CHUTNEY, once linked in Gallic minds with the strange British habit of eating jam with meat and cheese, is being hailed in France as a symbol of modern cuisine.
Served in the finest restaurants, sold in the best delicatessens and now supermarkets, the relish is being held up by Parisian gastronomes as evidence that British taste may not as bad as they thought.
“Joan of Arc was wrong to try to kick the English out of France at all costs,” said Le Figaro in an article on the chef, Gilles Tournadre, and his “extraordinary tomato and red pepper chutney”. L’Express headlined a similar piece “Chutneymania”.
Although chutney is of Indian origin, it came to France via Britain and was long seen as part of an inexplicable culinary culture that also included mint sauce and red currant jelly.
Three years ago it was all but absent from French shops and restaurants, and could be found only in a handful of specialist stores, according to L’Express.
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French people had heard of it only through pupils who returned from language courses in Britain with tales of how they were forced to eat cheese with a spicy condiment. Their parents and friends, who had never tasted anything similar, would shake their heads in bewilderment.
But as the French embrace what they call “la world cuisine”, chutney and pickles are arriving on the supermarket shelves. Last year, 210,000 pots of chutney were sold in France.
“It’s a very modern way of accompanying dishes, and adding to their taste,” said Jean-Pierre Clément, of the upmarket delicatessen chain Fauchon.
In another prestigious food store, Lafayette Gourmet, in the centre of Paris, a 225g pot of Sharwood’s Mango Chutney was on sale this week for €4.35. Next to it was a pot 200g pot of Raajmahal Chutney Lime Pickle for €4.91.
Larousse des Confitures, the dictionary that lists France’s favourite jams, now includes 35 recipes for the relish.
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But if chutney is an everyday condiment in Britain, it has a superior image on the other side of the Channel. For French chefs it represents class, and it is served with the most Gallic of foodstuffs, such as duck and brie cheese.
At his trendy restaurant le Café des Délices, near the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, the chef Gilles Choukroun serves his aubergine and cumin chutney with cod, lamb and roast bananas.
“The beauty is that you can do so many things with it,” he said. “It can go with Asian or Oriental dishes.” In Montpellier, southern France, another well-known cook, Philippe Chapon, serves lamb cutlets with peach chutney at his restaurant le Tamarillos. In the South West, Jean-Luc Garrigues serves the prestigious Sauternes wine with foie gras and apricot chutney at his establishment, Le Saprien.
The phenomenon is part of a sudden enthusiasm for food defined as Indian. According to a recent study, 16 per cent of French people said that they had eaten an Indian meal at least once over the past 12 months, double the figure for the previous year.
“But India is a lot nearer that you think,” said Le Monde. “It is just on the other side of the Channel. It is in England that all the Indian foods exported to France are made.”