The best chefs in the world are considered to be French as they look upon creating food as an art and aim to provide nothing less than a masterpiece that should come out of their kitchen doors. Thus, French chefs, famed for creating gastronomical delights with their varied styles and techniques, each school differing in the methods of preparing food depending on which of 26 French regions they belong to, are regarded as the top teachers of the influences of European cuisine. All French Cooking schools follow the regulated norms and standard recipes of traditional cooking styles, albeit with their own distinct innovations to teach lovers of French cuisine the art of French cooking fundamentals, particularly European fare.

Their approach to food is part of their love for feasting, sharing food and cooking with fresh (in season) vegetables, fruit and dairy products, which the French believe is the reason food tastes are enhanced while also being a healthy, natural option to using canned or dried foodstuff. Spread across the different regions in France are provinces known for the specialty ingredients they grow and these, determined by season, give the basic components of nutritious and wholesome French cooking its unique flavor and presentation value.

Thus, you can have veggie and fruit salads a-plenty during summer months, more of abundantly grown mushrooms for autumnal cooking from country kitchens that make great stew-dishes and deer meat during the hunting season that begins in September and ends February. Once spring is in the air, French cooking menus are generously over-loaded with oysters, easily available at bistros and markets too as well as the peasant's table.

The different regions in France contribute to the flavors in French cooking; for example, Alsace, near Germany, is famous for its raisin cakes, sausages, salted pork, and high quality potatoes that are the basics for a hearty meal at all times, while the Alps brings in many different flavors of cheese. France's Artois-Picardy northern heights provide for a fine variety of fish and terrine dishes and the Cote d Azure and Provence regions grant this world-loved cuisine the base for bouillabaisse (stew of fish, tomatoes and herbs, intended as an appetizer).

Ample fruit cultivation allows Britanny its famed crepes; and cakes such as the flat, crunchy galletes and soft dumplings while exotica like Snails are given by Burgundy as its southwest provinces strive to provide continental cuisine pate foie gras - a delicately flavored main course containing liver from force-fed ducks.

Of course, consulting French cookbooks may appear to present French cooking as less than easy, but it's something even the uninitiated with a love for classy cooking can learn, besides of course the novelty value of learning unpronounceable names of dishes on any French bistro menu.