France may be suffering a crisis of confidence over its food but middle-class Britons are giving the country’s cuisine a vote of confidence.
Interest in French food is “booming”, according to Waitrose, with shoppers bombarding the upmarket retailer’s website to learn how to cook classic Gallic dishes.
So far this year, online searches on the site for French onion soup recipes are up 400 per cent compared with the same period last year, while searches for beef bourguignon and ratatouille are up by 99 per cent and 106 per cent respectively.
It appears more of us want to impress our dinner guests by serving French puddings as well, with searches for how to cook tarte tatin up 180 per cent while searches for cherry clafoutis and tiramichoux are up 155 per cent and 58 per cent respectively.
Customers who don’t trust themselves to bake such complex recipes are also turning to ready-made French desserts, with sales of chocolate eclairs up 20 per cent and macarons up 7 per cent year on year.
This growing interest in French cuisine comes despite much hand wringing across the Channel about the country losing its preeminence in food.
Earlier this week, French commentators were aghast at a new poll of 28,000 people from 30 countries that ranked Italian and Spanish food as better than French.
Many blamed the lack of adequate training for French chefs.
Olivia Grégoire, the French tourism minister, lamented that French cooks were being outshone by rivals from Asia as well as Denmark, Spain and Peru.
Grégoire said she wanted to create a culinary academy to find and train promising young chefs and encourage them to travel the world — including to Britain.
Waitrose said there were a multitude of factors driving the trend, including the success of new French restaurants in London, such as Camille and Josephine, which have both been receiving rave reviews. (Last month, The Times’s own Giles Coren rated Camille eight out of ten).
Another factor has been the growing popularity of Manon Lagrève, who competed in the ninth series of The Great British Bake Off.
The London-based French former software engineer now has more than a million followers on Instagram and Tik Tok, with a recent post about how to “host like a French” being watched nearly three million times.
Last year, she also published her first cookbook, Et Voila!: A Simple French Baking Love Story, which has proven hugely popular.
Manon Lagrève received three million views on a recent video she posted on how to host in French style
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Will Torrent, an innovation chef at Waitrose, said he thought the wet British weather had also been a factor.
He said: “From choux buns to macarons, we’ve seen a growing demand from Waitrose customers for all things French. With the weather being so dismal for the beginning of the year, customers have been turning to comforting dishes such as French onion soup and beef bourguignon, which aren’t overly expensive to make but taste like a special treat.
“Sweeter, patisserie treats such as macarons and eclairs also offer a wonderful taste of luxury.”
He added: “It’s clear this trend isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
Britons have been turning to comfort food such as macarons, according to Will Torrent, an innovation chef at Waitrose
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And French cheese is also benefiting from the trend.
Waitrose said sales of Chaource are up 7 per cent over the past year, while Brie de Meaux and No1 D’Affinois blue cheese were up 9 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
Sarah Miness, a cheese buyer at Waitrose, said: French cheeses always add that extra touch to a special meal.”