It has been said that of all traditional fayre, French food is the most sophisticated, the most imitated and the most widely available. It has also been said that there is no such thing as traditional French food.
The problem in accepting these two apparently contradictory assertions is that there's a common misunderstanding regarding the word traditional. French food cannot simply be categorised into one heap of traditional recipes. If you tried accumulating all French food recipes and styles into a single cook book, you'd need several trolleys just to cart the books around, never mind find the ingredients for them all.
French food may be considered to be traditional, and widely copied, widely available and very popular, but France is not only a big country, it has been influenced by a huge number of factors. It's a little like trying to suggest that the English language is a traditional collection of words true to the nature of England.
You'd be hard pressed to find any words in the English language which haven't either been begged, borrowed, stolen or severely altered to fit the idiosyncratic peculiarities of what might laughably be referred to as a single language. English isn't so much a single language as a general agreement on some of the most easily understood or most useful words from hundreds of other more established languages.
The same is partly true when it comes to French food, and in referring to it as traditional. The two main influences on French food are neighbouring countries and geographical factors. Because France is a fairly large country it boasts a range of climates, from the snowy peaks of the Alps to the Mediterranean weather of the south coast. From the rolling countryside of Brittany to the lushness of the Loire Valley, France has many different types of soil, types of weather, and physical landscapes, all of which result in different crops being grown in different areas.
In one location oranges and citrus fruits may grow in abundance, and so unsurprisingly these tend to find their way in to the local recipes, which might be classed as traditional French food. However, it might well be traditional French food, but drive a hundred miles away and they may have never even seen the recipe, let alone cooked it. This is because the climate, soil type and physical landscape may well have lent themselves to serving better as far as growing apples is concerned. For these reason you're likely to see apples involved in a good many recipes, and of course, cider.
Drive another hundred miles and once again you start to see the traditional French food which involves citrus fruits absent, and apple influenced recipes distinctly absent, and instead recipes which include herbs and spices. This pattern is true across the whole of France, meaning that for traditional French food you have to look quite specifically at small geographical areas, each of which has its own traditional recipes and styles of cooking.
With several neighbouring countries on its doorstep it is also not a surprise that France has been influenced by the styles of cooking found in the regions of those countries near the borders. Germanic influences can be found which involve a good many strong flavours, sausages and meats, with Spain's influences tending to result in traditional French food which involves more oils and herbs.
Although you can drive to almost any part of France these days and order what you tend to think of as traditional French food, the chances are extremely high that the recipes you're assuming are traditional local ones are in fact traditional recipes found hundreds of miles away, and not at all in keeping with the original traditions of the area. You can drive to the west coast and order a Germanic influenced recipe, but you can just as easily order a Chinese meal, or an Italian bowl of pasts - it means very little.
If you're interested in seeking out traditional French food, it pays to learn a little about what is considered traditional within the specific area or region to which you are visiting. These recipes are almost certainly like to be a cut above the equivalents that can be experienced elsewhere, and help to give you a flavour of the local area that is much more in keeping with tradition.
Author Resource:
French Food | http://www.thegoodfoodnetwork.co.uk/ | Gourmet Food
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