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Ciaran Connolly
Ciaran Connolly
The first culinary nation in the world, France is recognized worldwide for its gastronomy and art of living. French luxury is intimately linked to its culinary art. Moreover, since 2010, the French gastronomic meal and its rituals have been included in the intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO.
The culinary experience is not only limited to the simple act of eating but also to an etiquette representative of French culture. The French gastronomic meal must respect a precise scheme: it begins with an aperitif, at least four dishes, including a starter, fish and/or meat with vegetables, cheese, a dessert, and a digestif to finish. This particular attention to the pleasures of the table is found in everyday life. The French are very attached to the three meals of the day. Traditionally, breakfast is taken upon awakening, lunch around 1 p.m. and dinner around 8 p.m. In France, eating is therefore considered a ritual of happiness.
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Typical and Popular French Specialties
French wines and cheeses are an integral part of French cuisine, used as ingredients and accompaniments. France is also known for its wide range of breads and oysters. French wines, breads, and cheeses are considered a reference in French gastronomy, mainly because of their cultural aspect.
French Breads
The best-known is the baguette. The French bakery is exported all over the world. The French now consume five times less bread than they did at the beginning of the century. France is known for its quality bread and has 81 regional pieces, not to mention special bread such as walnut, raisin, and fig bread. The market remains largely dominated by traditional sourdough bread, especially baguettes.
Some breeds are very well known, and we recommend that you discover them during a trip to France:
- Baguette is the most iconic French bread. It’s a long, light bread with a crispy crust.
- Pain de campagne: a country bread made from white flour, whole wheat and rye.
- Pain aux noix: a nut bread consists of chopped nuts kneaded into the dough.
- Pain de Seigle: a rye bread typically served with oysters.
- Fougasse is a sweet flatbread in the shape of a grain of wheat, with cuts that form a veined and leaf outline. It comes from the south of France.
- Brioche: a flaky and soft French pastry that is generally round.
- Pain perdu: lost bread or wasted bread is a French dish served for breakfast made from stale bread.
- Croissants are crescent-shaped pastries made from sweet, flaky pastry and butter. Their shape comes from the crescent moon on the Turkish flag, created in 1683 to celebrate the Austrian victory over the Ottoman Empire. However, its new version, which has flaky pastry, is a French innovation.
- Pain au chocolat: it’s a roll of pastry made from flaky pastry and chocolate. In the southwest of France, this pastry is called chocolatine. Moreover, this disagreement on the name is often debated.
- Mille Feuilles: This pastry is made from flaky pastry separated by layers of pastry cream and powdered with icing sugar. The first recipe appeared in La Varenne’s 1651 cookbook Le Cuisinier François.
Other very famous French pastries include macaroons, colourful almond cakes, crème brûlée, made from vanilla cream topped with caramelized sugar, and profiteroles, ball-shaped pastries filled with custard, with chocolate, whipped cream, or custard on top.
French Wines
In France, wine is very important in gastronomy. The vineyard is everywhere, in the Bordelais, Burgundy, Alsace, along the Rhône, the Loire and the coasts of the Mediterranean. They are even found in Paris, on the heights of the Butte Montmartre. France is a country of wine-making tradition, and Italy is at the top of the wine-producing countries with nearly 7,000 vintages and 18,000 appellations. France has risen to one of the top places for the quality of its wines. One of the characteristics of a great wine is its storage potential (up to a century). A good wine is above all a matter of taste, judiciously chosen, it sublimates a dish.
French Cheeses
The French love cheeses. They produce more than 1000 different cheeses. You absolutely must taste good cheeses during your trip to France.
In the south of France, Roquefort is a classic. It is a relatively strong-smelling blue cheese made from sheep’s milk. It looks like Bleu d’Auvergne, a blue cheese made from cow’s milk. We also recommend the cantal, which is known in the regions of Aveyron in southwest France. It is a smooth, pressed cheese that is very appreciated by the French. It is the oldest cheese in history. They are also known for goat cheeses such as Cabécou d´Autan or Le Pélardon des Cévennes.
The most famous cheese in northern France is the Camembert, known in Normandy. It is a soft cheese with a bloomy rind. Brie de Meaux and Pont Évêque are also soft cheeses like Camembert. We also find Burgundy, Mont d’Or, and Le Curé Nantais in Brittany, which are pretty pouty and very delicious cheeses.
Regional Culinary Specialties
An extreme diversity of styles and foods characterizes French cuisine. Even if local variations exist, the culinary map of France is often divided into five major regional areas: the Great West, the Southwest, the Southeast, the Great East, and the North.
The Great West
The sea, in its local gastronomy, characterizes the north-west of France. Northern food is well known for its seafood platters, fish (sea bass, monkfish, herring), shellfish, oysters from the Marennes-Oléron basin, and mussels from the Aiguillon bay. We recommend that you taste the oysters. This shellfish can be eaten hot, but it is even more delicious, raw and alive with a dash of lemon juice or vinegar.
As for mussels, Mouclade Charentaise is a dish from the La Rochelle region. The mussels are cooked with shallots, garlic cloves, garnished bouquets, eggs, spices, cream and alcohol from the Pineau des Charentes region.
Normandy is known for scallops and soles, while Brittany is known for lobsters, crayfish, and mussels. For example, Apple, cream, and butter, used in mussels stuffed with almonds, are the main ingredients of the West’s gastronomy. Brittany is also known for buckwheat pancakes. This Breton pancake is a savoury crepe made with buckwheat flour, ham, cheese, egg, andouille, and onion. Nantes is also known for these Nantes cookies.
The cuisine of the Loire Valley is famous for its white butterfish and white wine. In addition to seafood, this region is known for wild game, veal, lamb, Charolais meat and quality goat cheese.
Finally, Cognac, along the Charente, with the town of Cognac, is a regional product often used in various cooking recipes in the country.
The South West
The South-West is the land of foie gras, cassoulet and Roquefort. Bordeaux is known for its wine, just like the whole of southwestern France, but also for Bordeaux cannelés, a small soft pastry, cylindrical and streaked with flutes.
Southwestern cuisine is renowned for its production of foie gras. On a brioche bread with a little onion confit or fig jam, you will taste the best foie gras in the region.
The farmers also grow the beans there, at the heart of the cassoulet recipe. Originally from Languedoc-Roussillon, this dish is made with white beans, duck legs and pork.
The Toulouse region is known for its production of Toulouse sausage, which can also accompany a local variant of cassoulet, the Castelnaudary cassoulet. The Cahors region produces black wine, truffles, and mushrooms.
Originally from the French Basque country, Chicken Basquaise is a meat dish made soft by a piperade, a sauce made from Bayonne ham, peppers, tomatoes and Espelette pepper.
The South-East
The Languedoc-Roussillon region is well known for its charcuterie and fish. The Catalan influence can be seen in the kitchen, with dishes like brandade from dried cod puree wrapped in perry leaves. Snails are plentiful and are prepared in a Catalan style called la cargolade.
The Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region is France’s largest producer of citrus, vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Mediterranean cuisine uses a large number of vegetables for lighter preparations. Alpine cuisine is also famous for processed cheese and potatoes. Moreover, the Savoyard fondue is the most famous convivial dish, which consists of melting three cheeses (Beaufort, Compté, Emmental) in a small pot, to which we add white wine.
Raclette is also known primarily for electric raclette pans. It is a cheese-based dish that is melted and served with potatoes, cold meats, onions and pickles.
In Marseille and its surroundings, ratatouille is very present. It is a dish cooked in oil from vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.). In the Grenoble region, gratin dauphinois is also an essential dish. It is a gratin of sliced potatoes, crème fraîche, milk, and nutmeg.
In addition, I recommend the Grand Hôtel des Sablettes-Plage restaurant, which is an essential gastronomic stopover during a stay in the Var region.
The Great East
Burgundy is famous for its wines. The Dijon region is also renowned for its Dijon mustard. The Champagne-Ardenne region is also known for its speciality, which is made from pork tripe and andouillette, including andouillette from Troyes. Lorraine is best known for its delicate fruit jams, pastries, and sweets, such as Nancy macaroons and its famous Lorraine quiche. It is a tart garnished with crème fraîche, milk, eggs, nutmeg, and grilled bacon.
In Alsace, we find the famous Choucroute, the region’s flagship dish. It is simply fermented cabbage served with potatoes, bacon, and sausages.
Finally, in Burgundy, a dish of snails with parsley butter called “escargots à la bourguignonne” is an atypical dish of the region. It is based on butter and parsley cream. Beef Bourguignon is also a traditional family dish. These are pieces of beef simmered in red wine with root vegetables and mushrooms. There is a variation on this famous dish called coq-au-vin.
Nord
Butter, cream, endives, potatoes, pork, and beer characterise northern cuisine.
Among the traditional dishes, we often find long-simmered dishes such as Flemish carbonnade made from beef, simmered in lager and aromatics.
The Paris region is also well known for its pastries, such as Saint-Honoré, Paris-Brest, and famous macaroons. The mould and fries are a very typical dish in the north of France, hence the name French fries known by foreigners.
Renowned Markets
We also recommend that you visit some unmissable places representative of French gastronomy and its culture and where you can taste good products:
- Les Halles Bocuse in Lyon houses food and regional products shops, greengrocers, caterers and bar-restaurants.
- The Grand Buffet restaurant in Narbonne is a central kitchen and rotisserie for an all-you-can-eat buffet in an elegant wood-panelled room with a garden.
- The Olive and Cours Saleya markets in Nice offer fruit, vegetables, and local products from the Nice hinterland.
- The lez market in Montpellier is a creative hotspot bringing together shops, second-hand shops, farmers’ markets, restaurants, Food trucks, startups, activities and events, and exhibitions. A compendium of creative initiatives that invite a new art of living: responsible, local, innovative and contemporary.
