French Cuisine
French cuisine waltzes taste buds through a dizzying array of dishes sourced from aromatic street markets, seaside oyster farms, sun-baked olive groves and ancient vineyards. The freshness of ingredients, natural flavours, regional variety and range of cooking methods is phenomenal. The very word ‘cuisine’ was borrowed from the French – no other language could handle all the nuances.
Cheese
No French food product is a purer reflection of terroir (land) than cheese, an iconic staple that – with the exception of most coastal areas – is made all over the country, tiny villages laying claim to ancient variations made just the way grand-père (grandfather) did it. France boasts more than 500 varieties, made with lait cru (raw milk), pasteurised milk or petit-lait (‘little-milk’, the whey left over after the fats and solids have been curdled with rennet).
Chèvre, made from goat’s milk, is creamy, sweet and faintly salty when fresh, but hardens and gets saltier as it matures. Among the best is Ste-Maure de Touraine, a mild creamy cheese from the Loire Valley; Cabécou de Rocamadour from Midi-Pyrénées, often served warm with salad or marinated in oil and rosemary; and Lyon’s St-Marcellin, a soft white cheese that should be served impossibly runny.
Roquefort, a ewe’s-milk veined cheese from Languedoc, is the king of blue cheeses and vies with Burgundy’s pongy Époisses for the strongest taste award. Soft, white, orange-skinned Époisses, created in the 16th century by monks at Abbaye de Cîteaux, takes a month to make, using washes of saltwater, rainwater and Marc de Bourgogne – a local pomace brandy and the source of the cheese’s final fierce bite.
Equal parts of Comté, Beaufort and Gruyère – a trio of hard fruity, cow’s milk cheeses from the French Alps – are grated and melted in a garlic-smeared pot with a dash of nutmeg, white wine and kiersch (cherry liqueur) to create fondue Savoyarde. Hearty and filling, this pot of melting glory originated from the simple peasant need of using up cheese scraps. It is now the chic dish to eat on the ski slopes.
Bread
In northern France wheat fields shade vast swathes of agricultural land a gorgeous golden copper, and nothing is more French than pain (bread). Starved peasants demanded bread on the eve of the French Revolution when the ill-fated Queen Marie-Antoinette is purported to have said ‘let them eat cake’. And bread today – no longer a matter of life or death but a cultural icon – accompanies every meal. It’s rarely served with butter, but when it is, the butter is always doux (unsalted).
Every town and almost every village has its own boulangerie (bakery) which sells bread in all manner of shapes, sizes and variety. Artisan boulangeries bake their bread in a wood-fired, brick bread oven pioneered by Loire Valley châteaux in the 16th century.
Plain old pain is a 400g, traditional-shaped loaf, soft inside and crusty out. The iconic classic is une baguette, a long thin crusty loaf weighing 250g. Anything fatter and it becomes une flûte, thinner une ficelle. While French baguettes are impossibly good, they systematically turn unpleasantly dry within four hours, unbelievably rock-hard within 12.
oTop Tables
Restaurant David Toutain, Paris
La Côte, Carnac
l'Assiette Champenoise, Reims
Jan, Nice
La Terrasse Rouge, St-Émilion
Charcuterie & Foie Gras
Charcuterie, the backbone of every French picnic and a bistro standard, is traditionally made from pork, though other meats are used in making saucisse (small fresh sausage, boiled or grilled before eating), saucisson (salami), saucisson sec (air-dried salami), boudin noir (blood sausage or pudding made with pig’s blood, onions and spices) and other cured and salted meats. Pâtés, terrines and rillettes are also considered charcuterie. The difference between a pâté and a terrine is academic: a pâté is removed from its container and sliced before it is served, while a terrine is sliced from the container itself. Rillettes, spread cold over bread or toast, is potted meat or even fish that has been shredded with two forks, seasoned and mixed with fat.
The key component of pâté de foie gras is foie gras which is the liver of fattened ducks and geese. It was first prepared en croûte (in a pastry crust) around 1780 by one Jean-Pierre Clause, chef to the military governor of Alsace, who was impressed enough to send a batch to the king of Versailles. Today, it is a traditional component of celebratory or festive meals – particularly Christmas and New Year's Eve – in family homes countrywide, and is consumed year-round in regions in southwest France where it is primarily made.
Le Gavage
Fattened duck and goose liver have been enjoyed since time immemorial, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that it was introduced on a large scale.
Traditionally, back in the 11th century, local farmers in the Dordogne would slaughter the farm goose then pluck out its liver and soak it in warm milk to ensure a succulent swollen liver, ripe for feasting on with a chilled glass of sweet Monbazillac white. Today, in order to fatten the livers, ducks and geese are controversially force-fed twice a day for two or three weeks with unnatural amounts of boiled corn. During le gavage (force-feeding), a tube is threaded down the throat into the bird's stomach, enabling 450g or so of boiled corn to be pneumatically pumped into the bird in just a few seconds.
Force-feeding is illegal in 12 countries in the EU, Norway, Switzerland, Israel and the USA; and foie gras imports are forbidden in many countries. Within France itself, there is a growing movement to end le gavage.
Sweet Treats
Patisserie is a general French term for pastries and includes tartes (tarts), flans (custard pies), gâteaux (cakes) and biscuits (cookies) as well as traditional croissants, pains au chocolats and other typical pastries. Sablés are shortbread biscuits, tuiles are delicate wing-like almond cookies, madeleines are small scallop-shaped cakes often flavoured with a hint of vanilla or lemon, and tarte tatin is an upside-down caramelised apple pie that’s been around since the late 19th century. Louis XIV (1643–1715), known for his sweet tooth, is credited with introducing the custom of eating dessert – once reserved for feast days and other celebrations – at the end of a meal.
The Zany Macaron
No sweet treat evokes the essence of French patisserie quite like the elegant, sophisticated and zany macaron, a legacy of Catherine de Médicis who came to France in 1533 with an entourage of Florentine chefs and pastry cooks adept in the subtleties of Italian Renaissance cooking and armed with delicacies such as aspic, truffles, quenelles (dumplings), artichokes – and macarons.
Round and polished smooth like a giant Smartie, the macaron (nothing to do with coconut) is a pair of crisp-shelled, chewy-inside discs – egg whites whisked stiff with sugar and ground almonds – sandwiched together with a smooth filling. Belying their egg-shell fragility, macarons are created in a rainbow of lurid colours and flavours, wild and inexhaustible: rose petal, cherry blossom, caramel with coconut and mango, mandarin orange and olive oil…
Breton Crêpes & Seafood
Brittany is a paradise for seafood lovers (think lobster, scallops, sea bass, turbot, mussels and oysters from Cancale) as well as kids, thanks to the humble crêpe and galette, an ancient culinary tradition that has long-ruled Breton cuisine. Pair a sweet wheat-flour pancake or savoury buckwheat galette with une bolée (a stubby terracotta goblet) of apple-rich Breton cider, and taste buds enter gourmet heaven. Royal Guillevic and ciders produced by the Domaine de Kervéguen are excellent quality, artisanal ciders to try. If cider is not your cup of tea, order a local beer like Coreff or non-alcoholic lait ribot (fermented milk). Chouchen (hydromel), a fermented honey liqueur, is a typical Breton aperitif.
Cheese is not big, but la beurre de Bretagne (Breton butter) is. Traditionally sea-salted and creamy, a knob of it naturally goes into crêpes, galettes and the most outrageously buttery cake you’re likely to ever taste in your life – kouign amann (Breton butter cake). Bretons, unlike the rest of the French, even butter their bread. Butter handmade by Jean-Yves Bordier ends up on tables of top restaurants around the world.
Seaweed is another Breton culinary curiosity, and 80% of French shallots are grown here.
Normandy Cream & Cider
Cream, apples and cider are the essentials of Norman cuisine, which sees mussels simmered in cream and a splash of cider to make moules à la crème normande and tripe thrown in the slow pot with cider and vegetables to make tripes à la mode de Caen. Creamy Camembert is the local cow’s milk cheese, and on the coast coquilles St-Jacques (scallops) and huîtres (oysters) rule the seafood roost. Apples are the essence of the region’s main tipples: tangy cider and the potent calvados (apple brandy), exquisite straight or splashed on apple sorbet.
oBest Bakeries & Cake Shops
Jacques Genin, Paris
Du Pain et des Idées, Paris
La Reine Mathilde, Bayeux
Maison Violette, Avignon
Boulangerie de Mamie Jane, Gordes
À la Provençal
Cuisine in sun-baked Provence is laden with tomatoes, melons, cherries, peaches, olives, Mediterranean fish and Alpine cheese. Farmers gather at the weekly market to sell their fruit and vegetables, woven garlic plaits, dried herbs displayed in stubby coarse sacks, and olives stuffed with a multitude of edible sins. À la Provençal still means anything with a generous dose of garlic-seasoned tomatoes, while a simple filet mignon sprinkled with olive oil and rosemary fresh from the garden makes the same magnificent Sunday lunch it did generations ago.
Yet there are exciting culinary contrasts in this region, which see fishermen return with the catch of the day in seafaring Marseille; grazing bulls and paddy fields in the Camargue; black truffles in the Vaucluse; cheese made from cow’s milk in Alpine pastures; and an Italianate accent to cooking in seaside Nice.
Bouillabaisse, Marseille’s mighty meal of fish stew, is Provence’s most famous contribution to French cuisine. The chowder must contain at least three kinds of fresh saltwater fish, cooked for about 10 minutes in a broth containing onions, tomatoes, saffron and various herbs, and eaten as a main course with toasted bread and rouille (a spicy red mayonnaise of olive oil, garlic and chilli peppers).
The fish stew bourride is similar to bouillabaisse but has fewer ingredients, a less prescriptive recipe, and often a slightly creamier sauce. It's customarily served with aïoli (garlic mayonnaise).
When in Provence, do as the Provençaux do: drink pastis. An aniseed-flavoured, 45% alcoholic drink, it was invented in Marseille by industrialist Paul Ricard in 1932. Amber-coloured in the bottle, it turns milky white when mixed with water. An essential lunch or dinner companion is a chilled glass of the region’s irresistibly pink, AOC Côtes de Provence rosé wine.
Niçois Specialities
Niçois specialities include socca (a savoury, griddle-fried pancake made from chickpea flour and olive oil, sprinkled with a liberal dose of black pepper), petits farcis (stuffed vegetables), pissaladière (onion tart topped with black olives and anchovies) and the many vegetable beignets (fritters). Try them at Chez René Socca or Lou Pilha Leva (
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Piggy Parts in Lyon
All too often Lyon is dubbed France’s gastronomic capital. And while it doesn’t compete with France’s capital when it comes to variety of international cuisine, it certainly holds its own when it comes to titillating taste buds with the unusual and inventive. Take the age-old repertoire of feisty, often pork-driven dishes served in the city’s legendary bouchons (small bistros): breaded fried tripe, big fat andouillettes (pig-intestine sausage), silk-weaver’s brains (a herbed cheese spread, not brains at all) – there is no way you can ever say Lyonnais cuisine is run of the mill. A lighter, less meaty speciality is quenelle de brochet, a poached dumpling made of freshwater fish (usually pike) and served with sauce Nantua (a cream and freshwater-crayfish sauce).
Equally fine is the Lyonnais wine list where very fine Côtes de Rhône reds vie for attention with local Brouilly and highly esteemed Mâcon reds from nearby Burgundy. In bouchons, local Beaujolais is mixed with a dash of blackcurrant liqueur to make a blood-red communard aperitif.
The Cheesy French Alps
Savoyard food is justifiably famous, and features in the preponderance of French restaurants in the region. Like all regional French cuisines, it's a product of the terroir, and all that grows within it. This means plenty of dairy, cured meats and pasta such as crozets and ravioles.
Every restaurant in the Alps with a Savoyard menu offers raclette, tartiflette or fondue, but to save on costs and maximise the cheese you can opt for DIY: many fruitières (cheesemongers) will lend you the required apparatus, provided you buy their ingredients.
Fondue Savoyarde
Made with three types of cheeses in equal proportions (emmental, Beaufort and Comté) and dry white wine (about 0.4L of wine for 1kg of cheese). Melt the mix in a cast-iron dish on a hob, then keep it warm with a small burner on the table. Dunk chunks of bread in the cheesy goo.
Our tip: rub garlic on the bread or add some to the dish – you’ll have cheesy breath anyway, so what the hell.
Tartiflette
Easy-peasy. Slice a whole Reblochon cheese lengthwise into two rounds. In an ovenproof dish, mix together slices of parboiled potatoes, crème fraiche, onions and lardons (diced bacon). Whack the cheese halves on top, bake for about 40 minutes at 180°C, and ta-da!
Our tip: more crème fraiche and more lardons (a sprinkle of nutmeg is also good).
Raclette
Named after the Swiss cheese, raclette is a combination of melting cheese, boiled potatoes, charcuterie and baby gherkins. The home raclette kit is an oval hotplate with a grill underneath and dishes to melt slices of cheese.
Our tip: avoid a sticky mess by greasing and preheating your grill, and go easy on the ingredients (less is more).
Picnic Perfect
oBaguette French simplicity at its best: buy a baguette from the boulangerie, stuff it with a chunk of Camembert, pâté and cornichons (miniature gherkins), or a few slices of rosette de Lyon or other salami and, voilà, picnic perfection! If you're sweet-toothed, do it the French-kid way – wedge a slab of milk chocolate inside.
oMacarons No sweeter way to end a gourmet picnic, most famously from Ladurée in Paris.
oKouign amann The world's most buttery, syrupy cake, aka Breton butter cake.
oFruit Big juicy black cherries from Apt, peaches, apricots and tomatoes from the Rhône Valley, Provence and the Riviera.
oProvençal olives or peppers Marinated and stuffed with a multitude of edible sins from market stands.
oChampagne from Reims and biscuits roses.
oCountry produce Pâté, walnuts and foie gras from the Dordogne.
Dining Lexicon
oAuberge Country inn serving traditional fare, often attached to a small hotel.
oFerme auberge Working farm that cooks up meals from local farm products; usually only dinner and frequently only by reservation.
oBistro (also spelled bistrot) Anything from a pub or bar with snacks and light meals to a small, fully fledged restaurant.
oNeobistro Trendy in Paris and large cities where this contemporary take on the traditional bistro embraces everything from checked-tablecloth tradition to contemporary minimalism.
oBrasserie Much like a cafe except it serves full meals, drinks and coffee from morning until 11pm or later. Typical fare includes choucroute (sauerkraut) and moules frites (mussels and fries).
oRestaurant Born in Paris in the 18th century, restaurants today serve lunch and dinner five or six days a week.
oBuffet (or buvette) Kiosk, usually at train stations and airports, selling drinks, filled baguettes and snacks.
oCafe Basic light snacks as well as drinks.
oCrêperie (also galetterie) Casual address specialising in sweet crêpes and savoury galettes (buckwheat crêpes).
oSalon de thé Trendy tearoom often serving light lunches (quiche, salads, cakes, tarts, pies and pastries) as well as green, black and herbal teas.
oTable d’hôte (literally ‘host’s table’) Some of the most charming B&Bs serve table d’hôte too, a delicious homemade meal of set courses with little or no choice.