Meaning of フレンチでは in 知る人ぞ知るシェフ


This is from a review for a
restaurant:<https://www.tripadvisor.jp/ShowUserReviews-g298110-d7405583-r439370408-Salle_a_Manger_F-
Fukui_Fukui_Prefecture_Hokuriku_Chubu.html>

> フレンチでは知る人ぞ知るシェフ

Does it mean: "A chef known by a selected group of French (people)"? I guess
では is marking the agent 'フレンチ'. This seems to be the case with other example
sentences I found like:

> 神ならぬ身では知るよしもない There is no way of knowing by a simple mortal

which apparently is the same as saying:

> 神ならぬ身の知る由もなし

Here の is marking 神ならぬ身 as the agent/subject same as では.

Is this right so far? Is フレンチ refering to people?




This フレンチ is French cuisine, not French people nor France.

This では is basically specifying the focus/scope of the sentence, so "in the
field of French cuisine", "concerning French cuisine" or "when it comes to
French cuisine" would be the literal translation of this フレンチでは. Compare it
with these similar examples:

>   * ボクシング **では** 、相手をキックするのは反則です。
>   * プログラミング **では** 他人が理解しやすいコードを書くことが重要です。
>

Of course, usually, something like "among French cuisine fans" is a reasonable
option.




This is a review about French cuisine, served at French restaurant Salle à
manger F. The context is: French cuisine.

フレンチ usually refers to the cuisine. People are generally フランス人 or フランスの人, the
language is usually フランス語 or フランスの言葉.

[知る人ぞ知る](https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%8B%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%9E%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%8B)
is used to describe knowledge limited to a select few. The reviewer writes
later 「シェフは、フレンチでは知る人ぞ知る有名な方です。」I would make the sentence out to be 'The chef
is, among connoisseurs of French cuisine, a famous individual.'.

