À la découverte de l’identité nationale à travers la gastronomie française

Abstract

This study examines the role of gastronomy in French schoolbooks for upper secondary schools in Sweden, and more precisely how regional gastronomy and culinary practices are presented. Learners discover different specialities when exploring France, and learn how gastronomy promotes France as the country of culinary excellence and authentic food. French culinary practices mark a national and cultural frontier between French culture and the Swedish learner. These gastronomic traditions seem to be characteristic of French textbooks: observations made in German and Spanish textbooks indicate that gastronomy is not shown as a national characteristic but rather as a question of personal taste and individual practices.