Typical French Christmas food

It’s the beginning of December, the end of the year holidays are approaching and you are in the middle of preparing your holiday meals? Do you want to propose typical French christmas food? We have prepared a selection of the best typically French festive foods, from the Christmas log to champagne or oysters… Your taste buds will be captivated by each and every one of the main festive foods of the end of the year.

Champagne

How to celebrate the festive season without a good bottle of French champagne! First of all, we present you a selection of bottle of French champagne, a typical French christmas food.

But do you know when champagne was first created?

The creation of Champagne is due to chance. Champagne wine growers wanted to imitate the wines of Burgundy. But they did not succeed, due to the cold winter that caused the wines to stop fermenting. This cold climate made it possible to create the champagne that we all know now. Because the dormant yeast cells woke up again in the spring and started fermenting again, causing the release of carbon dioxide from the wine in the bottle.

• Cuvée Louise 2004, Champagne Pommery.

This cuvee bottle of French champagne from the house of Pommery is a tribute to Louise Pommery. It is a wine of absolute purity that expresses the quintessence of the House’s exceptional oenological expertise. Purity, elegance and rich flavors of hazelnut butter, yeast and frangipane, are at the rendezvous, with this cuvée composed of 3 Grands Crus (Avize, Aÿ and Cramant).

• Cuvée PN VZ 15, Champagne Bollinger.

This cuvée places Bollinger among the top names in bottle of French Champagne. It was mainly elaborated from Pinot Noir grapes from Verzenay in 2015, with a touch of Pinot Noir from Aÿ, Bouz and Tauxières that goes back to 2009. Vinified and aged in oak barrels for more than 3 years. It was then disgorged and dosed in Brut (7 grams per liter).

The blend of fine bubbles, full of freshness and the association of reserve wines brings an aromatic depth of fruit and notes of hazelnut and acacia flower, giving a rare balance to this bottle of French champagne.

• Alian Thiénot 2007, Champagne Thiénot.

This bottle of French champagne is an exceptional vintage, since it is made when conditions are optimal and this happens only about twice a decade.

It is a blend of half Chardonnay and half Pinot Noir.

The Chardonnay brings a touch of freshness and vivacity to the Alain Thiénot cuvée which also has a fine and elegant side, giving it aromas of oriental flowers, dried fruit and praline.

• Cuvée Alpha Rosé 2012, Champagne Jacquart.

The Cuvee Alpha Rosé 2012 of the house Jacquart is a fruity and sweet bottle French champagne wine which represents the excellence of the house. This cuvée is the fourth in the Alpha collection but only the second in rosé.

The mineral signature is punctuated by a salinity that calls for gastronomy.

The finish reveals concentration and a freshness characterized by blood orange and grapefruit.

It is a fine and harmonious, bottle French champagne, all in balance. Since it is composed of a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir of which 15% was vinified as red wine, then for a minimum of seven years there was a maturation on the lees.

It is a typical French christmas food accompanied by a box of natural wood and contemporary materials, designed by Barbara Asei Dantoni, who was inspired by the spirit of Champagne Jacquart. It is a box that perfectly matches this vintage, thanks to its prestigious side. It is therefore ideal to offer or to take out for an occasion.

Christmas log

If you are looking for a typical French christmas food, the Christmas log is a key element of the festive season.  Originally the tradition of the Christmas log is not a dessert but simply a piece of wood. This tradition was especially widespread in Europe before the arrival of electricity. Shortly before Christmas, we had to rigorously select a fruit tree trunk or stump, so that it would burn as long as possible. This tradition had to follow a precise ritual. It consisted in cutting the log before sunrise, then decorating it with foliage and ribbons, and then placing it in the fire.

Nowadays the Christmas log has a completely different meaning, since it is now mainly part of the desserts at the end of the year celebrations.

We have prepared a selection of Christmas logs for you.

• Passiflora, Fruttini by MO

For the festive season you are looking for originality for your Christmas logs? Fruttini by MO offers you two original iced logs, they are imagined by Marie-Laure Pollet and Ollivia Berdah.

The house makes 100% handmade sorbets from the pulp of the original fruit, water and little sugar.

This 100% vegan and low sugar log is composed of a coconut and mango and passion fruit sorbet. The whole is coated with coconut chips, macadamia and praline.

• Elegance, La Maison Hugo & Victor

Once again the House of Hugo & Victor proposes an original collaboration with their new creation, the log ” Élégance. A blend of champagne, grapefruit and lychee. The house has teamed up with Champagne Barons de Rothschild to offer us this typical French christmas food. Because, what better way to delight our taste buds than to combine a Christmas log and champagne! The chef Hugues Pouget and the General Manager of Champagne Barons de Rothschild, Frédéric Mairesse, have perfectly combined the sparkling cuvée rosée and the delicate blend of grapefruit and lychee, offering a beautiful, gourmet and original Christmas log.

• Buche Arabesque , Angelina

The Angelina house invites us to spend a gourmet Christmas with its signature log. This creation is as elegant as it is gourmet. Since the Arabesque Log is made of a blend of spicy apples and pears with a delicious heart of flowing caramel. All wrapped in a light speculos mousse and a vanilla-flavoured ganache. Winter flavors are at the rendezvous with this typical French christmas food!

• Le Sapin Magique, La Glacerie Paris

This year, the Best Craftsman of France, the ice-cream maker David Wesmaël, is offering us a Ice-cold log to compose yourself!

What better than a log in the shape of a fir tree to represent a typical French christmas food, such as the Christmas log.

With this creation you can make your log according to your desires as with your real Christmas tree. The House’s signature dessert is therefore composed of an almond and hazelnut praline ice cream with an almond, hazelnut and pine nut praline. It is accompanied by a vanilla ice cream infused with roasted fir, and flowing caramel with Menton lemon and linden honey. The rest of the dessert, which are 3 individual desires, is to be composed by you.

Foie Gras

Despite the fact that France is the leading producer and consumer of foie gras, it is not a French invention. The invention of foie gras dates back to more than 4500 years ago, during Egyptian Antiquity.

But we have chosen to include it in our selection, since it is still a typical French christmas food.

The French regions producing the most foie gras are in the East and South-West.

Foie gras is generally the traditional Christmas starter.  It is possible to taste foie gras in several ways, even if it is usually on toasted bread. It comes in aperitif foie gras balls, foie gras à la plancha, foie gras terrine with apples or foie gras with truffles in terrine, but also in semi-cooked foie gras and candied figs.

If foie gras is an essential part of typical French christmas food, it is surely due to the fact that it is a luxurious product. Moreover it is the season of production of the foie gras.

Even if foie gras is the unavoidable of the end of the year festivities, it is more and more contested because of force-feeding, and more and more people say they are in favor of the prohibition of force-feeding and thus the prohibition of foie gras production.

Huitres

France is one of the largest consumers of oysters in the world. Even if they are eaten throughout the year, it is during the festive season that they are most consumed, which confirms the fact that it is a typical French christmas food.

Already at the time of the powerful Rome, oysters were part of the festivities, since the Romans could not envisage a banquet without oyster trays.

During the festive periods at the end of the year, the oysters have the best possible quality and they are not milky, which causes the prices to rise, so as for foie gras, they become festive products. Moreover, in the 20th century, refrigerated trucks did not exist, so it was easier to transport the oysters in winter and to taste them at the same time.

Escargots au beurre persillé

Do you know that the French are the biggest consumers of snails in the world?

Even if they can be eaten all year round, it is a typical French christmas food.

The snail is a Burgundian speciality, one prepares it in its shell, with parsleyed butter. Then one passes it to the furnace the time that the butter quivers, it is possible to add a little strong mustard to make them more digestible.

To accompany this typically French food it is not obligatory to serve a great vintage wine, because snails are fatty thus it makes opt for a dry white wine type Quincy, a white Saint-Pourçain or a white Reuilly.