Le doggy bag

Doggy bags have been common in American restaurants for years, necessitated by the vast portions often served up. Traditional British reticence to take left-over food away has started to break down with the rise of a more consumerist culture. But the one place you might have thought would hold out against this culinary caprice is the home of haute cuisine. Yet the French parliament wants a new law requiring all restaurants to provide containers for their customers to take away unfinished food in order to reduce waste as part of a sustainable development initiative. It is not clear which will most horrify French purists trying to hold back the tide of Anglo-saxon intrusion: the idea of packing up an unfinished plate of escargots for the chien; or asking for “le doggy bag”.