Bulldog Drummond;236394 wrote:[I have had many splendid meals in France over the past 50 years but cannot help feeling that the standard might have slipped a little. But you will still eat far better there in a village or small town or roadside place than you would in an equivalent in the UK.
Yes, the standard is slipping, but slowly. Big Mac has arrived. Baguettes are not so uniformly wondefrul. A large part of this is the drive to lower salt, which is being surrepticiously being foist on many nations. Bread is a salty food. It should have 2% salt (bakers' % based oh flour weight), in Britain it is now ca 1% - removing most taste. In France they have crept down to 1.8%, but the government wants 1.5% as the thin edge of a wedge.
Near Florence, there is a type of bread with zero salt. It is uneatable (I always serve salt with my cardboard!) but it has a local appeal.
If you want less salt, eat less salty food.