France is the home of French cuisine, and they set an amazingly high culinary standard to which all other native cuisines must live up to. The French have been the leaders and are recognized as the innovators in the culinary arts scene since the beginning of time, and most of the famous chefs in history are French. The well known and famous chefs that are not French, nevertheless, are trained in the art of cooking with the classical French style. Some of the finest cuisine in the world comes from France, and created by some of the finest master chefs in the world. The cooking knowledge and skills required to prepare a good culinary meal is something that the French people take excessive pride in when they present meals. Cooking is an essential part of the French culture, and it adds to one's usefulness and talents if they are capable of preparing a good culinary meal.



France has many culinary regions and each one has a specific characteristic of its own food and area. Generally French food requires the use of many different types of sauces and gravies. The northwestern region of France produce recipes for cuisine that tends to require ingredients like apples, milk, butter and cream, and the meals tend to be extremely rich and sometimes rather heavy. Reminiscent of the German style of food, the southeastern area of France, the French cuisine is heavy in lard and meat products such as sauerkraut and pork sausage.

The more widely accepted type of French food is southern French cuisine and this style of food is generally served in traditional French restaurants. The cooking is a lot lighter in fat and substance in the southeastern area of France. In the southeast area of France, chefs and their culinary creations tend to lean more toward the side of a light olive oil more than any other types of oil, and they rely heavily on herbs and tomatoes, as well as tomato-based products.

Developed in the late 1970s, Cuisine Nouvelle is a more contemporary form of traditional French cuisine. Served in French restaurants today, this style of food is the most common type of French cuisine. General characteristics of the Cuisine Nouvelle style is decorative plate presentations with shorter cooking times, smaller food portions, and more festive. Many French restaurants cuisines can be classified as Cuisine Nouvelle, although, the more traditional French restaurant cuisine would be classified as Cuisine du Terroir rather than the French cooking style Cuisine Nouvelle. With the references to regional differences between the north and south, Cuisine du Terroir is an attempt to return to the more indigenous styles of French cooking, and also different areas such as Catalonia, Loire Valley and Rousillon. Their specific specialty of French cuisine makes these areas of France famous. As time goes on, the differences between white wines from the Loire Valley and wines from another area of France has slowly diminished, and the Cuisine du Terroir approach to French cooking focuses on establishing special characteristics between regions such as this.

In France, the French incorporate wine into nearly every culinary meal, and it is a big part of the French culture. The French drink wine simply as a refreshment or part of the recipe for the culinary meal itself. It is a part of traditional French culture to have at least one glass of wine on a daily basis, even today.