It is an admission that is
verging on sacrilegious for a French president. But Nicolas Sarkozy's top chef
has revealed that the French head of state has banned cheese from the table at
the Elysée Palace.
By Henry Samuel, Paris, The Telegraph (London)
7:39PM BST
05 Apr 2012
Charles de Gaulle once famously declared: "How can anyone govern
a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?"
The fitness mad Mr Sarkozy has
chosen to remove the source of De Gaulle's angst from his sight,
according to presidential chef Bernard Vaussion, who is cooking for his
fifth French head of state.
The French were
famously dubbed "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" by irate
US Republicans when they failed to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
But Mr Sarkozy has done away with the high-fat stuff altogether after
meals, his chef explained, as "it was too much"
for him.
The World is round and disc-shaped
His cheese aversion even threatened to spark a
diplomatic incident last October, when he offended Angela
Merkel, the German Chancellor, by telling another EU leader that over
dinner "she says she is on a diet and then helps herself to a second
helping of cheese".
The health-conscious leader opts instead for "light,
balanced meals and poultry to red meat", his chef said, in a clear break with his predecessors who were not
afraid of heartier fare, even at lunchtime.
The French had already found it hard to swallow the fact that their
leader drinks no wine, a source of great national pride. The latest revelation risks striking another symbolic
blow to the leader's credentials as a
flag-bearer of French gastronomy.
On the advice of his former supermodel wife, Carla, 13 years his
junior, the one-time chocoholic president has been on a draconian fitness
and
nutrition programme for most of his presidency, served a frugal diet of fish, vegetables, salads and
sorbets. Cottage cheese, it is believed,
still makes the grade.
Some blamed the low-calorie diet on Mr Sarkozy collapsing in
2009 during one of his gruelling daily jogs
Glorious French Cheese
However, with presidential elections just three weeks away, Mr
Sarkozy has chosen to throw his normal dietary rules out of the window
if it can help him win an uphill battle to secure a second five-year term.
In a sign he is prepared to go the extra political mile, he kicked off his re-election campaign with a visit to a
cheese-making factory in the Alpine city of Annecy,
also stoically accepting chocolate, crepes and sausages from shopkeepers.
"I'll put on three kilos and it's only the first day," he joked
before going on to enjoy a fondue lunch with a group of supporters.
He then spent four hours at Paris's annual agricultural fair
accepting offerings of langoustine, chocolate and Reblochon cheese in a
bid to stave off the National Front, whose leader Marine Le Pen claimed to be
the "champion" of rural France.
If, as the polls predict, the Socialist François Hollande wins
power next month, the Elysée chef may be asked to bring back the gooey stuff.
However, Mr Hollande has also been on a strict diet in a bid to
shed his unfortunate nickname of Flanby – a wobbly caramel
custard dessert.
"There is always uncertainty. We will
see, it will be up to him to decide,"
said Mr Vaussion wistfully.
Dopey. It is a fine thing to be thin and fit. It is quite another to be a neurotic, vocal
diet bore (who happens to look like a crocodile wallet). I’d say Sarkozy’s political career is doomed. Post-presidency “cash-in” time is clearly
looming. Query: Can This Marriage Be
Saved?
