France bans ketchup in cafeterias

[W3WN]

Yes, those whacky connoisseurs of fine cuisine have banned school cafeterias from serving the condiment ketchup.

With one exception: It can still be used with... French Fries.
(Yes, I know they're named after the chef, not the country)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-france-ketchup-20111006,0,1095831.story?track=rss

[n2ize]

I think its a good move. First and foremost the use of ketchup on good food is disgusting. Only the most barbaric and uncouth would pour ketchup on good food. Secondly, it dilutes France's culture of fine cuisine by introducing cheap American fast food trends which are best avoided. Lastly, it's bad nutrition as ketchup is used to mask the poor quality of cheap fast foods, something that should be shunned in France.

[ki4itv]

I think its a good move. First and foremost the use of ketchup on good food is disgusting. Only the most barbaric and uncouth would pour ketchup on good food.

My name is Trey and I fully support this sentiment. Hope Catsup is next.

[N6YG]

I think its a good move. First and foremost the use of ketchup on good food is disgusting. Only the most barbaric and uncouth would pour ketchup on good food. Secondly, it dilutes France's culture of fine cuisine by introducing cheap American fast food trends which are best avoided. Lastly, it's bad nutrition as ketchup is used to mask the poor quality of cheap fast foods, something that should be shunned in France.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, If not it looks like we actually agree on something. Saying that ketchup is very poor nutritionally is an understatement. Especially when you consider the fact that each teaspoon of Ketchup contains at least a teaspoon of sugar..

This post brings me to an interesting story. Back when times where more prosperous I used to host a big New Years eve party. It was an annual event where I would invite many of my close friends and employees.

During the peak of these parties I was roasting as many as 6 or 7 full 7 bone prime rib roasts. These would be seared over a very hot mesquite fire and then slow roasted in my offset trailerable BBQ pit at about 190 degrees over a hardwood fire that had been burned down to coals.

Prime Rib is very sensitive to smoke and I learned the hard way that you don't want to BBQ prime rib as you would traditional BBQ meats such as ribs or pulled pork. I also learned that you never want to see any visible smoke coming from the stack when BBQing smoke sensitive cuts such as prime rib and brisket. What I learned to do is look for an extremely faint thin blue smoke that can only be seen by shining a very bright flashlight up into the flow of air coming out of the top of the stack...

Anyhow back to the story. One year the unthinkable happened, I had invited a new employee who had brought his wife. Now as my wife served them the lady asked if we had any ketchup the room went deftly quite as everyone stopped eating and glared at her with looks of shock on their faces including her husband :shock:

Personally I was ready to take her plate and show her the door, But a very stern unapproving glare from my wife convinced me that I had better not. So as I glared back at my wife for being such a ball buster I politely informed our guest that we didn't have any ketchup on hand. She said O-Well no big deal, got any A1 ? ARGGGG Again I politely informed this barbarian that I never kept A1 sauce on hand. In fact the one and only time I have ever used A1 was at Denny's when I had the unfortunate displeasure of ordering one of their disgusting T-bone steak and egg breakfasts. I have to admit the only thing that made that steak palatable was the A1

At that point it looks as though her prime rib dinner had been spared the humiliation and disgrace of being doctored by a hack.

Then to the shock of myself and all my guests she opened up her purse and proceed to pull out a huge hand full of McDonald ketchup packages which she then barbarically used to completely smother every inch of a gorgeous, very expensive dry aged, plate of king cut prime rim which had been slow roasted to perfection. In the eyes of my guests and myself It was the equivalent of doctoring a van Gogh or a da Vinci with a crayon

Anyhow needless to say, my friends and I had plans for revenge at next year party Instead of serving her prime rib like everyone else I had prepared her a nice plate of steamed turkey dogs accompanied by a side of dollar store mac and cheese Once again my wife's strong objections prevented my friends and I from carrying out our plans.

As you can guess once again she smothered her prime rib dinner with mounds of cheap ketchup which she continued to do every year until the downturn in the economy forced us to sell our large towable BBQ pit and sadly put an end to our large annual New Years Eve party.

Unfortunate Now days I can barely afford Prime rib on New Years for my family and maybe one or two close friends and at that I have to save all year to pay for it. Long gone is the expensive dry aged prime rib that I had to special order months in advance.

Nowadays all I can afford is the cheap prime rib from Costco and even thats becoming so expensive that I might have to substitute our once a year Prime rib dinner party with a New Years Turkey dinner party. Unfortunately I fear that once Turkey becomes to expensive the only thing left will be Soylent Green ;)

[n2ize]

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, If not it looks like we actually agree on something. Saying that ketchup is very poor nutritionally is an understatement. Especially when you consider the fact that each teaspoon of Ketchup contains at least a teaspoon of sugar..

This post brings me to an interesting story. Back when times where more prosperous I used to host a big New Years eve party. It was an annual event where I would invite many of my close friends and employees.

During the peak of these parties I was roasting as many as 6 or 7 full 7 bone prime rib roasts. These would be seared over a very hot mesquite fire and then slow roasted in my offset trailerable BBQ pit at about 190 degrees over a hardwood fire that had been burned down to coals.

Prime Rib is very sensitive to smoke and I learned the hard way that you don't want to BBQ prime rib as you would traditional BBQ meats such as ribs or pulled pork. I also learned that you never want to see any visible smoke coming from the stack when BBQing smoke sensitive cuts such as prime rib and brisket. What I learned to do is look for an extremely faint thin blue smoke that can only be seen by shining a very bright flashlight up into the flow of air coming out of the top of the stack...

Anyhow back to the story. One year the unthinkable happened, I had invited a new employee who had brought his wife. Now as my wife served them the lady asked if we had any ketchup the room went deftly quite as everyone stopped eating and glared at her with looks of shock on their faces including her husband :shock:

Personally I was ready to take her plate and show her the door, But a very stern unapproving glare from my wife convinced me that I had better not. So as I glared back at my wife for being such a ball buster I politely informed our guest that we didn't have any ketchup on hand. She said O-Well no big deal, got any A1 ? ARGGGG Again I politely informed this barbarian that I never kept A1 sauce on hand. In fact the one and only time I have ever used A1 was at Denny's when I had the unfortunate displeasure of ordering one of their disgusting T-bone steak and egg breakfasts. I have to admit the only thing that made that steak palatable was the A1

At that point it looks as though her prime rib dinner had been spared the humiliation and disgrace of being doctored by a hack.

Then to the shock of myself and all my guests she opened up her purse and proceed to pull out a huge hand full of McDonald ketchup packages which she then barbarically used to completely smother every inch of a gorgeous, very expensive dry aged, plate of king cut prime rim which had been slow roasted to perfection. In the eyes of my guests and myself It was the equivalent of doctoring a van Gogh or a da Vinci with a crayon

Anyhow needless to say, my friends and I had plans for revenge at next year party Instead of serving her prime rib like everyone else I had prepared her a nice plate of steamed turkey dogs accompanied by a side of dollar store mac and cheese Once again my wife's strong objections prevented my friends and I from carrying out our plans.

As you can guess once again she smothered her prime rib dinner with mounds of cheap ketchup which she continued to do every year until the downturn in the economy forced us to sell our large towable BBQ pit and sadly put an end to our large annual New Years Eve party.

Unfortunate Now days I can barely afford Prime rib on New Years for my family and maybe one or two close friends and at that I have to save all year to pay for it. Long gone is the expensive dry aged prime rib that I had to special order months in advance.

Nowadays all I can afford is the cheap prime rib from Costco and even thats becoming so expensive that I might have to substitute our once a year Prime rib dinner party with a New Years Turkey dinner party. Unfortunately I fear that once Turkey becomes to expensive the only thing left will be Soylent Green ;)

It might be my Bourbaki upbringing but, if I have any form of steak I must have ketchup on it. In my book beef requires ketchup or some type of condiment. But on most other dishes no.

[N6YG]

It might be my Bourbaki upbringing but, if I have any form of steak I must have ketchup on it. In my book beef requires ketchup or some type of condiment. But on most other dishes no.

Well it must be my Greek upbringing that has taught me too employ seasonings in my cooking that accent and enhance the natural flavors of food rather then thick sauces that overpower and dominate. As such I have found that a spritz of fresh lemon juice on a well prepared steak accents the natural flavors while not over powering them to the point of being the sole dominating flavor.

On the other hand about the only people whom I've met who use A1 sauce or ketchup on steaks are people who don't seem to like steak. More often then not these are the same people who over cook their steaks to the point of being flavorless hunks of dried out shoe leather.

Now I will admit that A1 has a unique, interesting yet extremely overpowering flavor. I find that it goes well with dishes that by themselves have absolutely no flavor such as fried or boiled Tofu.

As far as ketchup is concerned, It's yet another overpowering condiment which completely masks all the natural flavor of any dish it's used on. About the only dish I find it suitable for is a slice of dried out meat loaf.

[W3WN]

It might be my Bourbaki upbringing but, if I have any form of steak I must have ketchup on it. In my book beef requires ketchup or some type of condiment. But on most other dishes no.

Too many are not taught the finer things in life when it comes to cuisine. I know of many people who overuse ketchup and yellow mustard, in part because they've never been taught better, in part because they're so used to the taste of those two condiments (more specifically, the real cheap versions available at fine fast food establishments everywhere... and yes, "fine fast food establishments" IS an oxymoron) that they can't envision doing without.

Ketchup has it's place. On top of a hamburger, on the side of a hot dog (although there are many who would disagree with THAT!), on some bland scrambled eggs... but it should not be used as a universal condiment.

On prime rib? "Barbarian" is too good a word for that poor heathen. (And you should have served her the mac & cheese)

But with that in mind... the outright banning of ketchup across the board just struck me as more than a bit absurd. And it won't stop anyone who really wants some, as ketchup packets are easy enough to acquire.

Still, Lorsque la propriété ketchup est criminalisée, seuls les criminels propre ketchup

[suddenseer]

Unfortunately I fear that once Turkey becomes to expensive the only thing left will be Soylent Green ;)

You can put ketchup on that.

[N6YG]

You can put ketchup on that.

Yup I'm sure ketchup would do wonders for making Soylent Green a bit more palatable. By the look on Charlton Heston face I'm sure he was thinking the same thing.

BTW To those of you who claim that Global Warming is a new concept created by Al Gore. I present the movie Soylent Green. Soylent Green was a sci-fi movie clearly based on concerned over the possible effects of Global Warming. Obviously it was intended to bring awareness by over dramatizing the effects. For you nay sayers I offer you this excerpt from the script.

You know. When I was a kid...
...food was food.
Before our scientific magicians poisoned the water...
...polluted the soil. Decimated plant and animal life.
Why. In my day. You could buy meat anywhere.
Eggs. They had. Real butter. Fresh lettuce in the stores.
I know. Sol. You told me before.

Why. In my day. You could buy meat anywhere.
Eggs. They had. Real butter. Fresh lettuce in the stores.
I know. Sol. You told me before.
How can anything survive in a climate like this?
A heat wave all year long.
A greenhouse effect. Everything is burning up.
Okay. Wise guy.
Eat some Soylent Green and calm down.
I finished it last night. I was hungry. Damn it.

But how can this be? Soylent Green is an early 1970 movie and according to the pundits Global warming is an Al gore invention.

Full transcript located here

[NA4BH]

I think its a good move. First and foremost the use of ketchup on good food is disgusting. Only the most barbaric and uncouth would pour ketchup on good food. Secondly, it dilutes France's culture of fine cuisine by introducing cheap American fast food trends which are best avoided. Lastly, it's bad nutrition as ketchup is used to mask the poor quality of cheap fast foods, something that should be shunned in France.

Actually it was them Chinese people that started the whole thing:

he word ketchup is derived from the Chinese ke-tsiap, a pickled fish sauce. It made its way to Malaysia where it became kechap and ketjap in Indonesia.

Seventeenth century English sailors first discovered the delights of this Chinese condiment and brought it west. Ketchup was first mentioned in print around 1690.

The Chinese version is actually more akin to a soy or Worcestershire sauce. It gradually went through various changes, particularly with the addition of tomatoes in the 1700s. By the nineteenth century, ketchup was also known as tomato soy.