Mad cow! Chirac starts food fight with British

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LONDON -- French President Jacques Chirac, already in a pot of British hot water, was accused yesterday of "a tasteless blunder" by opening a "cheap and thoroughly schoolboyish attack" on British food, calling it the second-worst in the world, behind only Finland's.

He even took a shot at haggis, the most famous Scottish dish, on the eve of the Group of Eight summit at Gleneagles, the Scottish resort.

As Mr. Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin traded belly laughs at a cafe in the Russian city of Kaliningrad -- where they met to mark the city's 750th anniversary -- Mr. Chirac said, "the only thing [the British] have given European agriculture is the mad cow."

"You can't trust people who cook as badly as that," he said of the British. "After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."

At that point, Mr. Putin suggested that American hamburgers might rank the worst of bad food. "No, no," Mr. Chirac replied, "the hamburgers -- that's nothing in comparison."

The French president recalled how former British Defense Secretary George Robertson, a Scotsman who later became NATO secretary-general, once offered him an "unappetizing" Scottish dish -- apparently haggis, a concoction of minced heart, lungs and liver boiled in a sheep's stomach.

Mr. Chirac's remarks appeared Monday in the French newspaper Liberation, whose reporter taped them the day before without the president's knowledge during his conversation with Messrs. Schroeder and Putin.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, clearly keeping his temper in check, refrained from responding to the French leader, telling a press conference in Singapore: "I don't want to get tempted down that path."

London's newspapers made no attempt at restraint. Egon Ronay of the Guardian wrote that "a man full of bile is not fit to pronounce on food." The Daily Telegraph suggested in an editorial that the French president "seems to have gone a little off his rocker."

The Daily Mail was not so sure. "He is not stupid. He knew his sneering remarks ... would unleash a storm," and he is "cynical enough to obstruct the [G-8] summit in pursuit of his vendetta against Mr. Blair."

Mr. Chirac's relationship with Britain and Mr. Blair is dodgy at the best of times, and today the two countries meet face to face in Singapore when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announces its choice for host of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Mr. Blair flew to Singapore Sunday, and Mr. Chirac followed him yesterday. London and Paris are said to be the strongest candidates, with New York, Moscow and Madrid also in the running.

British and French IOC members cannot vote until their countries have been eliminated from the vote, but two Finnish IOC members can, and their votes could be crucial in light of Mr. Chirac's food review.

Mr. Chirac's remarks "can only be explained by the fact that he has not visited Finland often enough and that he listens too much to [Italian Prime Minister] Silvio Berlusconi," the Finnish daily Ilta-Sanomat observed.

After Finland lost to Italy last year as home for the new European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) headquarters, Mr. Berlusconi said that to compete with the Finns, he had to "put up with" Finnish cooking.

Hans Valimaki, owner of Helsinki's prestigious restaurant Chez Dominique, recipient of two Michelin stars, hit back at the French. "It is also true that the French are the dirtiest people. They do not buy a lot of soap, and for that, our president will not insult them."

The daily Iltalehti called Mr. Chirac's comments absurd, and "in any case, even the French no longer take him seriously."

• This article is based in part on wire service reports