Baylen Linnekin on the High Cost of Homemade Food
France's restaurants and French cooking are under attack. The enemy comes from within—and wears a white hat. In July, the country debuted the fait maison law. The first of its kind, the law holds the professed purpose of promoting fresh French cooking, which has been on the wane for years. The new law requires all restaurants throughout the country to put the word homemade—fait maison—on menus to indicate which food has been prepared from scratch. Food may be labeled as fait maison "only when it's made in-house from fresh ingredients."
Not only is the new requirement costly and pointless, writes Baylen Linnekin, it's annoyingly complex and will serve to handcuff all restaurants in France.