Île-de-France (Paris)

Croissants covered with shaved almonds

Café liégeois is a French cold dessert made from lightly sweetened coffee, coffee-flavoured ice cream and Chantilly cream. Refrigerate a large glass filled with the required amount of sweetened coffee, and add the ice cream and Chantilly just prior to serving. Often crushed roasted coffee beans are put on top of the Chantilly as decoration.

A soufflé is a baked egg dish originating in France in the early 18th century. Combined with various other ingredients, it can be served as a savoury main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler, which means to blow, breathe, inflate or puff. The earliest mention of soufflé is attributed to the French master cook, Vincent La Chapelle, in the early eighteenth century. The development and popularisation of the soufflé is usually traced to the French chef Marie-Antoine Carême in the early nineteenth century.

A profiterole , chou à la crème ( French: [ʃu a la kʁɛm]), also known alternatively as a cream puff (US), is a filled French choux pastry ball with a typically sweet and moist filling of whipped cream, custard, pastry cream, or ice cream. The puffs may be embellished or left plain or garnished with chocolate sauce, caramel, or a dusting of powdered sugar. Savory profiterole are also made, filled with pureed meats, cheese, and so on. These were formerly common garnishes for soups. The various names may be associated with particular variants of filling or sauce in different places. Choux pastry dough is piped through a pastry bag or dropped with a pair of spoons into small balls and baked to form largely hollow puffs. After cooling, the baked profiteroles are injected with filling using a pastry bag and narrow piping tip, or by slicing off the top, filling them, and reassembling. For sweet profiteroles, additional glazes or decorations may then be added.

Fazuelos, also known as fijuelas, hiuelas, deblas, and hojuelas are pastries of thin fried dough. A type of rolled pastry, their origins trace back to Spain, with references dating back to the late Spanish Middle Ages. In Sephardic Jewish tradition these pastries, reminiscent of Esther's meguillah due to their characteristic rolled form which recall the shape of Haman's ears, hold cultural significance, particularly during the celebration of Purim. Historically, fazuelos were mentioned in literature, notably in Francisco Delicado's La Lozana Andaluza, where a Jewish woman named Aldonza reminisces about preparing the pastry while living in Andalusia, fleeing persecution from the Spanish Inquisition. Fazuelos are also made by non-Jewish communities, especially during the Christian festival of Semana Santa , which coincides closely with Purim. This cross-cultural adoption of the pastry is evidenced by its inclusion in some Christian Spanish cookbooks as early as 1599.

Floating island, meringue floating on crème anglaise (creme anglaise)

A cat tongue is a small biscuit or chocolate bar available in a number of European, Asian, and South American countries. The name comes from the fact that the biscuits are long and flat, somewhat like a cat's tongue. They are known locally as kočičí jazýčky (Czech), Kattentong (Dutch), kocie języczki (Polish), langue de chat (French), Katzenzungen (German), lingua di gatto (Italian), língua de gato (Portuguese), macskanyelv (Hungarian), lengua or lengua de gato (Spanish), limbă de pisică (Romanian) or lidah kucing (Indonesian). Cat's tongue cookies are sweet and crunchy. The original recipe most likely comes from 17th century France. They are produced from egg white, wheat flour, sugar, butter (sometimes) and vanilla. They are baked in the oven until cooked. Additional ingredients may include chocolate, citrus, and spices.

A mille-feuille ,[notes 1] also known by the names Napoleon in North America, vanilla slice in the United Kingdom, and custard slice, is a French dessert made of puff pastry layered with pastry cream. Its modern form was influenced by improvements made by Marie-Antoine Carême. Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), alternating with two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière). The top pastry layer is finished in various ways: sometimes it is topped with whipped cream, or it may be dusted with icing sugar, cocoa, pastry crumbs, or sliced almonds. It may also be glazed with icing or fondant alone, or in alternating white (icing) and brown (chocolate) or other colored icing stripes, and combed to create a marbled effect.

The pain à la grecque is a typical Brussels pastry consisting of a simple rectangle of milk bread, brown sugar, and cinnamon sprinkled with granulated sugar. The name does not refer to Greece, but is derived from grecht, a word in the local dialect meaning ditch.

Haitian cuisine is a Creole cuisine that originates from a blend of several culinary styles that populated the western portion of the island of Hispaniola, namely African, French, indigenous Taíno, Spanish, and Arab influences. Haitian cuisine has some similarities with "criollo" cooking and similar to the rest of the Caribbean, but differs in several ways from its regional counterparts. Flavors are bold and spicy demonstrating African and French influences, with notable derivatives coming from native Taíno and Spanish techniques. Levantine influences have made their way into the mainstream culture, due to an Arab migration over the years forming a community of shared Arab descent. Years of adaptation have led to these cuisines to merge into Haitian cuisine. Haiti was one of many Caribbean islands inhabited by the Taíno natives, speakers of an Arawakan language called Taíno. The barbecue originated in Haiti. The word 'barbecue' derives from the word barabicu, found in the language of the Taíno people of the Caribbean and entered European languages in the form barbacoa. Specifically, the Oxford English Dictionary translates the word as "framework of sticks set upon posts".

Layered flaky pastry with sweetened milk, nuts, amlu (amlou)

Peach Melba is a dessert of peaches and raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream. It was invented in 1892 or 1893 by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London, to honour the Australian soprano Nellie Melba. In 1892, operatic soprano Nellie Melba was performing in Wagner's opera Lohengrin at Covent Garden. The Duke of Orléans gave a dinner party at the Savoy to celebrate her triumph. For the occasion, Escoffier presented Nellie with a dessert of fresh peaches served over vanilla ice cream in a silver dish perched atop an ice sculpture of a swan, which is featured in the opera. He originally called the dish Pêche au cygne, or "peach with a swan."

Pastry with redcurrant jelly, raspberry jam or vanilla pastry cream

Pound cake is a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Pound cakes are generally baked in either a loaf pan or a Bundt mold. They are sometimes served either dusted with powdered sugar, lightly glazed with syrup, or with a coat of icing. The earliest recipe for pound cake is found in the English cook book The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse, published in 1747. The first U.S. cookbook, American Cookery, published in 1796, has a recipe for pound cake. Over time, the ingredients for pound cake changed. Eliza Leslie, who wrote the 1851 edition of Direction for Cookery, used 10 eggs, beat them as lightly as possible, mixed them with a pound of flour, then added the juice of two lemons or three large oranges. This changed the flavor and texture of the cake. In the 2008 issue of Saveur, James Villas wrote that cake flour would not work in place of all-purpose flour because it lacks the strength to support the heavy batter.

The St. Honoré cake, usually known by its French name gâteau St-Honoré, and also sometimes called St. Honoratus cake, is a pastry dessert named for the French patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, Saint Honoré or Honoratus , Bishop of Amiens. In 1847, it was invented by Auguste Julien, at the Chiboust bakery on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris. This classic French dessert is a circle of shortcrust pastry at its base with a ring of pâte à choux piped on the outer edge. Baked choux puffs are dipped in caramelized sugar and attached side by side on top of the circle of the pâte à choux. Traditionally granulated sugar was sprinkled directly on the pastry and finished by holding a red hot iron close to the surface, but modern versions may use chocolate-dipped profiterole or dip the puffs in caramel stabilized with corn syrup or glucose syrup. This base is traditionally filled with crème chiboust and finished with whipped cream using a special St. Honoré piping tip.

A large savory pie from French antiquity filled with more than 15 different meats, game, liver, foie gras and truffles

Pâté chaud , "hot pastry pie"), also known as patê sô, is a Vietnamese savory puff pastry. The pastry is made of a light layered and flaky exterior with a meat filling. Traditionally, the filling consists of ground pork, but chicken and beef are also now commonly used. This pastry is French-inspired but is now commonly found in bakeries in both Vietnam and the diaspora, much like the Haitian patty. The masculine French noun "pâté" in combination with "chaud" (hot) was the name of the "hot pie" in French colonial Vietnam. It was the same usage as in France at the time; for example, Urbain Dubois (1818–1901), in his La Cuisine classique of 1868, describes Pâté-chaud à la Marinière as a moulded meat pie. This wording is now obsolete in modern French where a pie is designated tourte, and pâté simply means "mixture of finely chopped meat". However, the more appropriate translation for the Vietnamese bánh patê sô would be "pâté en croûte", aka "mixture of meat in crust".

Pkaïla, also called bkaïla, bkeila, or pkela, is a Tunisian Jewish dish or condiment. It is one of the local variants of hamin, made from beans and spinach, as the name suggests. Pkaïla is often prepared for the holidays, accompanied by couscous or eaten alone.

Grilled fish

Marinated and grilled chicken, serve with tomatoes and onions

Sautéed chicken and vegetables, similar to chicken cacciatore in Italy

Pike quenelles (dumplings), typically served with sauce Nantua, a crayfish sauce, or sauce mousseline, a cream sauce

Peasant soup, vegetables, bacon, etc

Steak frites,[a] meaning "steak [and] fries" in the French language, is a dish consisting of a steak paired with fried potatoes. It is commonly served in Belgian and French brasseries, and is considered by some to be the national dish of Belgium, which claims to be the country of origin. Historically, the rump steak was commonly used for this dish. Today, more commonly, the steak is an entrecôte also called rib eye, or scotch fillet , pan-fried rare ("saignant"—literally "bloody"), in a pan reduction sauce, sometimes with hollandaise or béarnaise sauce, served with deep-fried potatoes

Calf’s head, or [la] tête de veau , [la] testina di vitèllo (Italian; pl.: [le] testine di vitèllo), [der] Kalbskopf (German; pl.: [die] Kalbsköpfe) and [de] kalfskop (Dutch; pl.: [de] kalfskoppen) is a dish consisting of a calf's head, commonly found in French, Belgian, German, Swiss, and Italian cuisine. The French delicacy [la] tête de veau ("calf's head") is also called [la] cervelle de veau ("calf's brain", pl. [les] cervelles de veau).

Savory caramelized tomato tart

Poultry reared in Houdan, Île-de-France, France

Poultry reared in Île-de-France, France

Amatriciana sauce, known in Italian as amatriciana , is a sauce made with tomatoes, guanciale (cured pork cheek), pecorino romano cheese, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil, dry white wine, and salt. Originating in the comune (municipality) of Amatrice (in the mountainous province of Rieti of the Lazio region), the amatriciana is one of the best known pasta sauces in present-day Roman and Italian cuisine. The Italian government has named it a prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale (PAT) of Lazio, and amatriciana tradizionale is registered as a traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) in the EU and the UK. Amatriciana derives from a dish called pasta alla gricia. The origin of the word gricia is unclear. In papal Rome, the grici were sellers of common edible foods, who got this name because many of them came from Valtellina, at that time a possession of the Swiss canton of Grigioni. According to another hypothesis, it is named after the frazione (hamlet) of Grisciano, in the comune (municipality) of Accumoli, near Amatrice. The sauce—nowadays named also amatriciana bianca—was, and still is, prepared with guanciale (cured pork cheek) and grated pecorino romano. At some point, a little olive oil was added to the recipe. In the 1960s, amatriciana sauce was still prepared in this way in Amatrice itself.

Avocado stuffed with shrimp

Sauce bercy is a classic sauce of French cuisine. The main ingredients are fish stock, velouté sauce, white wine, shallots and butter. Auguste Escoffier wrote in Le guide culinaire that sauce bercy is made to be served alongside fish.

Bleu des Causses is a French blue cheese made from whole cow's milk. Some consider it as a mild variant of Roquefort. The cheese has a fat content of 45% and is aged for 3–6 months in Gorges du Tarn's natural limestone caves. The ripening process involving naturally temperature-controlled cellars is the major element that gives it its special aroma. Today, it is a relatively rare cheese that is only made by a handful of small producers. The Bleu des Causses shares an ancient history with the Roquefort, in a time where the cheese was made from mixed milk from a cow and a sheep, or pure milk from one or the other, based on the season and the cheesemaker.

Brie de Meaux is a French brie cheese of the Brie region and a designated AOC product since 1980. Its name comes from the town of Meaux in the Brie region. As of 2003, 6,774 tonnes were produced annually. Brie de Meaux is made from cow's milk, with an average weight of 2.8 kg (6.2 lb) for a diameter of 36 to 37 cm (14 to 15 in). It has a soft, delicate white rind. The interior of the cheese is straw-yellow, creamy and soft. A modern legend identifies as Brie de Meaux a certain cheese dating to the seventh century, "rich and creamy", with an edible white rind that in the 774 AD Frankish Emperor Charlemagne first tasted in the company of a bishop and approved, requiring two cartloads to be sent to Aachen annually; the site, not mentioned in the anecdotal but unreliable ninth-century life of Charlemagne, De Carolo Magno by Notker the Stammerer, has become associated with the monastery traditionally founded by Rado in Reuil-en-Brie.

Brie is a soft cow's-milk cheese named after Brie (itself from Gaulish briga ("hill, height")), the French region from which it originated (roughly corresponding to the modern département of Seine-et-Marne). It is pale in colour with a slight greyish tinge under a rind of white mould. The rind is typically eaten, with its flavour depending largely upon the ingredients used and its manufacturing environment. It is similar to Camembert, which is native to a different region of France. Brie typically contains between 60% and 75% butterfat, slightly higher than Camembert. "Brie" is a style of cheese, and is not in itself a protected name, although some regional bries are protected. Brie may be produced from whole or semi-skimmed milk. The curd is obtained by adding rennet to raw milk and warming it to a maximum temperature of 37 °C (98.6 °F). The cheese is then cast into moulds, sometimes with a traditional perforated ladle called a pelle à brie. The 20 cm (8 in) mould is filled with several thin layers of cheese and drained for approximately 18 hours. The cheese is then taken out of the moulds, salted, inoculated with cheese culture (Penicillium camemberti or Brevibacterium linens), and aged in a controlled environment for at least four or five weeks.

Brillat-Savarin is a soft-ripened triple cream cow's milk cheese with at least 72% fat in dry matter (roughly 40% overall). It has a natural, bloomy rind. It was created c. 1890 as "Excelsior" or "Délice des gourmets" ("Gourmets' delight") by the Dubuc family, near Forges-les-Eaux in Seine-Maritime. Brillat-Savarin is produced all year round mainly in Burgundy. Father and son cheesemakers Pierre and Henri Androuët renamed it in the 1930s, as an homage to 18th-century French gourmet and political figure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. It comes in 12–13 cm (4.7–5.1 in) wheels approximately 4 cm thick, and is matured for one to two weeks in dry cellar. It is also available as a fresh cheese (non affiné) that resembles rich cream cheese. It is a triple cream soft-ripened cheese that is luscious, creamy and faintly sour.

Gros Pain is a type of French bread, often referred to as "big bread," characterized by its long shape and crusty exterior. It is similar to a baguette but can be larger and is known for its soft texture and rich flavor.

L'Explorateur is a soft-ripened French triple cream cow's-milk cheese made in the Île-de-France region of France. Created in the 1950s, it was named to honor the first US Satellite, Explorer. As a triple creme, the fat content of its dry matter is about 75%.: 215  It has a squat cylindrical shape, and has a smooth, unpressed texture.: 215  Its name is a registered trademark of its manufacturer.

Méréville watercress salad typically features fresh watercress, which is known for its peppery flavor, often combined with ingredients like olive oil, lemon juice, and other vegetables. This salad is a light and refreshing dish that highlights the unique taste of the locally grown watercress from Méréville, France.

Meaux mustard

Pain de campagne , also called "French sourdough", is typically a large round loaf ("miche") made from either natural leavening or baker's yeast. Most traditional versions of this bread are made with a combination of white flour with whole wheat flour and/or rye flour, water, leavening and salt. For centuries, French villages had communal ovens where the townsfolk would bring their dough to be baked, and the loaves weighed from 1.5 to 5.5 kilograms (3–12 lb). Such large loaves would feed a family for days or weeks, until the next baking day. Before the advent of roller milling, virtually all wheat was milled by stone grinding. In order to produce a lighter, less chewy bread, the whole wheat flour was sifted or bolted using mesh or cloth. This resulted in a whiter flour that still retained some of the bran and germ. The addition of rye flour in some recipes probably originates from the presence of rye growing among the wheat. All the grain was harvested together, and as much as 10 percent of it would be rye. Rye flour ferments more quickly than wheat flour, and it imparts a distinctive flavor to traditional pains de campagne. With the rise of commercial yeast at the turn of the 20th century, pain de campagne fell out of favor in French cities, where it was replaced by the baguette. However, with the rise of artisan breads in the 1970s, pain de campagne has been growing in popularity, both in Europe and the US.

Country pâté, serve with bread and wine

Duchess potatoes consist of a purée of mashed potato, egg yolk, and butter, which is forced from a piping bag or hand-moulded into various shapes which are then baked in a high temperature oven until golden. They are typically seasoned similarly to mashed potatoes with, for example, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. They are a classic item of French cuisine, and are found in historic French cookbooks. The first known recipe for the dish was published in La Nouvelle Cuisinière Bourgeoise in 1746. The phrase à la duchesse became an appellation in French cuisine for any dish incorporating a mashed potato/egg yolk mixture. Recipes for duchess potatoes have been published in American cookbooks since at least 1878. In her 1896 cookbook, Fannie Farmer described the creative potential of duchess potatoes, writing: "Shape, using pastry bag and tube, in form of baskets, pyramids, crowns, leaves, roses, etc. Brush over with beaten egg diluted with one teaspoon water, and brown in a hot oven." In 1902, the Boston Cooking School published a duchess potatoes recipe in its magazine. French cookbook author Auguste Escoffier described duchesse potatoes in his highly influential cookbook Le Guide Culinaire, first published in 1903. During the Great Depression, the U.S. federal government cooperated with a dozen state agricultural agencies to improve potato breeding. The U.S. Bureau of Home Economics encouraged consumers to try less common potato dishes, such as duchess potatoes. World War II led to domestic food shortages in the U.S., especially of butter, meat and canned foods. In January 1943, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt released menus for nine family meals served at the White House. One dinner included meatloaf and duchess potatoes. In 1949, the New York Times was promoting duchess potatoes surrounding roast chicken or roast fish as an elegant but inexpensive dining alternative to beef. When Craig Claiborne graduated eighth in his class from the École hôtelière de Lausanne in 1954, his final examination included preparing fish in white wine, with velouté sauce, hollandaise sauce and duchess potatoes.

Fried potato cake made with julienned potato straws

Pommes soufflées are a variety of French fried potato. Slices of potato are fried twice, once at 150 °C and a second time after being cooled, at 190 °C (374 °F). The potato slices puff up into little pillows during the second frying and turn golden brown. Pommes soufflées were, according to a famous legend, discovered by chance on 24 August 1837, when Queen Marie-Amélie and other notables were delayed in their arrival for a meal at the Pavillon Henri IV [fr] in Yvelines after inaugurating the first passenger steam-powered railway in Paris, France. Chef Jean-Louis-François Collinet, reputedly also the inventor of sauce béarnaise, removed the potatoes from the fryer half cooked. After the royal party had arrived, during serving time, he observed the potatoes expand when they were returned to the oil. This story has been disputed on a number of grounds.

Haitian beet salad

Creamy garlic and herb sauce, used with frites (fries), pitas, kebabs