Herewith we inaugurate a new feature, France In Decline, where from time to time we will detail another tabescent French glory.

Paris, long priding herself as the culinary queen of the planet, has lost her credientials.

The best French restaurant in the world, American Chef Thomas Keller's The French Laundry is situated in Yountville in the Napa Valley. For weak geographers that is California. The United States.

And now this:

London is the best place to eat on the planet, according to America's leading food magazine. The latest edition of Gourmet says its restaurants are far superior to rivals in Paris [!], Rome and New York.

Editors of the "food bible" said they were "blown away" by London's food. "The glory days are back," said one.

The magazine devotes its entire 180-page March issue to London dining. It was the first time that Gourmet, which has a worldwide circulation of more than a million, had been dedicated to Britain - and the first time that one city had been declared better than all the others, the editors said.

Services à poisson clattered to the floor at Le Chiberta. The sommelier at L'Arpege was so rattled the '88 J. Selosse Blanc de Blancs Avize was served in a coupe! Everywhere among les grandes tables of the Ile-de-France soufflés fainted away.

And what is French fancy eating like Wood-Grilled Fresh Foie Gras with Caramelized Fall Fruits and Port Reduction being bested by? A London cheese-monger's toasted cheese sarnie -- which he does as a sideline.

When the legendary American food writer Ruth Reichl brought her team of restaurant reviewers to Britain, they were bowled over by the fare on offer.

Yesterday she said: "The food across all levels is fantastic in London. There has been an enormous change. But the one highlight I remember the most is this [£3 toasted] cheese sandwich."

The sandwich was the creation of Bill Oglethorpe, an expert in cheese who works for the specialist suppliers Neal's Yard Dairy. He said: "I am so proud that she liked my sandwich. To be up there with the likes of Heston Blumenthal (chef at the Fat Duck) and all those people is such an honour. It is very nice to be appreciated but it is really just a hobby."

Mr. Oglethorpe's delicious nosh can be had for a fraction of the cost of this holy celebrity cheese sandwich. (To our eye it looks more Marlene Dietrich than BVM.)

[All emphases added.]

You can certainly buy a fine feed in London. You can also pay $8 for a double espresso without even trying, at least I did at least three times. What sets France apart is that you can find very good food nearly everywhere, which is far from the truth on the sceptered isle.

I guess we could say "Imitation is the highest form of flattery"

It's not so much that France is in a culinary decline, but more that our Anglo-Saxon friends have finally realized in the past 15 years that food can actually be pleasurable art form. Let's hope it doesn't take another 20 years for Americans to figure out how to brew decent coffee or manufacture chocolate that actually tastes like cacao ;-)

You can get decent coffee in the US now. It's not ubiquitous however, the way tha weak tea-substitute brew that has been drunk here since we refused to pay the taxes on tea imposed by King George is.

At least that's my theory of why "American-style" coffee sucks.

The crappy chocolate? I have no idea why American chocolate is so poor. Too much sugar, and not enough fat would be my guess though.