DID YOU KNOW?
You can't talk about deep fryers and not talk about pommes frites.
You can't talk about pommes frites and not talk about... Belgium!
A few years ago, at a conference in Brussels organized by the Brussels Tourist Office, historians of gastronomy from Belgium and historians of gastronomy from France got together to try and make the invention of the Pomme frite their own.
I was invited, as a Swiss historian of gastronomy, to be the referee of sorts in this historico-gastronomic joust over the question of belonging; a question which seemed to me to be rather futile and humorous; well...
From what I imagined before I arrived on the scene...
I was forced to admit that I had grossly underestimated the symbolic value of such membership of the Pomme frite, especially for our Belgian friends represented by a horde of fritkots (=fry shop keepers) who were unleashed and passionate about such a question!
It's at times like these that we really realize how much our "History" means to each and every one of us in a world where everything moves so fast, sometimes too fast!
It was the old cookery books that gave us the answer to that terrible question: Is a frite Belgian or French?
The first written records of cooking potato pieces in fat speak of... Paris and the Pont Neuf. We can therefore deduce that the origins of the pomme frite lie in Paris?
At this stage of the explanation, I'm bordering on culinary blasphemy, even insulting these wonderful Belgians who have no equal when it comes to self-mockery; what beautiful people!
So I made the wise decision to say that: "if the origin seems to be French, the real father is not the 'biological' one, but rather the one who nurtures and maintains by breeding the product. A nice pirouette on my part, which saved me from the collective lynching!
To finish this presentation, I wanted to tell you that on this occasion I discovered the wonderful world of Brussels fritkots, where I tasted exceptional fried apples, pre-cooked in horse fat and colored in beef fat. A must-try once in your life!
