Chefs serve Macron a warning as French shun local restaurants

Leading chefs were invited for lunch with President Macron at the Élysée Palace on Monday but the occasion was far from celebratory.

The chefs, who were joined by cake makers, vineyard owners, butchers and truffle growers, told Macron that the nation’s gastronomy was in ­crisis as restaurants were being shunned by diners and workers alike.

Some have argued that France’s culinary heritage is at risk of disappearing as families turn to fast food and home deliveries.

Guy Savoy

BERTRAND RIOTORD/ALAMY

“Times are difficult,” Macron told his illustrious but downbeat guests, who included Pierre Hermé, the country’s best known pâtissier, and Guy Savoy, the Michelin-starred chef.

The president may be in the midst of a political crisis, with weak minority governments falling at regular intervals, but he seemed determined to save the national cuisine. He promised to ­favour restaurants that use fresh produce rather than reheating precooked meals bought from an industrial sup­plier. One idea is to cut taxes for ­traditional eateries to give them a fiscal advantage over fast-food outlets.

Macron also promised tighter controls at the borders to stop the import of cheap foreign foods that failed to respect French health and safety standards. He also called for a “cultural transformation” to wean the French off low-cost food. “We have ­accustomed many of our countrymen to the idea that food does not cost anything any more,” he said, adding that they needed to be taught that good food comes “at the right price”.

The issue is politically sensitive as many commentators argue that swathes of the French population can no longer afford fine meals thanks to the cost of living crisis.

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With the restaurant sector struggling to find staff and notably waiters, ­Macron also promised to end taxes on tips to ensure higher revenue. “Tips must go fully into the pockets of those who work,” he said.

Thierry Marx, a Michelin-starred chef who is chairman of the Restaurant and Hotel Owners’ Federation, warned of an existential threat to the nation’s cuisine. He said that there were 110,000 sit-down restaurants a decade ago and 94,000 now. The fall is accelerating, Marx claimed, with 25 restaurants shutting every day this year. Marx said takings in many restaurants were down 25 per cent this summer compared with the same period in 2024.

Alain Fontaine, chairman of the French Association of Master Restaurateurs, told Le Figaro: “We risk losing our attractiveness and seeing part of our gastronomy disappear.”

He said that budget restaurants were flourishing, as were luxury ones for the rich, but he predicted that the ordinary mid-range restaurants that have been the heart of French cuisine for decades would be a thing of the past within 15 years.

Mathieu Guibert, chef at the Michelin-starred Anne de Bretagne restaurant in La Plaine-sur-Mer in western France, told Le Telegramme, the ­regional daily, that the French needed to be “re-educated” in the twin arts of eating and cooking.

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“A nation that eats well is a happy nation,” Guibert, one of the chefs invited to the Élysée, said. “For a start, we should give children cooking lessons at school. I would like them just to learn how to cook pasta and potatoes.”

However, many observers say that if restaurants are losing custom, it is because they are charging inflated prices for low-quality meals. This summer, complaints about overpriced meals went viral on French social media.

Bernard Boutboul, chairman of Gira Conseil, a hospitality sector consul­tancy, said restaurants had passed on rising costs to diners with the result that menu prices had gone up by as much as 23 per cent compared with last year.

A recent study by the Observatory of Society and Consumption found that 30 per cent of people said they were less keen on eating out than in the past, partly to save money and partly because they simply preferred being at home. “People prefer inviting people to their homes, having meals delivered, socialising in a different way,” Agnès Crozet, the observatory’s director, told Le Figaro.