YUROP

France has some rationing too during WWII.

Any serious exploration of the topic is left up to those that take a personal interest.

I may have the beginning of a lead, as I wondered where the French culinary culture came from. It seems to have become something different from our neighbors, around the rise of Louis XIV. See, at that time, meals you could serve to your guest was a real measure of your wealth. You would serve exotic spices, fresh fish, ingredients from far away.

As the international trade was getting more intense (yes, already at the time), having exotic spices and curry became accessible to more and more people, not just the top elite (fun to think that around Louis XIII, the pinacle of expensive French food was probably something full of spices similar to a curry) so the king invented a new league above these: "We are going to make tasty food like you have never tasted, only with local products. They all come from the royal gardens. My vegetables have bodyguards. Have yours?"

The nobility competed with each other by having the most elaborate meals, the best chefs. It was the time when bouquet garni, creme chantilly and many popular recipes were invented.

In modern terms, you would say that a lot of R&D was invested in that status item, that was "good food". After the Revolution, what did these cooks do? They opened restaurants.

The strong food culture, the idea of seeing good food as an important status item to check if you want to rise in the hierarchy, seems to come from that time.