President Macron’s trade minister has provoked a row with a suggestion that French families should cope with inflation by abandoning ready-made meals and preparing their own dishes.
Olivia Grégoire called for cooking lessons in schools to improve family health and finances, under what she called a “grandmother education” in the face of the cost of living crisis.
Her comment infuriated leftwingers who compared her to Marie-Antoinette and depicted her as the symbol of an executive out of touch with ordinary people.
Recent surveys indicate that most French families do still cook fresh produce regularly but younger generations seem to have a growing appetite for fast food and home deliveries.
Grégoire, 44, made the suggestion when interviewed by a panel of readers of the Sud Ouest newspaper, notably about food prices, which were 11.2 per cent higher last month than in August last year. They are climbing significantly faster than inflation as a whole, which was at a year-on-year rate of 4.9 per cent.
“We need to learn again how to cook raw products to avoid buying ready-made [meals], which are more expensive,” she said. “Cooking lessons must return to schools. There is a real question of grandmother education about basic, day-to-day cuisine.”
Cooking as a subject is largely absent from the national curriculum except for sixth-formers wanting to become chefs. The price of frozen vegetables has risen by 21.7 per cent over the past year, compared with 13.2 per cent for fresh ones. Ready-made meals have gone up by 12.7 per cent, compared with 5 per cent for poultry, 5.7 per cent for beef and 1.7 per cent for fresh fish.
Le Figaro quoted Philippe Brochard, managing director of the Auchan supermarket chain, as saying that the “first rampart against inflation is the capacity to peel vegetables”. He described frozen chips, which are on sale in his stores for €5.15 per kg, as a “luxury”. Potatoes cost €1.20 per kg by comparison.
Grégoire faced mockery on the internet and criticism from the government’s left-wing opponents. “If there is no bread, eat cake,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical France Unbowed party, in reference to the comment widely — but wrongly — attributed to Marie-Antoinette amid food shortages before the French Revolution.
“If people are skipping meals, it’s not because they do not know how to cook but because they have NOTHING to cook,” tweeted Anne Stambach, a France Unbowed MP.
Many internet users quoted Michel Colucci, the late French comic known by his stage-name Coluche, who once said the approach of the French state to poverty was: “Tell us what you need, we’ll tell you how to go without it.”
Although French commentators often bemoan the decline of the nation’s gastronomic ambitions, a poll published in 2020 found that 67 per cent of families prepared their own meals every day. A total of 42 per cent cooked fresh vegetables and fruit daily, and a further 32 per cent every other day.
However, purists are worried that younger generations are turning their backs on traditional cuisine. More than half of French people aged between 18 and 35 eat at McDonald’s at least once a month, for instance. They are also increasingly keen on having ready-made meals delivered to their homes, a market that is now worth €10.7 billion a year.
Grégoire dismissed her critics, saying she had delivered a message of “common sense” which was “good for the health and for the wallet, and not only in inflationary times.”
Dining and Cooking