Soon each French city accepts recipe (5,2)
I believe the answer is:
early on
'soon' is the definition.
'each french city accepts recipe' is the wordplay.
'each' becomes 'ea'.
'french city' becomes 'lyon' (I've seen this before).
'accepts' indicates putting letters inside.
'recipe' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'ea'+'lyon'='ealyon'
'ealyon' going around 'r' is 'EARLY ON'.
(Other definitions for early on that I've seen before include "before much time passes" , "In the first stages" , "right at the start" , "Quite soon in the proceedings" , "Before much time has elapsed" .)