American customs are very different to the French ones when it comes to dining out. In the US, we can substitute, subtract, and add to just about anything we want to order, in France, you can ask to remove an ingredient but you can't add.
Even at McDonalds, no substitutions are allowed. I'm not sure why this is the case for places such as McDonalds but at restaurants, I'm assuming it's quite insulting..
For the chefs of privately owned restaurants, they most likely went to school for at least 3 years, had several internships and jobs with various restaurants and competed in competitions. Their goal is to create perfect dishes and an enjoyable meal; a melody of beautiful flavorings via cooking techniques, ingredients and presentation. So asking a chef to change their creation would be comparable to going into an art gallery and saying, "If you just added some red paint, your painting would be perfect". Well yeah, maybe for you but not for the artist.
My advice is to choose something on the menu that you wouldn't ask for substitutions for, if that's not possible, be daring and try something new that you'd normally refuse.
The French have a way of using ingredients in such a beautiful way. Since my arrival in France, I've fallen in love with food discovering new ingredients as well as different ideas on how to cook ingredients that I would normally refuse to eat. It truly is an experience. Enjoy!! (Bon appétit!)
Even at McDonalds, no substitutions are allowed. I'm not sure why this is the case for places such as McDonalds but at restaurants, I'm assuming it's quite insulting..
For the chefs of privately owned restaurants, they most likely went to school for at least 3 years, had several internships and jobs with various restaurants and competed in competitions. Their goal is to create perfect dishes and an enjoyable meal; a melody of beautiful flavorings via cooking techniques, ingredients and presentation. So asking a chef to change their creation would be comparable to going into an art gallery and saying, "If you just added some red paint, your painting would be perfect". Well yeah, maybe for you but not for the artist.
My advice is to choose something on the menu that you wouldn't ask for substitutions for, if that's not possible, be daring and try something new that you'd normally refuse.
The French have a way of using ingredients in such a beautiful way. Since my arrival in France, I've fallen in love with food discovering new ingredients as well as different ideas on how to cook ingredients that I would normally refuse to eat. It truly is an experience. Enjoy!! (Bon appétit!)