French gastronomic lore tells us that it was Henri Charpentier, then a teenager serving the eldest son of Queen Victoria and future King Edward VII, who came up with a pudding of which a nation could be proud.
Among hangers-on surrounding the Prince of Wales at the Café de Paris in Monte Carlo, Charpentier would write, was a girl called Suzette whom he gave crêpes flambéed in a mix of Cointreau, Grand Marnier and brandy, served with an orange butter sauce.
A legend was born. Yet if you asked most young French people today what their favourite dessert is, they would not say crêpes and instead probably go with something American.
In a sign of the pervasive influence of American food culture — France is now the second most-profitable market for McDonald’s — people aged 18 to 24 polled by CSA Research said they preferred brownies and cookies to traditional French puddings.
People aged over 50 favoured classic French desserts such as fruit tarts, clafoutis and rum baba, according to the survey commissioned by a sugar producers’ association. A representative sample of more than 2,000 respondents across France were questioned.
While crêpes topped the poll in eight of France’s 12 regions, the nation’s enduring appetite for the thin Breton pancakes was partly attributed to their affordability at a time of high inflation. “Their success should be viewed in the light of the cost of living crisis. They are an inexpensive but truly comforting dessert,” CSA’s Caroline Wilz said.
The French do not generally eat crêpes Suzette, preferring to fill their pancakes with jam or Nutella. The hazelnut-cocoa spread inspires such passion in France that riots broke out when supermarkets offered it at a 70 per cent discount in 2018. Shoppers came to blows as they vied for a chance to buy limited stocks.
The Café de Paris in Monte Carlo is often cited as the birthplace of crêpes Suzette
ALAMY
Fruit tarts were named as France’s second-favourite dessert, with brownies in third place, followed by clafoutis then tiramisu.
Brownies were the favourite in the northern Hauts-de-France region and the Centre-Val de Loire. Clafoutis, a classic baked dessert, was preferred in Burgundy, and fruit tarts were most popular in eastern France.
According to legend, crêpes originated in Brittany from a “happy accident” in the 13th century when a housewife spilt buckwheat porridge on a flat cooking stone. They were initially a savoury dish, with sugar being added only from the 19th century onwards.
Some historians place the beginnings of crêpes much earlier, arguing that le Jour des Crêpes was first celebrated on February 2 in the year 472, when crêpes were offered to French pilgrims visiting Rome for the festival of Candlemas. The French tradition of eating crêpes on Candlemas, or la Chandeleur, continues to this day.
Dining and Cooking