French grumble as none of their cheeses appear in world’s top 10 list

French gastronomes are kicking up a stink after not a single one of the country’s famed fromages made it into the top 10 of the world’s best-rated cheeses by a global food web site.

France’s cheeses, which number in the hundreds, are a source of great national pride.

However, they failed to reach the top 10 of the 100 best world cheeses on culinary site TasteAtlas, which promotes “local food around the world”.

Italy wiped the floor, with parmesan in pole position, followed by burrata and grana padano. Indeed, only two of the top 10 were non-Italian – Bundz, a Polish cheese made from sheep’s milk, and Queijo Serra da Estrela, a semi-soft cheese made from the milk of two types of local sheep in Portugal.

The highest-placed French cheese was reblochon, in 13th position, with comté, in 14th place. Camembert was 91st.

Britain fared far worse, without a single UK cheese featuring in the rankings.

Top French rolling TV news channel BFMTV said the results were a “crushing blow for French gastronomy”.

Some French cheesemongers turned up their noses at the rankings, with one suspecting it was rigged. “The judges must have been Italian,” he told them.

Others conceded that the Italians were better at promoting their cheeses abroad.

“The ruling makes sense because parmesan remains one of the most emblematic cheeses and can be found on all tables in France whereas I’m not sure you’d find French cheese on Italian tables,” said cheesemaker Yves Jourquin.

Colleague Clément Brossault, from the fromagerie Goncourt in Paris, said he wasn’t “shocked” and that the French could still hold their heads high.

He argued that the French ate so much cheese that export was less important. “We export 4,000 tons of compté compared to 40,000 tons of parmesan,” he noted.

This is not the first time the Bulgaria-based TasteAtlas has ruffled French culinary feathers.

Last year, another of its rankings sparked controversy for placing France behind America in terms of best world cuisine. Italy came top in that ranking too.

After receiving complaints, including, it claimed from foreign embassies, the site defended its methodology of local dishes from a “database of 15,000+ dishes and ingredients”.

“Throughout the year, people rate those foods (not cuisines),” it added.

“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.”

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

“Don’t hate us, we’re just counting votes,” it wrote.