAN:  France’s identity is wrapped up in its cuisine.  Yet studies suggest the French are spending less and less time in the kitchen.  This must not stand I hear you Julia Child disciples exclaim.  Reporter Genevieve Oger tells us what’s being done about it.

GENEVIEVE OGER:  At a French market you’ll find everything from goat cheese to fresh sardines.  But the reality is most French people are more likely to buy their groceries here, at a chain supermarket.  In fact, the French spend some 40% of their grocery money on prepared foods.  So now, the city of Paris and the French amateur cooking federation want to convince Parisians that shopping in markets and cooking from scratch don’t have to be chores.  Every week the city finances free cooking lessons at a local market.  A chef leads a group of students in buying ingredients and cooking a dish together.  Sophie Bret is the city official in charge of street vending.

INTERPRETER:  Older people are used to shopping at markets, but younger people not so much.  The problem young people have is they don’t know how to cook, especially not the way their mothers and their grandmothers did.

OGER: Pierre-Ange Orsini is one of the two chefs on duty here.  He’s not a professional, but has several amateur cooking competitions under his belt and he’s passionate about cooking.

INTERPRETER:  Cooking is not necessarily having to slave the kitchen for three or four hours to make a dish.  You can also prepare a dish in ten minutes.  Today, for example, I’m going to teach participants to make a dessert that can also double as an appetizer and can easily be made the night before.

OGER: Orsini says he learned to cook with his grandmother as a child, but that tradition is eroding.  And when people have busy lives, cooking may not be high on the list of priorities at the end of the day.  Anne, who prefers not to give her last name, is a typical example.  She’s a financial analyst and one of the eight students who signed up for today’s lesson.

INTERPRETER:  I cook once in a while, but definitely not every day because it requires time, inspiration, preparation.  I don’t always get home very early, so I buy prepared meals.

OGER: The French still place great importance on fine cuisine.  However, a recent survey conducted by a French magazine showed that only 59% say they cook every day and three quarters of them spend less than 30 minutes doing it.  France’s culinary pride took a hit.  Even more embarrassing, the same survey in Britain showed people there are more likely to cook every day and twice as likely to spend more than 30 minutes in the kitchen.  The activity at the cooking stand starts to attract other market-goers.  Soon, there are twice as many people watching as there are participating.  One of the participants is Zhou Yun from China.

ZHOU YUN:  I know Chinese cuisine, but I do not know at all how to do good French cuisine.  I can copy the recipe, but it lacks of small techniques to do a real good dish.

OGER: After learning comes the tasting.  The fish in butter sauce are excellent, but the potato pancakes are a little cold.  Still, the real success of this operation depends on participants going home motivated to cook, just a little more often.  For The World, I’m Genevieve Oger in Paris.

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