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The culinary identity of France is a function of both ideology and institutions. Although claims to the superiority of French cuisine were advanced as early as the seventeenth century, the authority of culinary France was most particularly the product of the nineteenth century, with the culinary system of M.A. Carême, the gastronomic criticism of A.B.L. Grimod de la Reynière, and the analyses of J.A. Brillat-Savarin. The nineteenth century marked a period of great expansion for restaurants, which gave the practice of gastronomy an institutional base. In modern times, gastronomy remains crucial to identity, supported by institutions through the organizing of competitions (e.g. MOF, Bocuse d’Or) and by artistic productions, such as the film Les Saveurs du Palais (2012). Will the country that has produced this traditional, quasi-mythical cuisine welcome culinary contributions from elsewhere? What forms will culinary France take in the twenty-first century? Stay tuned.