Why French cuisine isn't so haute after all

The reputation of French cooking was under fire today after reporters exposed leading restaurants passing off third-rate food as haute cuisine.

The documentary on French TV channel Canal+ found chefs using factory-made food, frozen vegetables, ready meals, microwaves and flavour sprays.

A leading restaurant on the Champs Elysee using a £14 "essence of truffle" spray to make its signature raviolis à la creme de truffe dish. Real truffles would have cost if almost £1,000 a kilo.

The documentary used hidden cameras and searched dustbins to expose the restaurants.

Journalist Herve Bouchard said mostmeals in French restaurants were being made in factories, before being reheated in microwaves. A factory near Paris run by the frozen food company Bonduelle employs 850 staff and sells 700 tonnes of frozen vegetable to restaurants every day.

"Today in France thousands of restaurants serve frozen food to their clients without them knowing. In a country with our gastronomic tradition it's a taboo subject," said Olivier Journiat, another journalist involved in the documentary.