The French Regional Pastry Map — What Paris Does Not Know
I
Origin
French patisserie as exported to the world is Parisian patisserie — the macaron, the éclair, the mille-feuille, the entremet, the tarte au citron. But France is a country of regions, and each region has a pastry tradition with roots as deep as any Parisian creation and a flavour logic as specific as any regional cuisine. The Parisian tradition is the standardisation; the regional traditions are the sources. To understand French pastry fully is to understand that Paris is the broadcast and the regions are the signal.
II
Description
The major regional pastry traditions and what each contributes that the Parisian canon does not:
III
The Thread
—Regional pastry mapping reveals that "French patisserie" is as diverse as "Italian cuisine" — the Alsatian bredele is closer to German springerle than to any Parisian creation
—the far breton is closer to a clafoutis than to any Parisian tart
—the thirteen desserts of Provence share more with the Moroccan and Levantine sweet table tradition than with the Parisian patisserie display
—The regions carry the memory of older trade routes, older occupations, older flavour traditions
IV
Flavour Context
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Pillars V — VII
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