French Food

French cuisine is indeed a unique style of food preparation that has developed from centuries of social change in the nation. Looking as far back as the middle ages, one can look at Guillaume Tirel (a court chef), who authored the book “Le Viandier,” which is one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France.

Moving forward to the 17th century, the notable chefs of Napoleon and other dignitaries began using fewer spices in their cuisine and substituted it with herbs and creamy ingredients – this signaled the beginning of modern cuisine in France. If you didn’t know already, both cheese and wine are a huge part of French cuisine – they both play different roles in food regionally and nationally.

It wasn’t until the 20th century when French cuisine was officially organized by Escoffier – who left out much of the regional culinary character that is found in many regions of France. Since then however, many dishes that were once regional have grown to be very popular nationally and even internationally. French cooking is so popular that it has contributed significantly to Western cuisines – in fact, French cuisine criteria are used widely in Western cookery school boards and general culinary education.

Regional Cuisines

Since France is divided into 22 distinct political regions – each of these regions offer their own unique cuisine. There are certain dishes however that are common across the country, for example, apple tart is prepared differently in every region but every recipe always adheres to the basic premise of fresh apples, a light pasty, and a minimum amount of sugar. Let’s take a look at some of the regional cuisines:

Paris and Île-de-France

Since Paris and Île-de-France are central regions of France, almost anything from the country is available in this region. There are over 9,000 restaurants in Paris where almost every cuisine from all other regions can be found.

Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardy, Normandy, and Brittany

Since the coastline in this area supplies many crustaceans, monkfish, sea bass, and herring, Normandy offers top quality seafood and is also home to a large population of apple trees. The northern areas of this region (Nord) farm plenty of wheat, sugar beets and chicory. Some of the other regional cuisines include:

Champagne, Lorraine, and Alsace
Loire Valley and central France
Burgundy and Franche-Comté
Lyon-Rhône-Alpes
Poitou-Charentes and Limousin
Bordeaux, Périgord, Gascony, and Basque country
Toulouse, Quercy, and Aveyron
Roussillon, Languedoc, and Cévennes
Provence and Côte d’Azur Corsica

With all the different regional cuisines, French cuisine offers one of the most varieties in their food of any other nation. Additionally, French cuisine also varies according to the season – for example, salads and fruit dishes are more popular in the summer because they are refreshing and readily available. The ingredients for most regional cuisines are also harvested regionally – the vegetables are grown locally, the meat is farmed locally, and most other ingredients (e.g., herbs and spices) are harvested locally.

So, if you ever plan to travel to France and happen to stumble upon Paris, it would be a wasted trip if you don’t try at least a few of the different cuisines they have to offer – you’ll love it, guaranteed!