Is this a joke or something ? I live in Japan, I'm French, and there's no way the pastries you buy over here are as good (or even as cheap) as in France. Or you must have been to the wrong part of France.
They're not as good as Paris, but they're getting better.
The first time I went to Japan, I had a number of experiences buying a perfect-looking french pastry, only to find that the inside was cakey, or filled with hot dog, or some other weird thing. It was like the form of the thing had been perfectly copied, but not the substance.
Went back again a couple of years ago, and the average pastry was much closer to what I'd buy at a decent shop in France. I figure they've got another few years before they're competing with the MOF winners. ;-)
You can never get pastries as good as in France for a simple reason: humidity. It influences the cooking process in such a way you can never get the same texture, and your pastry will become soft within hours of cooking because it soaks ambient humidity.
Pastries in Japan are still quite good, but they can never hope to compare with French ones - they developed their own style and adapted it to Japanese tastes as well, so you can't even expect to get something that has the same taste either, even if it looks alike. And for certain items, you just can't find anything that even matches the supermarket form of it in France : take Pains au chocolat, most of them scream of utter failure in Japan when you bite into them. And I've tried numerous ones, even in expensive bakeries, and was always disappointed.
And let's not forget pastries in Japan are way more expensive than in France. That counts, too.
"You can never get pastries as good as in France for a simple reason: humidity. It influences the cooking process in such a way you can never get the same texture, and your pastry will become soft within hours of cooking because it soaks ambient humidity."
France is a big place. I'm reasonably sure that humidity levels differ between French cities, yet they still make French pastries.
I mean, I get it: you're always going to find some reason to like French pastries better. But "humidity" is a pretty bad reason, since you can actually control it.
No, this is precisely the explanation that was given to me by pastries making companies based in Japan. I'm not inventing anything. And France never gets 90% Relative Humidity. Check the data. Japan's humidity is way higher.
Is this a joke or something ? I live in Japan, I'm French, and there's no way the pastries you buy over here are as good (or even as cheap) as in France. Or you must have been to the wrong part of France.