Pain au chocolat sees off the ‘chocolatine’

French MPS have voted against a proposal for the term “chocolatine” to be officially recognised as an alternative name for one of France’s best-known pastries, the “pain au chocolat”.

The dispute ended up in parliament after a group of Right-wing MPS tabled an amendment to a farming and food Bill that would have established the legitimacy of “chocolatine”, which is only widely used in south-western France.

The MPS said they wanted to break the “pain au chocolat snobbery of our Parisian colleagues”, but the amendment was voted down by MPS from Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party.

Stéphane Travert, the agriculture minister, said the issue was unworthy of parliamentary debate.