French cuisine Sydney style is an interesting concept. Many have maligned the state of Australian cookery, particularly in attempting to emulate the refined dining of continental Europe. Our fare is, for the most part, experimental. This explains much. Our chefs would rather create their own dishes than rely on refining others.

Just take those three words: French cuisine Sydney. They’re not particularly well suited to each other, and don’t really fit. So what’s the problem? The mixture of cultures doesn’t really seem to go very well. Take French food’s history. They have a lengthy history at being self-satisfied with their food. The French governement has, in the past, banned words from language, reasoning that they dont fit with the culture. Victim to this has been both hot dog and hamburger. If course those two are in use today, as they’re as ubiquitous as any word in world language. French cuisine in Sydney doesn’t have this well protected history, and as such doesn’t hold the revered position it might in Paris. An Australian chef might, for example, slaughter a Bouillabaisse by, god forbid, making it look nice. This simply isn’t the idea, and as a result French cuisine Sydney style doesn’t automatically result in the most traditional of French fare.

That said, there are a number of exceptional French restaurants in Sydney, and if I’m honest, it’s all a matter of taste. For example, taking a common French delicacy, Pate de foie gras and applying it to every course as the French often do would be seen to be not only extravagant, but simply pointless in most other countries.

Much the same could be said about French cuisine in Sydney from the patisserie point of view. The bakers of France have been almost religiously studying recipes and styles for hundreds of years. Even the humble baguette has a tradition as old as our country itself, and while French cuisine in Sydney may replicate it well, there is little doubt that the French revere their food a good deal greater than we ever could.

Finding a restaurant with either a French Chef, or a French trained one is a good indicator, and where this happens, you can be sure to find out through the grapevine, if you are an avid restaurant goer. Much of the differences between French Cuisine in Sydney, and French cuisine in, say, Paris could be seen in the differences between our attitudes in wine. We generally dislike the pomp and ceremony attached to wine, as it’s a functional thing. The French, however, have a greater history with the stuff, and rightly or wrongly, associate it far closer with their history. In short, you are bound to find great French cuisine in Sydney, but you may not be able to find the real French attitude to it. Let’s face it, that’s no bad thing, really.