French egg on authorities to protect ‘art’ of salade nicoise

A FRENCH senator has proposed to legally protect salade niçoise and other top regional dishes “like works of literature, music or art”.

The aim of the proposals is to stop restaurants and food companies from profiting from classic dishes’ popularity while altering their recipes beyond recognition.

Alexandra Borchio-fontimp, conservative senator for the Alpes-maritimes from the Republicans party, is teaming up with a group of intellectual property lawyers and chefs to propose ring-fencing traditional recipes but also new kitchen creations in order to promote “French culinary art”.

France’s gastronomic meal, a feast to mark an occasion where guests take pleasure in good food and wine, is already a Unesco world heritage treasure and the country has a draconian appellation system for wine and cheese but individual recipes are not protected by any French laws. However, guardians of traditional French dishes see red when green beans are added to salade niçoise, the famed Riviera dish with hard-boiled eggs, anchovies and olives.

They are unhappy when flamiche, a leek pie from Picardy, is stuffed with camembert when only cream will do; and their hackles are raised when yuzu is mixed into teurgoule, Normandy’s age-old baked rice pudding.

“Current legal texts don’t [adequately] frame the protection of culinary recipes,” Ms Borchio-fontimp said in a message to the culture minister last month. That left “traditional recipes open to being doctored” and new culinary creations being copied by “unscrupulous rivals”.

“Certain restaurateurs and food industry groups exploit the popularity of dishes like salade niçoise to get

‘Certain restaurateurs exploit the popularity of salad nicoise to get around the traditional recipe’

around the (traditional) recipe,” she told Le Figaro.

“Is it because certain ingredients are too expensive?” she asked. “In that case, you call your salad something else!”

Two associations, Toqualoi and the Cuisine niçoise collective, and Ms Borchio-fontimp propose drawing up an “official register” of protected recipes whose historic ingredients must be respected if restaurateurs want to use them.

The next step is to propose a legal framework and then table a draft law.