Poland - butter is noble

Pascal (33, celebrity chef, TV host, cookbook author)

We meet at Pascal's apartment. Pascal prepares asparagus spears with butter:

PASCAL: "Butter and other fats have always been treated with contempt. The thing is that their role reminds me very much of the role of potatos. We treat both, potatos and butter, as fillers and don't think too much about their quality or characteristics. I was taught at cooking school of the importance of 'invisible ingredients' that are used throughly in the cooking process and then not really visible on a final dish or dominated by other particular tastes used by the cook"

As a professional cook educated in France I think of butter differently than it is thought of in Poland. Poles treat butter with no respect, like air. In France butter is much more important. The French prepare tastes, like garlic and have different butters for different occasions. One could even say that, given strong culinary regionalisms and diversity within the country, there is a strong butter eating culture. French really have diverse butter preparing patterns and think of it as a very particular diary product that is meant to be finished at home or prepared in accordance with an inhouse recipe by a given restaurant.

I would say that butter in Poland is simply disregarded and treated the same as salt and, let's say, beetroots. This has to do with general Polish attitude toward food, which is best depicted as fulfillment rather than pleasure. Poles do not really know the pleasure and joy of cooking, eating and the whole table culture. I think it is due to the terrible history of that region and years of culture decline and poverty.

For me butter is noble and I think one day Poles will reach and internalize conviction.