Poulain (2002) argues that until the nineteenth century, it was
difficult to speak of a singular ‘French cuisine’ owing to the prevalence
of significant culinary diversity closely wedded to social
class and regional specificities. But today, he argues, French cuisine
is distinguished from other national cuisines by its [higher] degree
of complexity along with its ability to impose itself as a referent
among the elites of other cultures (Poulain, 2002). As a result, he
concludes that French national cuisine is today a combination of
different regional cuisine sub-cultures, a set of “sous-culture alimentaires
regionales” (Poulain, 2008, p. 175).