In Situ (Dec 2019)
Les écoles culinaires françaises : leur rôle dans la transmission et la mondialisation du repas gastronomique des Français. « Regards de Taïwan »
Abstract
Today, French culinary schools are highly appreciated places of apprenticeship for foreign students. Based on interviews with 55 Taiwanese students carried out in Taiwan and in France from 2012 to 2015 in order to study their professional itineraries, we discovered that these students saw their stay in France as a springboard to help them take off in their chosen career in the restaurant business. This study led us to take a closer look at the culinary schools and their role in the international diffusion of French gastronomy. These schools are present throughout the world, welcoming foreign students and offering them training adapted to their needs. But how do these schools transmit their savoir-faire and what representations do they put across of the ‘gastronomic meal of the French’? After the students go back to their own country or when they work in another country, they all apply what they have learned in the French school. Thanks to these students, the French notion of gastronomy, including products, the relations between humans and nature, the art of eating, etc. inspires the students’ attitudes to the food of other countries, often integrating French know-how with local food products. So, the French culinary schools do not only transmit cooking expertise, they also preserve the notion of the gastronomic meal of the French.
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