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One of the specialties of French cuisine is disappearing. The French are eating less and less tripe and offal. Young restaurateurs and butchers try to make them more appetizing to patch us up with these pieces of meat.
Veal kidneys, tripe, lamb brains will perhaps send shivers down the spine of some. Offal, either we love it or we hate it, no half measures. “It reminds me of the old days, because we used to do a lot of that,” recalls one man. These are not the most attractive cuts, but for Jean-Yves Soles, butcher in Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), they have a very fine taste. “We had mad cow disease which really bothered us, but people are rediscovering offal. Initially, it is because it is not very expensive. Now that’s because it’s good and not greasy”, he justifies.
In the past, tripe and offal occupied an important place in French cuisine. Put aside, they have lost a bit of popularity. A restaurateur in Paris is trying to bring them up to date with, for example, a kidney grilled a la plancha, a simple recipe that might please. A third of French households consume it, most consumers are over 60 years old.