Artist much appreciated struggle by the French to defend refined dish of theirs (11)
I believe the answer is:
ratatouille
'refined dish of theirs' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'artist much appreciated struggle by the french to defend' is the wordplay.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'much appreciated' becomes 'ta' (both are ways of saying thank you).
'struggle by' becomes 'uil' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'defend' indicates putting letters inside.
'ta'+'uil'+'le'='tauille'
'tauille' placed around 'to' is 'tatouille'.
'ra'+'tatouille'='RATATOUILLE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ratatouille that I've seen before include "cooked vegetables in a dish" , "Stewed vegetable dish" , "Vegetable stew" , "vegetable casserole" , "Film" .)