31 Best French Foods

France is one of the most famous destinations in the world thanks to beautiful architectures, long history, unique culture, and especially its rich cuisine. There are hundreds of amazing foods to try in France. Here is a list of best French foods:

Baguette

Baguette is a long, thin, crisp outside loaf made from basic lean dough, yeast, water, and salt. It has been the most iconic French food so that there is no need to describe more about it. Your trip to France could not be complete if this food is missed.

Steak frites

Steak frites, meaning steak and fries, consists of steak and French fries (allumette-cut deep-fried potatoes).

Steak tartare

Steak tartare is a meat dish made from raw ground meat (commonly beef, sometimes horsemeat), served with capers, onions, pepper and Worcestershire sauce, raw egg yolk, and bread.

Moules Marinières

Moules Marinières, which is considered as a fast food in France, consists of boiled mussels, cooked chopped shallots, thyme leaves, bay leaf, wine, and butter. The dish is usually accompanied by large hunks of crusty baguette.

Croque Monsieur

Croque Monsieur is a baked or fried cheese and boiled ham sandwich. To make this food, put boiled ham between slices of bread, top with grated cheese, salt, and pepper, then bake in an oven or fry in a pan.

Coq au vin

Coq au vin is a stew dish of chicken braised with mushrooms, wine (typically red wine), lardons, sometimes garlic.

Cassoulet

Cassoulet slow-cooked casserole originating in the south of France, containing meat (typically pork sausages, duck, goose, sometimes mutton), pork skin, and white beans. The dish is cooked in cassole – a deep, round, earthenware pot with slanting sides.

Bouillabaisse

Bouillabaisse is fish stew which distinguishes from others by provençal herbs and spices, bony local Mediterranean fish, and the way the fish are added one at a time, and brought to a boil. The dish also includes shellfish, sea urchins, mussels, velvet crabs, octopus, spider crabs.

Bœuf Bourguignon

Bœuf Bourguignon is a beef stew dish containing beef and vegetables (carrots, onions, garlic) braised in red wine, beef broth. The stew is often garnished with pearl onions, mushrooms, and bacon.

Blanquette de veau

Blanquette de veau is a French veal ragout in which veal is cooked in a white stock or water with aromatic flavorings, cream, and egg yolks.

Duck confit

Duck confit is a French dish made with duck (usually duck leg) which is fried or grilled in fat until well-browned and crisp. Accompaniments can be potatoes roasted in duck fat and red cabbage slow-braised with apples and red wine.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a French stewed vegetable dish consisting of various vegetables including tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, garlic, onions, fennel, marjoram, basil, bay leaves, thyme leaves. Different vegetables are cooked separately, then combined and cooked slowly together until they are smooth, creamy enough.

Escargot

Escargots are a French delicacy consisting of cooked edible land snail (most often Helix pomatia). To make this dish, The snail meat is removed from the shells, then cooked with various ingredients such as garlic butter, chicken stock or wine, thyme, parsley, pine nuts and put back into the shells with butter and sauce.

Gratin Dauphinois

Gratin Dauphinois is a French dish of sliced potatoes baked in milk, cooked in a buttered dish rubbed with garlic.

Blood sausage

Blood sausages are filled with blood, which is cooked or dried, then and mixed with a filler until they are thick enough to solidify when cooled. Fillers can be cream with apples or onions.

Rillettes

Rillettes are a preparation of meat, looking like pâté, commonly made from pork. To make Rillettes, cubed or chopped meat is salted heavily, then cooked slowly in fat until tender enough to be easily shredded, and then cooled with fat. They are normally served as spread on bread or toast at room temperature.

Foie gras

Foie gras is a French popular and well-known delicacy made of the liver of a duck or goose that has been especially fattened. It is considered as one of the most luxury food products in the world.

Quenelle

Quenelle is a mixture of pike (creamed fish) or meat,  breadcrumbs, egg, formed into an egg-like shape, and then cooked.

Salade nicoise

Salade nicoise is a combination of hard-boiled eggs, tuna, anchovies, lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, and olives.

Crêpe

Crêpe is a type of very thin pastry (sweet or savory), filled with a variety of filings. Sweet ones are made with wheat flour, butter, milk, water, eggs, flour, salt, and sugar. Fillings of sweet Crêpes include maple syrup, golden syrup, Nutella spread, whipped cream, fruit spreads, fruit preserves, sugar, lemon juice,  custard, and sliced soft fruits. To make Savory crêpes, they use non-wheat flours such as buckwheat. Filling for the savory ones are cheese, ham, eggs, meat products, ratatouille, mushrooms, and artichoke.

Soufflé

Soufflé is a baked egg-based dish, served as a dessert or a savory main dish. The dish consists of two basic components: egg whites providing puffiness and cream sauce as the base. Sweet versions are flavored with banana, lemon, berries, chocolate. Savory Soufflé can be flavored with herbs, vegetables, cheese.

Quiche

Quiche is a savory open flan consisting of pastry crust and filling made with eggs, cheese, meat, milk or cream, and seafood or vegetables. Quiche is usually round, cut into pieces to be served hot or cold.

Tarte flambee

Best French foods

Tarte flambee is a type of crispy, thin-crust pizza, usually topped with crème fraîche, thinly sliced onions, and lardons.

Socca

Socca is a type of pancake made with chickpea flour and olive oil, usually seasoned with black pepper, served hot and better eaten with your fingers.

Croissant

Best French foods

Croissant is a buttery, flaky, viennoiserie pastry with crescent shape, made of a layered yeast-leavened dough. In France, croissants are generally made without filling, sometimes filled with almond.

Tarte Tatin

Best French foods

Tarte Tatin is an upside-down pastry. To make this food, caramelize fruits (commonly apples) in butter and sugar, then bake the tart with caramelized fruits.

Macaron

Macaron is a sweet meringue-based confection consisting of filling (buttercream, jam, ganache) sandwiched between two round cookies made with egg white, granulated sugar, icing sugar, almond powder (or ground almond), food coloring, etc. Macarons are mildly moist, easily melting in the mouth. There is a number of varieties of Macarons flavors including raspberry, chocolate, matcha, foie gras.

Madeleine

Best French foods

Madeleine is a very small sponge cake which has a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Ingredients for this cake are flour, butter, eggs, sugar, grated lime, orange blossom, sometimes ground nuts (usually almonds).

Pain au chocolat

Best French foods

Pain au chocolat is a type of viennoiserie sweet roll consisting of a cuboid-shaped piece of yeast-leavened laminated dough, similar in texture to a puff pastry and filled with one or two pieces of dark chocolate. The roll is usually sold hot, it is kept warm in the oven.

Crème brûlée

Best French foods

Crème brûlée or Burnt cream, Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of rich custard base topped with a texturally contrasting layer of hardened caramelized sugar, usually flavored with vanilla.

Profiteroles

Profiterole is a filled French choux pastry ball typically filled with custard, pastry cream, whipped cream, or ice cream, decorated or left plain or garnished with caramel, chocolate sauce, or powdered sugar. Savory versions of Profiterole are filled with pureed meats, cheese.

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