One word -- pasta. Any home cook can prepare it; kids love it; and it's even available in a can. If Chef Francois had the following of Chef Boyardee, French food would be as popular and accepted as Italian. Even Chinese food is available canned and frozen. Both cuisines have become American comfort foods.

And what's with FRANCO-American canned spaghetti? Why isn't it ITALIAN-American?

bra1nchild, Franco-American was originally founded by Alphonse Biardot, a French immigrant, at least according to Wikipedia.

Also, were there ever enough French restaurants in Baltimore to compile a Top 10 list? By comparison, Baltimore's Little Italy restaurant district seems to have been around forever.

Price is one factor. In Paris, there are cafes in every arrondisment where you can pop in for an inexpensive meal washed down with a few glasses of vin ordinaire. Here, a restaurant like Tersiguels is strictly special occasion and even a more moderate bistro like Petit Louis features $15 chicken salad and a $16 cheese plate. Oddly enough, the two French restaurants that offered the best value and some of the best French food in Baltimore, at least in my opinion, were in the same location -- Jeannier's and Brasseries Tatin -- space now occupied by a Little Italy offshoot.

There is a bias that making the food is the easy part of being a success in the restaurant business (it is) and Italian is simpler to actually produce consistently. But the food hides the real story.

How many threads and comments center on the issue (problem) of good competent service staff?

If you can't get good service in the (significantly more) casual atmosphere that makes up the rest of the restaurant business... could you imagine if all the waiters were expected to live up to the higher standard of service that French cuisine warrants?

Then of course there is the relatively smaller market for them to serve. Even folks who enjoy the food won't actually go that often. Tuersigels (and Chez Fernand before ) is a long time favorite but I haven't been in years; and even when I did go it was perhaps 3 times in a year.

For French(-inspired) food, don't forget Feast at 4 East. Despite the focus on local, seasonal, and organic ingredients, the cuisine definitely has a French influence.

Michael A. Gray nailed it--it's the pricing.

It is a shame there isn't a cheap French place for soups and sandwiches, and I'm not talking about Au Bon Pain.

French food has the same range as Italian, from haute cuisine to comfort food

Yes, but upscale Italian food doesn't do any better in Baltimore than French food does.

The only "inexpensive" French bistros I know of are down in Georgetown. They are both quite different and are only blocks apart. Traveling to eat French bistro cuisine adds to the expense. However if in town, I tend to eat at Bistro Francais. They run a lot of specials. I have not been in a year to report if the prices have gone up because of the economy. They have been around for decades though. On a week night you can order from the early bird selection and get a glass of house wine, appetizer, entree, and dessert for $20. Now often they would have evening specials that would tempt me away from the early bird deal, but it is a good deal. The hosue red was pretty good too.

Now we just have to hunt down the place in Baltimore!

You can actually go to Petit Louis and buy some fairly inexpensive items. The problems is that when I go there I feel like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack at the golf shop:

"Set my friend up with the whole schmear. You know, clubs, bags, shoes...gloves, shirt, pants. Orange balls! I'll have a box of those...and give me a box of those naked-lady tees."

RoCK, I can't help but think of another line from RD in Caddyshack:

"Hey, doll. Could you scare up another round for our table over here? And tell the cook this is low grade dog food. I've had better food at the ballgame, you know? This steak still has marks from where the jockey was hitting it."