‘Hello America’: A French Grocery Store Takes on U.S. Food

Image: Picard

When you think of French food, part of you undoubtedly imagines fussy chicken, complex sauces and rich stews served up by moustachioed men in starched white hats. If you haven’t yet realized that this is nothing but an amusing stereotype, hear this: go to dinner or drinks at the average French family’s home and odds are you’ll be served something straight from the freezer. If your timing is right, it might even be American food.

That’s because Picard has been offering a two-week, limited-edition “Hello America” menu since last Monday, which any blue-blooded Yank’ will likely get a good giggle out of.

Never heard of Picard? In a way, the French grocery store is more American than any store in America. Walk through the doors and you’re faced not with supermarket shelves, but with waist-high freezer bins, filled to their brims with endless cardboard boxes. Like American freezer food, it’s easy and it’s cheap. Unlike most American freezer food, it’s delicious and for the most part lacks the incomprehensible ingredient list.

For example, while Picard shoppers may choose from a standard selection of humble lasagnas and pizzas, they also have options like capon pie with porcini and chanterelle mushrooms, or mashed potatoes with black truffle.

As the United States chugs along through its obsessive food renaissance and attends therapy sessions to work through its culinary identity, “American food” is being defined from the outside. In Paris, where Williamsburg is an adjective and the hamburger is très, très chic, Picard’s vision of the U.S.—advertised on bus stops and billboards across the city—looks something like this: