Well, my response to that opinion is, that that's exactly what it is,
his personal opinion. The difference being that as he's a widely known
political figure and made this statement in front of the media, it gets
more widely spread and gets far more attention than it should. Also, the
fact that he made such a comment at all in public, gives him at least a
touch of arrogance, and maybe stupidity, but this is just *my* tiny
personal opinion.

Maybe French food is *thought* to be the "epitome of gastronomic
pleasure", but much of it's not quite "my cup of tea". I don't think I'd
even care to try oysters, frog's legs or escargots, even tho they're
considered to be among the top of haute cuisine. But then again, there
are many foods the travelers of the Lonely Planet travel shows tried
bravely, that I wouldn't touch either.

Admittedly there *are* some out right strange stuff eaten here in
Finland, such as "mämmi" (mammi with dots on the a), which is a dish
eaten during the easter holidays. It is made of water, malt (the grain,
not the spirit), rye flour, some grated peel of bitter orange and a dash
of salt. It's baked in the oven for hours on low temp and when it's
ready, it looks to the uninitiated mostly like something a cow may have
produced if she had diarrhea, but it tastes good with sugar and cream.
The whole recipe is actually available in English ("Finnish Easter
Pudding") on the same site where I looked up the Finnish version,
together with a few other Finnish specialities.

Long version of the URL:
http://www.finfood.fi/finfood/ff2.nsf/0/76C3DF85D5E188B2C2256F95002562B6?opendoc
ument&cat1=Ruokakulttuuri&cat2=Finnish%20specialities

or short version:
http://tinyurl.com/an5g6

A few more Finnish recipes available at:
http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/europe/finnish/

Are we discussing Jacque's Pepin?

Would you like my recipe for Haggis? :-o

Jacques didn't start it, his Italian friend Silvio (Berlusconi) did.
What seems baffling to me is, I've always thought of France and Italy as
two of the most civilised countries in the world, but both have leaders
who have acted incredibly rudely.

The root of it all is that Finland and Italy were candidates for the
European Union's food safety institution. It was finally placed in
Italy, and at the opening, SB again attacked Finnish food, like he did
when both countries were lobbying for it. Not only that, he insulted our
(female) President by claiming that he used his male charms on her to
get the institution. I can't believe a clod like this can be elected to
lead a country like Italy. Some say the elections were fixed.