Aromatic truffles. Smooth-as-silk foie gras. Firm, springy oysters. Mouthwatering tender beef and an almost infinite range of cheeses.

The French have a worldwide reputation for gastronomic excellence.

But while France still boasts some of the globe's finest restaurants, the country is seeing increasing competition from other countries, including Japan, Brazil, Spain, Denmark and Britain.

Now, amid admissions that standards have indeed slipped in some areas, French diplomats are putting themselves at the forefront of a gastronomic counterattack.

The stakes are high. France is the world's most popular tourist destination - with 84.7 million foreign tourists in 2013 - and cuisine remains a major motivation for visiting the country.

In 2010, UNESCO even placed the French multicourse gastronomic meal on its "world intangible heritage list" of cultural practices.

With so much riding on France's ability to maintain its culinary pre-eminence, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, along with chef Alain Ducasse, has announced an initiative that will see the very best the country has to offer served in restaurants all over the world - as well as in French embassies - on one day in March.

Anglo-Saxon threat

"We have to showcase the big establishments. And then we have to improve bistros and small restaurants. They are not often very good, and often they are expensive," said Philippe Faure, who as co-chair for the Council for Promotion of Tourism will take part in the Gout de France (Good France) project on March 19.

A former French ambassador to Mexico and Morocco and a one-time president of the Gault & Millau gastronomic guide, Faure's slightly less-than-diplomatic words hint at the gravity with which the situation is viewed.

To mark the day, thousands of chefs in a range of restaurants on five continents will offer a "French menu" with a champagne or cognac aperitif, a cold first course, a hot second course, fish or shellfish, meat or poultry, French cheeses and chocolate dessert - all accompanied by French wines.

"It's not only about haute cuisine," Ducasse said, explaining that the emphasis will be on vegetables and other seasonal products, avoiding too much fat, sugar and salt.

Along with another celebrated chef, Joel Robuchon, Ducasse already sponsors Taste of Paris, part of the Taste Festivals series that takes place in 19 countries worldwide and whose first Paris edition is planned for May.

"My sole ambition is that French cuisine reinfluence the world," he said.

For Faure, France's gastronomic crown is clearly facing a significant threat.

The increasingly influential World's 50 Best Restaurants, published by a British magazine, in 2014 listed only five French restaurants and not one in its top 10.

Fighting back

"The Anglo-Saxons have this idea of dethroning us, of saying, 'It was good but it's not anymore'," Faure said, conceding that "a form of French gastronomy has deteriorated".

But he added that the situation was far from hopeless.

"We are not saying that we are the only place where this happens, but we are not on the path to extinction," he said.

To improve the situation, Ducasse and fellow chef Guy Savoy are currently writing a progress report for the French tourism promotion authorities with recommendations to increase the number of dishes that use fresh, local products.

Both men are also among the 15 founders of the Culinary College of France, which since 2013 has classified about around 800 French eateries as "restaurants of quality".

(China Daily 12/15/2014 page10)