Emmanuel Macron’s cordon-bleu, between disruptive menu and electoral cuisine

Lhe moment was captured by Yann L’Hénoret’s camera in the documentary Emmanuel Macron, behind the scenes of a victory, broadcast just after the 2017 presidential election. On the Sunday of the first round, the candidate and his team allow themselves a lunch break in a motorway service area. Which dish to choose? “Me, I like the cordons-bleus, there”, launches Emmanuel Macron. Objection from the waitress: “It’s with the children’s menu…”

The anecdote left people perplexed, but it fitted so well into the atypical dimension of the newly elected that it did not move many people. François Hollande cracking for a cordon-bleu, it would have been another story. Basically, this very young presidential candidate could well allow himself a little food regression. In addition to giving him the image of a big boy with simple tastes, the cordon-bleu stuck to the sociology of the electorate of this outsider with a double personality. A precocious and brilliant technocratic banker fluent in the wooden language of the “start-up nation”, guided by terribly dated cultural references. Few “quadras” refer to Gérard Majax and include in their vocabulary terms such as “carabistouilles” Where “pizza powder”.

Read also (2017): When Macron cuts the cord

Can be envisaged with a cutlet of veal, chicken or turkey, was the cordon-bleu a subliminal allegory to macronism? Become a little cheapthis specialty with a slightly overrated name, which had its heyday in the 1960s, speaks to seniors but also to geeks, who can quickly swallow an industrially produced cordon-bleu in front of their computer. In 2017, during the second round of the presidential election, it was precisely among the over 60s and 18-25 year olds that the Macron vote was best represented.

Safe havens

In August 2017, the president was finally entitled to his cordon-bleu when visiting a leisure center for schoolchildren, but, over the five-year term, the subtle paradigm has crumbled. The culinary preferences of “Jupiter” have mutated. In 2018, in front of college students, he confided that his favorite dish is veal blanquette. Not very original. Pushing the principle of “at the same time” to the point of indigestion, the Head of State adds in 2020 that he is as much meat as fish and very much appreciates game, a rather right-handed reference. As for the first lady, she let it be known that nothing pleases her husband more than a “small bacon omelet with sautéed potatoes and a salad”.

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