A nation’s culinary heritage tells us much about the history and culture of the country. Some of the most cherished French foods are annual gastronomic customs and seasonal delights that appear briefly, exciting childhood memories and recalling generations of tradition.
Unless you spend a year in France, you’ll miss many of France’s epicurean customs. So, we grabbed our tote bag and headed to the marché to condense four seasons of gourmet delights into one tantalising post.
Religious holidays, special events, and seasonal produce make an appearance in a tour of French foods to intrigue gourmands and anyone interested in the country’s culture.
We’ve included some classic French recettes in this post so you can bring a taste of France’s culinary tradition home. If you want to sound like a seasoned French chef, start your language-learning journey with a free lesson from Language Atlas.
Le dîner de Noël
Christmas dinner is the biggest gourmet event of the year in many countries, including France. It’s a bountiful time to start a mouthwatering tour of seasonal French foods.
Christmas dinner in France is invariably a meticulously planned multi-course feast. Every feast looks different for la grande fête, but a handful of French foods consistently reappear on dining tables across the country.
The main Christmas dinner in France happens on the 24th, le dîner de Réveillon. If lucky, you may be treated to a second helping on Christmas Day. Although you may question your luck when indigestion inevitably follows.
A big roasted bird
Turkeys don’t always take pride of place on the French dinner table at Christmas. You’re just as likely to see a chapon (capon), poularde, or pintade (guinea fowl). Or even a chapon de pintade.
A chapon is a fattened cockerel. A chapon de Bresse, named after its region of origin,is considered one of the finest French roasts at Christmas. The most succulent poulardes, a spayed chicken matured for at least 120 days, are also reared in Bresse.
Guinea fowl (pintade) is a popular alternative, especially a fattened chapon de pintade bred for dinner parties.
Foie Gras
Foie Gras is, perhaps, the most infamous of all French foods. Yet, there is no ignoring its immense popularity at Christmas.
Typically made with the force-fed (gavage) liver of ducks and geese, it’s a luxurious delicacy that fills supermarket fridges in December. It’s a very common entrée served with fig or onion confit and maybe some fruity or spiced bread (pain d’épices).
Several grades of foie gras are sold in France: foie gras entier (entire lobes), foie gras, and bloc de foie gras (pre-cooked and moulded into blocks, sometimes avec morceaux, with morsels).
Ethical alternatives are slowly gaining traction in France. Alongside vegetarian versions, some farmers make foie gras with duck and geese allowed to gorge naturally and culled when they are fat. You can expect to pay a premium for this type of foie gras, but one of the most decadent French foods is always a rare treat for special occasions.
Saumon Fumé – Smoked salmon
Smoked salmon is almost as highly-prized as foie gras during Noël. Typically served with a simple garnish of lemon and mayonnaise, it’s another Christmas dinner table essential that consumes swathes of supermarket refrigerator space every December.
Bûche de Noël
After several hours of stuffing yourself silly, you’ll still need to find room for dessert. A bûche de Noël, a Christmas log, is not exclusively French. But like so many cherished French foods, it’s taken to another level in the hands of skilled pâtissiers.
Patisseries across France craft many sophisticated versions, from signature creations to inventive masterpieces. The only limit is the imagination of the pastry chef and the constraints of making a gateau that resembles a log.
Les huîtres (oysters)
Just as your stomach recovers after an epic multi-course Christmas dinner, Réveillon de Nouvel an (La Saint-Sylvestre) – New Year’s Eve — quickly arrives and demands yet another festive food blowout.
Unlike Christmas eve, partying might be the main course, with popular drinks elevated up the pecking order. Otherwise, you can expect another banquet at which many Christmas favourites make a cameo appearance.
One festive essential is oysters, les huîtres. Few French foods divide opinion like oysters, considered a Christmas and New Year’s Eve requisite by those who can’t get enough of them. Just be wary of anyone recommending them as a morning-after ‘hangover cure’. They often have the opposite effect…
Winter foods that warm French appetites
Winter is a bumper season for gastronomes who want to sample some of the most popular annual French foods. Noël is just the beginning of a season filled with foodie favourites.
Galette des Rois / Gâteau des rois
You don’t have to wait long to wash away the taste of oysters with something sweet. For the 12th day of Christmas, one of the most traditional French foods appears in boulangeries, the galette des Rois (cake of Kings).
Conceived to mark Epiphany but scoffed throughout January, the tarte is also called the cake of three kings. Underlining the symbolism, galettes des Rois are usually displayed with a golden crown.
Typically made with buttery puff pastry filled with frangipane, hidden inside is a teeth-cracking figurine called the fève. Aside from keeping dentists busy, the fève represents the gifts of the three kings or the birth of Christ. Although you’re as likely to find a Star Wars figure as a catholic icon nowadays.
The ‘winner’ of the fève customarily buys the next galette des rois. Which could easily be the following day because nobody wants to wait another year.
Black Périgord Truffles
Truffles from Périgord are a seasonal ingredient par excellence. Inimitably fragrant and richly flavoured, the exceedingly expensive mushrooms are highly prized by chefs across the country.
The hotly anticipated Périgord truffle season runs from December to February. The legendary Fête de la Truffe à Sarlat (The truffle festival of Sarlat) is the headline event. Happening every January in the Dordogne département, it brings together truffle connoisseurs for a weekend that ripples through the haute-cuisine restaurant scene.
Tête de veau
Okay, a calf’s head (tête de veau) is not exactly a dinner table staple. But tradition holds that it is a special dinner served on 21st January. Why? That was the date Louis XVI was guillotined in 1793.
The symbolism is palpable. It could be worse. The dish was once made with a pig’s head, reflecting how the unfortunate Louis was depicted in the contemporary media.
These days, you will struggle to find anyone serving tête de veau other than republican clubs celebrating the revolution. Everyone else is happy to let the tradition disappear, much like the monarchy.
Chandeleur – pancake day
France rarely needs a reason to flip some crêpes, one of the most in-demand French foods any time of the year. But La Fête de la Chandeleur is a reason everyone can get behind.
Pancake day in France is out of step with other countries and is celebrated on the 40th day after Christmas. That’s Candlemas in the Christian calendar or Chandeleur in French.
Once upon a time, it was all about savoury crêpes (galettes). Many people skip straight to the sweet versions. Lemon, sugar, Nutella, confiture, and more accompany crêpes for Chandeleur.
They also come with a side-helping of superstition, like hoping for a rain-free day. Otherwise, there’ll be 40 days of rain to follow.
Mardi Gras
Sugar lovers rejoice. Crêpes are back on the menu again just a few weeks after Chandeleur. The pre-Lent festival earns its name in France. While much of the world focuses on pancakes, France mixes things up with a variety of comforting foods on Fat Tuesday.
Among the toothsome French foods dished out at Mardi Gras carnivals in France are beignets (filled doughnuts) and bottereaux. Fat and sugar are the key ingredients, helping hike the calorie count for a fast that nobody participates in.
Bottereaux are simply sugary balls of fried dough akin to a beignet. And ridiculously moreish. Almost as moreish are chichis, which are freshly-made churros with a different name and a food truck favourite at community events.
Spring foods in France
Le printemps est dans l’air from March to May, with several French foods lighting up dining tables as the days become lighter and warmer.
Mont D’Or cheese
Grab a spoon and a crusty baguette because spring is the final chance to enjoy irresistibly ripe Mont D’Or cheese.
Made in the Département du Doubs in Franche-Comté, this unusual cheese is only made from August to March. Liquid at room temperature and made for sharing and scooping, it is another of those quintessentially French foods that won’t hang around for long. After March, it’s a long wait for the next batch.
Saison des asperges – asparagus season
Asparagus season is a much-anticipated event in the French foodie calendar, as it is in other parts of Europe.
Harvested using traditional methods in fields across France, the finest is white asparagus from the sandy soils of Landes. Like all prized French foods, asperge des sables des Landes holds regional protection and is in a class of its own.
But even if you can’t get your hands on the finest spears, the season is still a foodie favourite. Whether made with green, purple, or white spears, most recipes in France call for a simple vinegarette or hollandaise sauce to let the bright yet earthy flavours shine through.
Repas de Pâques – Easter meal
Easter in France looks much like the rest of Europe. A chasse aux œufs (egg hunt) followed by overindulging on recovered chocolate. A gigot d’agneau (leg of lamb) is a mainstay on the dinner table.
Dessert might be a petits nids de Pâques (little Easter nests): an almond cake decorated with frosting with sugar or chocolate eggs on top. Like many delicate French foods, they look as good as they taste.
Summer foods in France
Al fresco dining is on the agenda in the summer, as people kick back to enjoy the sun. We’ve picked out several French foods that excite tastebuds during the languid holiday season.
Melons (Charentais and melon du Quercy)
Seasonal produce is plentiful in summer. Fraisier des bois (wild strawberries), pêches (peaches) from Languedoc, and meaty Marmande d’Antan tomatoes are perennial favourites. But nothing excites market-goers quite like ripe, fragrant melons.
The juiciest and freshest melons are sold from roadside stalls across the Charente and Quercy regions. But they’ll spill over into markets around France during the summer.
Cleave the sweet orange flesh into slices for an instant picnic. Add a little salty jambon de Bayonne and some mozzarella to transform the humble fruit into fruity brochettes, one of the easiest and most flavoursome summer dishes.
Salade Niçoise
Dreamt up in Nice on the French Riviera, Salade Niçoise is one of France’s best-known culinary exports.
The medley of tomatoes, eggs, salade, olives, and anchovies (or tuna) doused in olive oil or vinaigrette is an incredibly versatile dish.
Salade Niçoise ingredients are shuffled to fit the season, making it one of those rare summery French foods with year-round appeal. Yet it truly zings when sunshine and tomatoes reach their peak and will forever be associated with balmy beach holidays along the Côte d’Azur.
Le Grand Aïoli
Unsurprisingly, many of the brightest summery French foods hail from Provence, the land of dreamy beachside holidays along the Mediterranean. If you love garlicky aïoli and plates bursting with colour and variety, you’ll love this sunshine special.
All you need is a plate of crudites, some quality dipping ingredients, and a large bowl of thick aïoli. Common dipping ingredients included fruits de mer (fruits of the sea or seafood), various crunchy vegetables like green beans or courgettes, and whatever else you have in the kitchen.
Le Grand Aïoli is a dish you can prepare ahead so that everybody — including hosts — can sit down and enjoy an uninterrupted evening of indulgence.
Autumn French foods
With crunchy leaves on the ground and a nip in the air, several French foods return to dining tables across the country. Light summer dishes are out, warming plates heaving with molten cheese and calories are in for la saison de l’automne.
Raclette
Reportedly the nation’s favourite dish, raclette enlivens dinner parties across France in autumn. Ideal for a convivial get-together sans fuss, raclette takes its name from the cheese that binds the whole gastronomic experience.
All that’s needed is an appareil à raclette, a hot plate with trays for melting the cheese, and stacks of sliced raclette cheese of various types (smoked, peppered, aged etc.). Fill the table with piles of steaming potatoes, mixed charcuterie, and perhaps some pickles for a serve-yourself meal perfect for socialising.
Just add some good company for one of the tastiest and least demanding French foods guaranteed to please everybody, including hosts whose work ends when the hot plate is turned on.
Fondue Savoyarde
A not-too-distant cousin of raclette is Fondue Savoyarde. It’s another Swiss import the French have embraced as their own.
Especially popular in ski resorts and mountain restaurants, Fondue Savoyarde is much like the Swiss iteration. In France, it is typically made with several Savoie cheeses like Abondance, Emmental, and Beaufort blended with white wine. Serve with that most emblematic of French foods, crusty fresh bread, and a few slices of charcuterie for an alpine classic to warm the coldest spirits.
Tartiflette
Potatoes, cheese, and the Savoie region come together again for one of the most satisfying French dishes, tartiflette.
Taritflette is an uncomplicated dish of potatoes, garlic, lardons (bacon), and onions smothered in unctuous reblochon cheese. Baked and served with bread, it is a hearty alpine dish that makes the nights feel a little warmer.
When you tire of potatoes, Croziflette takes all the best parts and swaps them for pasta pieces. It works because nobody ever gets bored of reblochon and lardons.
Having teased our appetites through four seasons of delicious French foods, we reach the end of this gastronomic tour. Hopefully we’ve fired you appetite with some insight into how tradition and seasons influence French cuisine. And, perhaps, some inspiration on what to cook next. |