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French cheeses fails to make top 10 on new international ranking

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
French cheeses fails to make top 10 on new international ranking
A camembert cheese of Normandy. (Photo by MYCHELE DANIAU / AFP)

French cheese fans could not brie-live the results of a new international cheese ranking that did not list any French cheeses in the top 10.

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France is known lovingly as the land of the cheese, so naturally fans of French gastronomy were disappointed by the results of a ranking of the ‘100 Best Rated Cheeses in the World’ compiled by the TasteAtlas food website and published online.

Not a single French cheese placed in the top 10.

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The best French cheese, according to the ranking, was Reblochon, and it came in 13th place, behind eight Italian cheeses, one Mexican, one Portuguese, and even one Polish. 

READ MORE: Are these Italian cheeses really the best in the world?

After Reblochon, Comté took the 14th slot. Overall, only eight French cheeses made the top 50 list, with most of those falling to the latter half of the ranking.

Understandably, France's pride was a bit damaged by these results. It is, after all, home to over 1,000 different types of cheese and the country where (as of 2021) people consumed over 24 kg of cheese per person for the year.

Some frustrated French cheese enthusiasts even took to Twitter to suggest that Italy had somehow rigged the vote. Others responded to the tweet by telling Taste Atlas to "delete their account" and that the ranking was n'importe quoi (ridiculous).

France's TV channel BFTMV reportedly called the result a “crushing blow for French gastronomy”.

To be fair, some of these French fans might have held a grudge against Taste Atlas after another one of its rankings last year placed France behind America for the best world cuisine. This time, the United States did not make the list for top 50 cheeses, and neither did the United Kingdom.

As for the Italian winners, some fans of Italian cheese were also a bit dismayed by the ranking, claiming that those that made the top 10 were not representative of the best cheeses Italy has to offer.

This also begged the question of whether the French cheeses listed on Taste Atlas' list were truly the best France has to offer.

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READ MORE: QUIZ: Test your knowledge with the ultimate French cheese quiz

As of Friday afternoon, in a poll by The Local, Roquefort was in the lead, closely followed by Camembert. Polling will remain open until Monday, so you can make your voice heard. 

Ultimately, Taste Atlas defended their methodology in a Tweet thread. They explained that the results are based on user ratings as “people rate those foods (not cuisines) in our database” throughout the year.

“At the end of the year, we take the average of the best-rated dishes in each kitchen (so that France is not brought down by frogs, for example). And that’s it.”

READ MORE: Reader question: Do the French really eat frogs, snails and horses?

“No one likes that list, but it is a reflection of the valid voices of real people,” TasteAtlas said.

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