Snack-ré bleu!
No steel tubs of mass-produced slop in l’Hexagone. An American dietician in Paris, France, had the web masses salivating after sharing a TikTok video detailing the mouthwatering and highly nutritious dishes served at her daughter’s school.
“I feel so lucky to live in a rustic that puts such value on ensuring all kids have access to healthy food,” gushed Isabelle Bertolami, a registered dietician, within the clip — which revealed an enviable menu that included tasty treats like mussels, hearts of palm, organic camembert cheese raspberry tarts and sorbet.
The mother-of-one, who moved to Paris in 2018 and has a daughter together with her French husband, often chronicles her experience being a U.S. expat in France to her greater than 146,000 followers.
In one in all her recent dispatches from the City of Light, Bertolami revealed what the 3-to-6-year-olds at her daughter’s school ate one week earlier this month.
Their selections made probably the most ostentatious American offerings appear to be a pack of Lunchables.
Bertolami explained that the menu “follows the identical structure day-after-day” with a starter, a foremost dish, a cheese course and a dessert.
“So Monday, they’re starting with a salad of hearts of palm, tomato, croutons and vinaigrette,” Bertolami revealed. “Then they’re having fish with a side of potatoes, after which they’re having an organic camembert and a lemon sorbet for dessert.”
Daniel Boulud, eat your heart out.
On Tuesday, the children enjoy sardines on toast — a dish they likely ate long before its “discovery” by Gen Z food-Tokers — together with an organic omelet with mushrooms.
This entrée is accompanied by zucchini and potatoes, followed by organic yogurt and seasonal fruit for dessert. (The fruit of that day apparently was pomegranate).
And if that wasn’t enough to take our lunch programs to highschool, Wednesday’s selection featured chickpea salad with tomato, shallots and beef, followed by a cheese tart and carrot purée.
That was rounded out by yogurt with a chestnut spread and fruit for dessert.
Being a vegetarian in France might look like a hard-scrabble existence. Nonetheless, the varsity caters to plant-eating pupils by making every Thursday vegetarian day — they usually aren’t serving an uninviting choice of roughage.
This time, the kids were fed a luxurious spread of avocado, corn and tomato salad, in addition to rice with vegetables.
Dessert, meanwhile, consisted of chocolate soy pudding and one more organic fruit.
To round out the week, on Friday, kids were fed “butternut and cheese on toast, a selection of mussels or eggs served with fries” and “a raspberry tart for dessert,” Bertolami explained.
They aren’t short on presentation, either, as each of the offerings was served on real plates with real silverware and glasses (not paper cups) of water — a setup the Francophile in comparison with a “little kids’ restaurant in Paris.”
No word on whether the epicurean tykes also take three hours to ingest their bounty, à la their adult counterparts.
Viewers were impressed by the Michelin star-worthy school lunches.
“That menu is unreal,” fawned one fan. “I don’t think many American kids would eat 1/2 of that food. Start them young with a range.”
One other wrote, “I like that they’re eating sardines.”
“Yummm I wish lunches in the united kingdom were like this in our canteen it’s mostly just fried food and burgers, there’s one salad option,” said a 3rd.
Meanwhile, one alleged U.S.-based French teacher asked if Bertolami could send her a photograph of the menu to make use of in a lesson on French youth’s culinary literacy.
This isn’t the primary time the American transplant has wowed viewers with a snapshot of French eating habits.
In one in all her hottest videos, which amassed 11.4 million views, Bertolami revealed that French students have a goûter — a baguette with butter and chocolate — in lieu of an after-school snack.
