The parent specifically mentioned Americans. It's much easier to find the right and good ingredients for a recipe in France than is it in the U.S.

Go to any supermarket in France and buy flour for instance: you'll find type T45, T55, T65, T80, T110, T150 [1]. And professional pastry recipes will tell you exactly what type of flour in what quantities. In the U.S. you will only find "All Purpose flour". I know French pasty chef in the U.S. who struggles to find the right ingredients. Since people care about getting T45 or T65, the producers create them at scale accordingly, and so it's possible to find a specific flour for the same price of "All purpose flour" in the U.S.

[1] http://www.wessexmill.co.uk/acatalog/Flour-Types-T55-T45-Typ...

This is higly correlated with regulatory laws governing agriculture in US and Europe.

EU has much more strict policies, limits on pesticide use, no GMO rule, plus specific laws to protect traditional (sometimes centuries old) product recipies from being faked by inustrial-scale producers, replacing natural ingredients with chemicals.

That's why food generaly tastes much better in Europe.

> limits on pesticide use, no GMO rule

Neither impact flavor.

> replacing natural ingredients with chemicals

You do realize that "natural ingredients" are chemicals too right? Everything is made up of chemicals.

Your first comment doesn't square with my (limited) experience with bread. Making bread from wholemeal organic flour versus non organic makes a big difference. You can see, smell and taste it, and if you were nearby I'd bake you two loaves and ask you to rate each. However this isn't a true compassion as the manufacturing processes are sure to be different. My theory is that there is less wild yeast in the nonnorganic flour, but the real reason may differ.

> replacing natural ingredients with chemicals.

How is natural vanillin any better than synthetic vanillin? Matter is matter. Organic molecules are identical whether a plant produced them or a chemist.

Not the parent, but that's a good example : I cook with vanilla sticks sometimes, and it's just 100x more flavorful: I can leave the vanilla stick "marinate" overnight in my preparation and the flavor will be much different than pouring vanilla extract (real or synthetic). Synthetic vanilla sticks simply do not exist, and I think the impurities and other things in those vanilla sticks contribute to the taste.

Vanilin itself is a good example of the exact same molecules, but for instance I remember on chemistry class discussing banana flavor extract: it tastes "like banana" but it's not actually the same chemical component. Making a cake with that chemical and labeling it banana bread could be done and probably won't taste the same.

Supermarkets may only carry two or three types of flour, all purpose, 110, and "pastry flour" and perhaps some whole grain....

But that's not where most bakers get their flour, most will get it from someone who specializes in delivering baking goods who will have a larger selection.

You're right. I was trying to convey the idea that: If it's easier for the consumers, it's also probably even easier for the professionals.

I think those specialized deliverers are more rare in the U.S., and so the baker either has to pay for more expensive raw ingredients, or use lower quality.

The price comparison is a bit weird there; there are some of the best croissants and baguettes by very small cheap shops in France while you pay a lot more for a nasty piece of 'doughy thing' in Starbucks for something that has the same name. That is incidentally another comparison where this falls flat; when my American friends visit, they insist on Starbucks every day. Not only is the coffee and the food better next door to it, it is far cheaper. Of course that is a matter of taste, but that is not the reason why my friends want to go to Starbucks; they find it familiar. Once I get them to go into a local small family run place, they don't go the rest of the stay to Starbucks however when they come back they seem to have forgotten the small place.

Can't speak for anyone else, but for years now, I tend to seek out more local mom-pop shops over the chains. Don't get me wrong, I eat at the chains too, especially breakfast (more functional meal), and will try to eat more locally at lunch/dinner. I also try to cook at least once a week. The cooking comes in spurts because I live alone.

Perhaps there's more people in Paris that know how to make awesome croissants. Maybe it's considered "fancy" food in the US and marked up accordingly. There's a lot of economic levers to push.

>Perhaps there's more people in Paris that know how to make awesome croissants. Maybe it's considered "fancy" food in the US and marked up accordingly.

True, but I can still make far superior chocolate-chip cookies (an American staple pastry) at home, for cheap, than I've ever had from 90% of stores and bakeries.

Try out the following recipe with the addition of half a lemon's juice, switching out all the sugar for brown sugar. You can either use the full load of chocolate chips, or substitute dark chocolate, or do like I do and half the chocolates so you can enjoy the cookie.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/10813/best-chocolate-chip-cooki...

(Mind, I might be an edge-case, since I've practiced baking since I was five years old.)

Would be much easier to try out recipes on the net if people would use scales for flour and sugar instead of a cup...

After reading enough American news I can only joke that they are afraid that the ownership of marginally precise scales would automatically summon a police drug raid against them.

They are not uncommon, I have an electronic metric/imperial scale (they are sold in most home appliances shops). I prefer just scooping quantities out over weighing.

In any case lots of times, after you get to know the recipe, you just eyeball the proportions. No need to be super precise in most instances. We're not making alloys.

I have no idea if it's true, but I've heard it said that some types of pastry are very hard/impossible to make in some climates due to humidity. French pastries can be bought uncooked from France and baked after the flight for this reason. May be a gimmick but I worked by a place with French owners that did this. The pastries were excellent.

I don't know if that's true. I've had some pretty awesome pastries in French speaking Africa, made by French trained patissiers. Pastries that rivaled ones made in France. And this was in hot and humid climates.

The quality of pastry depends on ingredient quality, preparation, age of dough, and freshness out of the oven. There could be others.

A pastry out of the oven is delicious. Which is why pastry made in house taste better than the hours old stuff you get at chain coffee shops.