‘La gastronomy, that’s the only thing that hasn’t been taken from us yet,” said 26-year-old Estelle Rodriguez. And so she takes it: on the plate in front of her is a pigeon stuffed with foie gras, bathed in a spinach-butter sauce. As an appetizer, she ate duck liver cutlets, marinated with gingerbread powder and white wine.
The pigeon and liver cutlets come from the kitchen of Le Bibent, in the center of Toulouse, Rodriguez’s hometown. The decor of the restaurant is at least as opulent as the menu: glass chandeliers hang from the high ceilings, frescoes decorated with golden ornaments adorn the walls and ceilings. All staff and guests are white; striking in a multicultural city like Toulouse.
Rodriguez – tall, dark hair, lots of make-up – likes to come here: Le Bibent breathes a France as she believes it should be, and is no more. The 26-year-old is an ‘identity influencer’ and shares videos about French culture, which, according to her, is threatened by things like the power of tech companies and the ubiquity of pornography, but especially by the influence of (North) African immigration. on YouTube and Instagram Rodriguez has about 20,000 followers; More than 120,000 people watched her videos on her TikTok account, which was recently deleted due to, among other things, stigmatization of minority groups.
Also read: Castle lord sounds the alarm about culture in Europe
As the evening progresses, the restaurant fills with more and more warm scents. “France is my country, France has given me everything,” she says between small bites of stuffed pigeon. Rodriguez has Spanish and Italian ancestry; her parents and herself were born in France. “It feels like my duty to protect that identity.”
That is why she posted countless videos on TikTok about traditional French dishes. She explained how delicious escargots are, how to make bouillabaisse and what a tartiflette is exactly. And she’s not the only one: others too influencers identitaires make videos in which they promote French cuisine – often with an emphasis on meat dishes.
‘Grand replacement’ of meat
Rodriguez is concerned about the many shelves of halal products in the supermarket (“Why do they need a whole row, the range of Spanish and Asian products is much smaller”) and the number of kebab shops in France (“There is even a halal here in Toulouse version of [fastfoodketen] Quick!”).
Her statements are reminiscent of the words of the far-right presidential candidate Éric Zemmour. Both are supporters of Renaud Camus’ ‘great population theory’, which states that the French people are being replaced by an Islamic people, and see this reflected in every area – including the kitchen.
Zemmour stated a few months ago that there is a grand replacement takes place in the meat world, because a traditional butcher shop in his hometown Drancy had given way to a halal butcher shop. And after it came out that a Parisian sandwich shop did not sell ham sandwiches (so-called jambon fair) sold more, because that is haram for Muslims, the hashtag became #teamjambonbeurre popular among Zemmour followers. They use the sandwiches as a signal that they are patriots and especially non-Muslim – for many far-right voters the two things are mutually exclusive.
The political scientist Paul Ariès, who specializes in gastronomy, says that it is logical that the conversation about French cuisine stirs up a lot. “Food has always been a political issue, especially in France, because of its political history,” he says via video link.
Ariès describes how food has played a prominent role in political debate for centuries. “After the French Revolution, for example, political gatherings were banned. That is why republican and left-wing families started organizing so-called banquets. They ate a lot of fat and talked extensively about politics, linking words to food. Political parties eventually emerged from this.”
Some food choices are still considered political choices, says Ariès. “For two thousand years, the choice between beer and wine in France has been primarily not a matter of taste, but one of political preference.”
The pride that many French feel about their cuisine, which is highly regarded abroad, also plays a part in this, including with Rodriguez. “French cuisine is part of the wealth of the French country,” she says solemnly. “French gastronomy shows our history and our heritage, it is our DNA.”
Left gap
It is therefore not unwise that politicians such as Zemmour bet on food. “Zemmour is well aware that food is an essential part of French identity, a part that he can use for his identity politics,” says Ariès. Protecting the ‘French identity’ is at the heart of Zemmour’s election campaign. This distinguishes the former opinion maker from his biggest competitor, Marine Le Pen, who focuses more on fighting class differences and criticizing the political elite. This difference has many former Le Pen supporters, from Rodriguez to more prominent figures like MEP Jérôme Riviere, transfer to Zemmour. (By the way, Rodriguez is now also “disappointed” about Zemmour’s campaign and wants to vote blank in April.)
Also read this profile: Éric Zemmour, the possible candidate for the Elysée who instills fear left and right
Zemmour can also make use of the gap left by the left-wing political parties in the debate on French cuisine. “The left France has abandoned the debate on food, after which the far right has been able to appropriate it,” says Ariès. Left-wing politicians are deliberately not venturing on the subject anymore, he says, because they would fear being considered too nationalistic or xenophobic if they committed themselves to the preservation of French cuisine.
This fear is not unfounded: when communist presidential candidate Fabien Roussel recently said that “a nice wine, good meat and good cheese are French cuisine for me”, he came under fire. “For a small but loud segment of the left-wing electorate it is outrageous to say that these days, he was accused of being racist.” People were also outraged that Roussel spoke positively about these animal products, because of their influence on climate change.
Ariès emphasizes that he thinks it is unfair that left-wing politicians no longer dare to intervene in the conversation about the preservation of French cuisine, because only a small part of the French electorate actually thinks like Roussel’s critics. “Only 2 percent of the French do not eat meat. Roussel even rose in the polls after his statements.” According to Ariès, because the extreme right has been able to hijack the debate, there is also less room for more important discussions, he says, about issues such as factory farming and the influence of fast food chains.
butcher shops
Is there something in the fears expressed by people like Zemmour and Rodriguez? Due to globalization there is a large amount of foreign restaurants and products in the supermarket. But Zemmour’s fear that there is a ‘large population’ in the butcher’s world is unfounded. There are no exact figures on the number of halal butchers or the demand for halal meat in France, but conversations with six experienced butchers show that none of them see a change in this area.
“I have been a butcher for 35 years and I can tell you that there is no truth in what Mr Zemmour says,” says David Espinet (51) in his butcher’s shop in the center of Perpignan in southern France, a multicultural city that is usually very right vote. Large hams hang on the black walls, it is cold and there is the metallic smell of meat. “There are halal butchers, but some have also closed again because business was not going well,” he says. In his butcher’s shop, where sausages in all colors next to duck mousse and filets mignons are in the display case, there is no demand for halal products.
Abdel Lagoune (58) has also been in the business for decades. In his butcher’s shop on the outskirts of Perpignan, dressed in a red apron and gray cap against the cold from the refrigerators, he tells us that the demand for halal meat in his butcher’s shop is actually decreasing. “When I started in 1999, we were selling fat sheep weighing between 20 and 22 kilos,” he recalls. This meat was used by older generations from Algeria and Morocco for traditional dishes for the whole family. “But nowadays that is unsaleable, because more is known about cholesterol and other diseases, and because of the high prices everyone now wants a small and not too fat lamb.” Two other Muslim butchers in Perpignan also say they are selling less for this reason.
Both Espinet and Lagoune see the arrival of foreign cuisines in France as something positive. “Different cuisines can complement each other. Like when you eat kebab with a piece of French bread,” says Lagoune. At Espinet there is a tray of Lebanese tabbouleh between the sausages. „French products such as foie gras are known all over the world and are exported to the United States, to China, to Northern Europe. French cuisine is so established that it doesn’t just disappear,” adds Lagoune.
When Estelle Rodriguez finishes her stuffed pigeon, she’s stuffed – a tartelette de chocolat praline no longer fits. She ate well, she says, and with the interview she took another step to protect French culture. “For now I think French cuisine is protected, but I’ll keep a close eye on it.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of March 3, 2022
#French #cuisine #focus #culture #battle