Clearly, this review provides evidence for the lack of a single
objective indicator of culinary superiority. Regardless of whether
French cuisine is believed to sit atop the gastronomic hierarchy or
to be tumbling downward, these competing interpretations of the
distinguishing characteristics of French cuisine, along with the
political projects devoted to preservation, reinforce that French
gastronomy is a socially constructed process open to discursive
battles that seek to garner cultural and political influence and are,
part and parcel, constitutive of the making of gastronationalism
itself.