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FOOD AND DRINK

Owner of historic French Alps inn wins top food award

The 39-year-old owner of a storied lakeside inn in the French Alps was on Monday crowned France's chef of the year by the Gault & Millau gastronomic guide.

Owner of historic French Alps inn wins top food award
Photo: AFP
Jean Sulpice won the coveted award a year after taking over L'Auberge du Pere Bise, a century-old hotel on the shores of Lake Annecy which has played host to the likes of Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin and Richard Nixon.
   
Gault & Millau's owner Come de Cherisey praised Sulpice for his lightning rise through the rarefied world of French cuisine.
   
“He is working his way up a high mountain pass,” he told AFP.
   
On his website Sulpice describes his food as being “filled with the riches of the mountains” where he grew up.
 
   
Photo: AFP
 
His menu gives pride of place to regional products, such as venison, brown trout and Beaufort cheese.
   
Sulpice ran a two-star Michelin restaurant in Val Thorens ski resort — Europe's highest — before snapping up the property on Lake Annecy, 100 kilometres (62 miles) to the north, in 2016.
   
After a facelift costing several million euros the stately Auberge reopened to the public in May.
   
Among the other winners of Gault & Millau's 2018 awards were 32-year-old Cedric Grolet of the five-star Le Meurice hotel in Paris, named the country's top pastry chef.
   
Born in the Loire region to a truck driver father and hairdresser mother Grolet has gained a huge following on Instagram for his colourful, fruity creations.
   
Gault & Millau publishes an annual guide of 3,800 eateries across France, over two-thirds of which offer dishes costing under 30 euros ($35).
   
It is less well-known than the Michelin guide, whose stars are seen as a sort of culinary holy grail.

FOOD AND DRINK

Cheese in numbers: France’s obsession with fromage

From cheese types to the amount eaten per year, via cheese favourites - here's a look at how France really feels about fromage.

Cheese in numbers: France’s obsession with fromage

March 27th is the Journée nationale du fromage in France – so here are a few facts about the delicious dairy delicacy.

246

Charles de Gaulle famously once asked of governing France: “How can anyone govern a country with 246 varieties of cheese?”.

His numbers were wrong. Producers in France make closer to 1,000 varieties of cheese – and some have estimated that figure could be pushed up as high as 1,600.

8

The number of cheese ‘families’ in France. A good cheeseboard in France is generally considered to consist of at least three ‘families’ – a soft cheese, a hard cheese and either a blue or a goat’s cheese. Remember, too, an odd number of fromages on a platter is better than an even number, according from cheese etiquettists

READ ALSO France Facts: There are eight cheese families in France

2.5

About how long – in years – it would take you to try every cheese made in France, if you tried a new variety every day. Life goals. 

95

The percentage of people in France who say they eat cheese at least once a week, spending seven percent of their weekly food bill on it.

READ ALSO Best Briehaviour: Your guide to French cheese etiquette

40

Two-fifths of French people say they eat cheese every day

57

The amount of cheese produced, in kilogrammes, in France every second, according to this website, which has a counter to show you how fast that really is. It’s estimated that 1.8 million tonnes of cheese are produced in France every year.

27

The French consume, on average, a whopping 27 kilogrammes of cheese per person per year.

READ ALSO Fonduegate: Why customer service is different in France

3

The three most popular cheeses in France, based on sales, are Emmental, Camembert, and Raclette – followed by mozzarella, goat’s cheese, Comté and Coulommiers.

63

Some 63 cheeses have been awarded the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée status, which means they can only be produced in a certain region.

1

France has – or at least soon will have – one dedicated cheese museum. 

READ ALSO Three things to know about the new Paris cheese museum

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