Why does produce taste so much better in France?

Growing up in Texas, pastry chef and cookbook author Molly Wilkinson was never a big fan of the tomatoes her family would grow in their back garden. They were watery and lacked flavour, she said.

Then, when Ms Wilkinson moved to France in her mid twenties to study at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, everything changed.

Suddenly, she realised that tomatoes could be delicious. Now, some 13 years after she moved, the pastry chef and cookbook author has spent almost every day this summer eating tomatoes. This drastic increase in the tastiness of produce is something she has also noticed in everything from French strawberries and eggs to butter.

"It really does get back to where they're grown, how they're cared for," Ms Wilkinson, who also leads pastry classes in Versailles, told The Connexion.

Ms Wilkinson is far from the only one to notice this difference in quality between French food products and the produce lining British and American grocery shelves. 

Numerous blog posts, Vox articles and even books speak of France's remarkable food culture. Chefs who have worked between France, the US and the UK are at the heart of this phenomenon and can attest to better quality and different cooking habits in France.

Producing with intention

For Ms Wilkinson, French butter is something "you just can't beat the quality behind," she said.

While US butter has about 80% fat, french butter has 82% - 83%, she said. That small difference can have a big impact on the baking process. Notably, French butter stays colder longer which is essential for recipes like pie crust.

Beyond the fat content, the American National Standards Institute reports that Europe has stricter animal welfare laws than the US, noting specifically that growth hormones - used to make cows grow and gain muscle mass faster - are authorised in the States. Furthermore, European cattle eat more grass and forage, while US cows are fed grain-heavy feed.

An important component in France's excellent food and wine production is the terroir - a culinary concept that states the natural environment where a food was grown directly impacts its taste and profile. This is particularly true of wine, where French producers pay special attention to factors like soil and climate that affect the vines.

In France, the practice of naming different produce by variety - not just wine - is a sort of "respect" given to the food, Alan Coxon, a chef, culinary consultant and TV presenter, told The Connexion.

Since moving to France 11 years ago from the UK, Mr Coxon noted that everything from plums to strawberries to pork meat has different names depending on their variety.

"That's the beauty of France - it's not all controlled by one large supermarket group, that just whacks out pork, beef, lamb, whatever," he said. "These have got names, they have got identity, they've got heritage."

In France, food products can receive special labels that recognise quality or their region of origin such as Label Rouge, AOP (appellation d'origine protégée). The country is also known to have far stricter regulations on GMOs and pesticides than the US.

Back to the basics

Mr Coxon, now a multi-award winning chef who has filmed more than 1,250 TV shows, still remembers being an 18-year-old chef working in Monaco. From pulling in fresh olives locally and stoning them by hand to using fish from the Mediterranean Sea, everything was fresh, with intense flavour profiles.

After a successful career in the UK, when he returned to France's Nouvelle-Aquitaine, it was a full circle moment.

"It took me straight back to when I was 18, 19, 20, 21, in Monte Carlo, because I was finding ingredients that tasted of what they're supposed to," Mr Coxon said.

While in the UK, lower quality products meant having to pump up the extra flavourings, from Nouvelle-Aquitaine's vineyards to the plum trees in Agen, Mr Coxon is now surrounded by fruits that retain their natural flavour. That, in turn, has led to a different cooking approach.

"It was exactly as I was when I was 18 in the South of France, and just enjoying cooking and taking my foot off the pedal," he said. "I don't have to try and mask the flavour or improve it or try and increase it."

Compare that to the US, where American farmers focus more on yield and durability than seasonality, Vox reports. Certain fruits and vegetables are sold year round, and consumers often do not know where their poultry comes from.

In contrast, France's emphasis on growing according to seasons means even big names in pastry like Cédric Grolet adapt their offerings based on the available fruit, Ms Wilkinson said. She noted that while working on her cookbook, it was "impossible" to find figs, cherries and other ingredients unless it was the right season.

Shopping habits

Beyond their enhanced taste, French food products are also sold differently.

Mr Coxon noted that many in the UK shop for the entire week in large supermarkets, while French food shoppers go more frequently.

Today, the chef goes out almost daily, stopping by a farm shop for fruits and vegetables.

It is something that requires time, but is enjoyable, unlike the UK where shopping is more of a "sufferance" he said.

Both Mr Coxon and Ms Wilkinson noted that food shopping in France often comes with pleasant interactions with stand owners and patisserie bakers. These conversations are more rare in the US and UK, where huge grocery stores vastly outnumber any sort of farmer's market.

David Lebovitz, an American cookbook author and pastry chef based in Paris, told The Connexion that not all grocery shopping in France looks the same. Many French people do not have the time to stop by five different small stores, and instead shop at chains like Marché U or Monoprix.

It is also not fair to write off American and British cuisine as inferior, especially as these countries are coming out with healthy fast food options like Pret A Manger or Sweetgreen, while in France, McDonald's is only becoming more popular.

Still, French supermarkets differ from those in the States because they offer excellent cheese for a fraction of what you would have to pay in the US. Speciality items like beurre de baratte, churned butter which you can buy a fresh chunk of, are also more accessible in France, Lebovitz said.

For those not in France who still want to get their hands on French products, Ms Wilkinson recommended Taste France Magazine, which proposes a map of where to buy these foods abroad.

"I do think that they pay a lot more attention to the rules and regulations here for agriculture," Ms Wilkinson said. "Just because it is such a huge part of their culture."