France's reputation as a food utopia takes a belting as it loses culinary crown to Italy and Spain in shock new survey of international holidaymakers
French tourism minister Olivia Grégoire had earlier admitted that French chefs were being outclassed by rivals from Asia, Denmark, Spain and even Peru.“ gastronomy has been facing the rise of foreign gastronomy since the end of the 1990s and has been outstripped by the performance and influence of other countries,” she said.
The controversy that has damaged the French chefs’ reputations stemmed from a poll commissioned by Atout France, the French tourist board, which found international holidaymakers preferred Italian and Spanish cuisine to French.The findings infuriated some traditionalists who refused to believe it.