He is an iconic figure for French gastronomes, admired for his defence of authentic Gallic cuisine and revered for his attacks on the “crap” sold by retail chains.
So when Jean-Pierre Coffe, the food writer, agreed to become the figurehead in an advertising campaign for a discount supermarket group, his fans were aghast. They have inundated internet discussion forums with comments marked by anger and frustration at what they see as the fall of a hero — a household name in France — who led the struggle against fast food in books, television programmes and radio shows.
One critic said that it was like asking a nun to advertise a brothel, or a Trotskyite to promote the French equivalent of the CBI — an argument angrily rejected by Coffe, 71, who says that his aim is to promote good but affordable food.
The debate is passionate since it touches on France’s core values, and notably the commitment to local produce amid a global movement towards culinary uniformity. It comes as French farmers are engaged in a violent protest against the country’s supermarkets, which have been blocked and ransacked over an alleged increase in their profit margins.
“If Mr Coffe cannot resist the lure of big business, who can?”, ask purists amid reports that he is likely to have been paid about €15,000 (£12,800) for the advertisements.
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“What has made a figure such as him, who owes his fortune to the defence of quality food, renounce everything he stood for?” said Claude Soula in a blog on the website of Le Nouvel Observateur, the weekly magazine. “Are the fruit and vegetables sold by Leader Price of the artisan quality which Mr Coffe has been promoting for years? Of course not.”
Laurent Vachi? , another blogger, accused Coffe of “selling out” and said the star was interested only in money. “The public is shocked,” he said. “It’s apparently an incredible U-turn.”
In Consumers, Let’s Rebel, a work published in 2004, Coffe urged shoppers to buy food in traditional grocers, butchers, fishmongers and cheese-sellers. He denounced the supermarket trade as “voracious” and “only motivated by the ambition to get its hands on the profits”. And he accused les supermarch?s of marketing tomatoes “with the texture of cardboard”, “shameful pork” and “cheese with a whore’s flavour”.
In February he extended his criticism to the frozen-food industry: “When you freeze merde [crap], you unfreeze merde.” Now, in radio and billboard advertisements, he is promoting Leader Price with the slogan: “The taste of living more cheaply.”
The chain, which belongs to the Casino group, has about 500 shops in France and is known for a policy of low pricing. Coffe says that such prices are necessary at a time when the recession means that seven million families spend €8.34 a day or less for their food. He denies claims that he has turned his back on a lifetime’s culinary values and points out that his latest book, Le Plaisir à Petit Prix (Pleasure at a Small Price), features recipes that cost less than €9 a day.
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Coffe says that his detractors are wealthy urbanites who have never set foot in Leader Price, which, he points out, was the first French chain to introduce organic produce. He is to act as a consultant for the company to verify the quality of its foods.