Fabulously Delicious: The French Food Podcast

Four thousand years ago, workers on the banks of the Nile were force-feeding geese — and it's carved in stone to prove it. This episode traces foie gras from that Egyptian tomb carving through ancient Rome, where the practice gave half of Europe's languages their word for "liver," through medieval Jewish communities who kept the tradition alive for centuries, and finally to the court of Louis XVI, where it became a fixture of French royal dining.We cover how foie gras is legally defined in France, the real difference between foie gras entier, block, mousse, and parfait, and why that difference matters enormously for quality and price. We also give the controversy the honest, even-handed treatment it deserves — what gavage actually involves, what welfare science says about it, the industry's response, and where the legal landscape stands right now, from France's protected-heritage law to bans in California, Israel, and, as of 2026, New York City.Then we get practical: how foie gras is actually produced from hatching to slaughter, the difference between duck and goose foie gras, how to cook it hot and cold, what to pair it with, and exactly how to store each form so you don't ruin an expensive piece of liver. This is a genuinely complicated episode — extraordinary history, real controversy, and remarkable food, all true at the same time.Fabulously Delicious is the podcast for anyone who loves French food, French culinary history, and the stories behind the plates. New episodes explore the ingredients, chefs, and controversies that built French gastronomy — subscribe so you don't miss the next one, and follow along on video, Substack, and social for more.Fabulously Delicious is the podcast for anyone who loves French food, French culinary history, and the stories behind the plates. New episodes explore the regions, chefs, and dishes that built French gastronomy — subscribe so you don't miss the next one, and follow along on video and social for more.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FoieGras #FrenchFood #FrenchCuisine #FoodHistory #FoodPodcast

Le repas marcaire — the extraordinary farmhouse meal of the Alsatian Vosges that has been served in the stone mountain shelters of the high chaumes since the Middle Ages — is one of the most authentic, most specific and most completely of its landscape dining experiences in the whole of France. Today's Food Tour de France episode finishes at Le Markstein — at 1,240 metres on the Alsatian crest of the Vosges mountains, one of the great cols of the Route des Crêtes — and tells the full story of a meal born from the life of the marcaires, the mountain dairy farmers who spend their summers on the high pastures tending herds of vaches vosgiennes and transforming their milk into Munster cheese. Smoked pork from the farm's own pig. Potatoes cooked for two hours in farm butter with lardons and onions in a copper cauldron — the roïgabrageldi on the Alsatian side, the tofailles on the Lorraine side. Munster fermier from the farm's own herd. Fresh white cheese from the morning's milk with kirsch and sugar. Everything from the farm. Nothing from outside. A meal that is, in the truest possible sense, what it claims to be.The episode covers the full story of the repas marcaire — the marcaire tradition of the Vosges that was recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2023, the annual transhumance that sees the vaches vosgiennes climb the mountain paths decorated with flowers and bells every spring, the stone marcairies where the marcaires lived in complete isolation through the summer months making cheese, and the ferme-auberge system that requires every dish served to visitors to be produced by the farm itself. We cover the specific dishes of the repas marcaire — the tourte de la vallée pastry case of minced meat from the Munster valley, the roïgabrageldi potatoes cooked in a copper cauldron for two hours, the Munster fermier aged on site, the Bargkass mountain cheese and the seasonal tarte aux myrtilles — and the specific honesty of a meal where the animals whose milk made the cheese are visible from the dining room window.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The repas marcaire episode connects directly to the beignets de pomme de terre episode finishing at the Plateau de Solaison — both are mountain meals built from the same fundamental logic of altitude, isolation and making the most of what the farm produces — and to the Munster cheese tradition that runs through the food culture of the Alsatian Vosges. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #RepasMarcaire #AlsaceFood #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026 #VosgesMountains

Carpe frite — the deep-fried carp of the Sundgau, the southernmost territory of Alsace — is one of the most distinctive and most localised food traditions in the whole of eastern France. Today's Food Tour de France episode starts in Mulhouse — the great industrial city of the Haut-Rhin, 24 kilometres from the Sundgau — and tells the full story of a dish that has been made in the fish pond country of the southern Alsatian plain since the twelfth century, when the monks of the Abbey of Lucelle first introduced fish farming to the region. A fresh carp, raised in the clear Sundgau ponds, briefly marinated in white wine, passed through a light breadcrumb coating and deep-fried in hot oil until the exterior is deeply golden and crackling and the interior is white, flaking and completely tender. Served with salad, chips, lemon and mayonnaise. Eaten with the fingers. The dish most people in France outside the Sundgau have never heard of — and the one that 30 Sundgau restaurateurs have been defending and celebrating through the Routes de la Carpe Frite since 1975.The episode covers the full story of the carpe frite — the legend of the shepherdess who cooked her mysterious Golden Fish for the Count of Ferrette and won permission to marry his son, the twelve-century monastic fish farming tradition of the Abbey of Lucelle, the specific conditions of the Sundgau ponds whose clear water gives the carp a delicacy entirely unlike its reputation, and the Routes de la Carpe Frite established in 1975 and awarded Remarkable Site of Taste status by the French National Council of Culinary Arts. We cover the Sunday lunch tradition that fills the restaurants of the Sundgau every week with families from across the Swiss and German borders, the village of Friesen — considered the capital of the carpe frite, 24 kilometres from Mulhouse — and the annual Carpailles that celebrate the dish with the same festive spirit it has always generated. And in 2025 the association celebrated its fiftieth anniversary — making this year the golden jubilee of one of the great food routes in Alsace.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The carpe frite episode connects to the pôchouse episode from Chalon-sur-Saône earlier in the series — both are ancient freshwater fish dishes specific to a particular landscape and a particular water, both are the food of a community that has been eating the same thing from the same source for centuries. And both reward the curious eater who takes the time to find them. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #CarpeFrite #SundgauFood #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026 #AlsaceFood

Le jeanbonhomme — the small, golden, man-shaped brioche of the Territoire de Belfort that appears in every bakery in the city from Saint Nicolas Day on the 6th of December through to Christmas — is one of the most historically specific and most emotionally resonant seasonal foods in the whole of eastern France. Today's Food Tour de France episode finishes in Belfort — the Lion city, the gateway between Alsace and Franche-Comté, the city whose garrison held out for 103 days against the Prussian siege in 1870 and 1871 — and tells the full story of a brioche that arrived in this territory not through culinary invention but through displacement. When the Franco-Prussian War ended in 1871 and France was forced to cede Alsace to the newly unified German Empire, tens of thousands of Alsatians chose to cross the border rather than become German subjects. Many came to the Territoire de Belfort. And they brought with them their food traditions — including a small man-shaped enriched bread that in Alsace was called the Mannele or the Mannala, and that in the Territoire de Belfort became the jeanbonhomme. A bread that carries the memory of a war, a displacement and a community that chose France.The episode covers the full story of the jeanbonhomme — the Alsatian origins of the Mannele tradition, the specific historical moment of 1871 that brought it to Belfort, the recipe of enriched bread dough baked until deeply golden and glazed with egg, and the Saint Nicolas tradition that gives the jeanbonhomme its seasonal context. We cover the broader food culture of the Territoire de Belfort — the toutché potato cake, the cuniu brioche with dried fruit from the canton of Giromagny, both also of Alsatian origin — and the Lion of Belfort itself, carved by Frédéric Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, to commemorate the resistance of 1870. And we place the jeanbonhomme in the context of the French tradition of man-shaped seasonal breads — from the Mannele of Alsace to the Saint Nicolas breads of Lorraine — that mark the beginning of the Christmas season in the northeast of France in a way that distinguishes this corner of the country from everywhere else.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The jeanbonhomme episode is one of the most historically layered in the entire series — a seasonal bread that is a direct, edible consequence of a nineteenth century war and a community's decision to remain French. It connects to the broader picture of Alsatian food culture this part of the series has been building through the Belfort and Mulhouse stages. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #Jeanbonhomme #AlsaceBread #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026 #BelfortFood

Le Week-end Gourmand du Chat Perché — the extraordinary annual food festival that transforms the entire historic centre of Dole into a vast gourmet village every September — is one of the most celebrated and most distinctive food events in the whole of Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Today's Food Tour de France episode starts in Dole — the former capital of the Franche-Comté, a city of Renaissance architecture, canals and the birthplace of Louis Pasteur — and tells the full story of a festival named after the most beloved creation of the writer Marcel Aymé, who grew up in this city and whose perching cat has given Dole its identity as a city that takes imagination as seriously as gastronomy. Running every year in late September since 2014, drawing over 60,000 visitors across a single weekend, the Chat Perché brings together around 150 local producers and food artisans across fifteen temporary villages installed in the stone-paved streets and Renaissance squares of the old town — with tasting passes, bell tower experiences, Michelin-starred menus and a children's food trail all running simultaneously.The episode covers the full story of the Chat Perché festival — the structure of the tasting pass that takes visitors through historic buildings including the Hôtel-Dieu and the cloître de la Visitation, the special menus du Chat Perché served by every restaurant in the city from Michelin-starred kitchens to small neighbourhood bistros, and the food culture of Dole and the Jura that the festival celebrates. Comté from the Jura — whose different terroirs, maturations and producers all appear at the festival. Cancoillotte — the semi-liquid unpasteurised cheese of Franche-Comté, two thousand years old and now IGP protected. Morteau and Montbéliard sausages. Morel mushrooms from the Jura forests. Vin jaune — the extraordinary yellow wine aged under a film of yeast for a minimum of six years and three months — and the full range of Jura whites and reds that make this one of the most distinctive wine regions in France.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The Chat Perché episode connects to the Comté and French cheese episodes in the main Fabulously Delicious catalogue — and to the pôchouse episode from Chalon-sur-Saône earlier in the series, as both sit in the same broad Burgundy and Franche-Comté food culture that defines this stretch of the Tour route. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #ChatPerché #DoleJura #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026 #FrancheComtéFood

Le Négus de Nevers: The Sweet Born From a Press Error in 1902 | Food Tour de FranceLe Négus de Nevers — the soft chocolate-scented caramel enclosed in a hard caramel shell that has been made in Nevers since 1902 — is one of the most charming and most improbable origin stories in the whole of French confectionery. Today's Food Tour de France episode finishes in Nevers — the capital of the Nièvre department, a handsome city on the Loire — and tells the full story of a sweet born from a press error. In July 1902 a celebrated Ethiopian military leader called Ras Mekonnen visited France. The French press covered the visit enthusiastically — and some of those journalists, in their excitement, got the title wrong. They called him the negus — the title of the sovereign of Ethiopia, held at the time by Menelik II, who was Mekonnen's cousin and who never came to France at all. A confectionery in Nevers called Maison Grelier read the papers, created a sweet in honour of the visit and named it after the mistaken title. The négus. And the sweet has been made in Nevers under that name for over a hundred and twenty years.The episode covers the full story of the négus — from the Maison Grelier tradition of creating a new sweet named after a significant event each year, through the commercial success that caused the confectionery to rename itself Au Négus, to the four generations of the Hiriart family who ran it from 1909 until 2013 when it was sold to the Ménard chocolate company. We cover what the négus actually is — a soft chocolate-scented caramel inside a shell of hard caramel, presented in a round iron tin with golden writing on a green background — and its coffee-scented alter ego the Abyssin, named for Abyssinia, the historical name for Ethiopia, which gives the whole naming structure of the Maison Au Négus range a gentle century-old nod to the East African connection that inspired the original creation. And we sit the négus alongside the great tradition of French regional confections — the bouchon bordelais, the Vichy pastille, the nougatine de Nevers — that are specific to a place and synonymous with it.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The négus episode connects directly to tomorrow's nougatine de Nevers episode — Nevers gets two consecutive episodes in this series, making it the most confectionery-rich city in the entire Food Tour de France. Two sweets. Two extraordinary stories. One city on the Loire. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #LaNégusNevers #FrenchConfectionery #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026 #NeversFood

Pastille de Vichy: The Sweet That Started as a Medicine | Food Tour de FrancePastille de Vichy — the small octagonal white tablet that has been made in Vichy since 1825, that entered the French pharmacopoeia as a medicine in 1837 and that 3.6 million of are produced every single day — is one of the most recognisable and most historically fascinating confections in France. Today's Food Tour de France episode passes through Vichy — the elegant Belle Époque spa town on the Allier river, famous for its mineral springs, its grand hotels and its complicated history — and tells the full story of a sweet invented by a member of both the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medicine, refused by Napoleon's ministry on the grounds of complexity and eventually turned into one of the most distinctive regional confections in the whole of France. The octagonal shape. The word VICHY on one side. Thermal Establishment on the other. A sweet that sits in that uniquely French space between medicine and confection — and has always been entirely comfortable there.The episode covers the full history of the pastille de Vichy — from Jean-Pierre-Joseph d'Arcet's discovery of the digestive virtues of sodium bicarbonate in the Vichy mineral waters in 1824, through the pharmacist Nicolas-François Regnault's early production, the Brosson brothers' industrial manufacturing from 1833, and the court case of 1914 that formalised the free sale of the pastille beyond the pharmacy. We cover the two producers that make it today — the mainstream Pastille Vichy, now owned by Carambar & Co following a journey through Perrier, Warner-Lambert, Cadbury, Kraft Foods and Mondelez International, and the artisan Maison Moinet, in its seventh generation, still making the Pastille du Bassin de Vichy from the Roger source acquired in 1932. And we cover the connection to Louis Diat — the French chef who invented vichyssoise in New York and named it after the spa town near his birthplace — which we explored in depth in the main Fabulously Delicious series.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The pastille de Vichy episode sits at a fascinating crossroads in this series — connecting to the Louis Diat episode in the main Fabulously Delicious catalogue, which tells the full story of vichyssoise and the chef who named it after this town, and to the broader picture of central French food culture this part of the series has been building through the Auvergne and the Allier. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #PastilleDeVichy #FrenchConfectionery #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026 #VichyFrance

Bouchon Bordelais: The Sweet That Looks Like a Cork | Food Tour de FranceLe bouchon bordelais — the small cylindrical confection shaped like a wine bottle cork that is the most distinctive sweet in Bordeaux — is one of those French regional confections that is almost impossible to find outside its home city and completely synonymous with it inside. Today's Food Tour de France episode finishes in Bordeaux — the UNESCO World Heritage city on the crescent of the Garonne — and tells the full story of a sweet invented by a single pastry chef who went for a walk in a vineyard in 1976 and came home with an idea that turned into a family business now in its third generation. A soft, chocolate-scented almond and raisin paste inside a thin crispy butter biscuit shell, flavoured with Fine de Bordeaux — a six-year-old grape brandy — presented in a round cork-shaped box with golden writing on a green background. A sweet that looks like Bordeaux before you have even opened it.The episode tells the full story of Jacques Pouquet — the maître pâtissier-chocolatier who created the bouchon bordelais in 1976 after noticing almond trees growing among the vines in a Lussac-Saint-Émilion vineyard and combining them with the raisins of the Bordeaux wine trade in a preparation that captured the identity of the city in a single bite. The name was registered as a trademark in 1977. Awards followed quickly — first prize at the Salon Intersuc in 1980, best petit four in France in 1988, the Cordon Bleu at Salon Intersuc in 1990. When Pouquet died in 1998 his daughter Véronique — a hairdresser by trade — took over rather than let it stop. In 2019 her daughter Julia joined her. Three generations of the same family, making the same recipe in the same workshop in Bruges on the outskirts of Bordeaux, from a closely guarded secret recipe that has never been written down outside the family.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The bouchon bordelais episode closes this leg of the series through the southwest — from the Tomme des Pyrénées at Les Angles through the cassoulet of Carcassonne, the rouzole of Foix, the haricot tarbais of Lannemezan, the béarnaise and garbure of Pau, the mouton Barèges-Gavarnie above the Tourmalet and the Tursan wines of Hagetmau — arriving finally in Bordeaux with a sweet that tastes of the wine trade, the almond trees and the Fine de Bordeaux brandy that makes this city unlike anywhere else in France. As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For those who want to take things further, why not come cook with me here in Montmorillon, in the heart of France’s Vienne region? Combine hands-on French cooking classes with exploring charming markets, tasting regional specialties, and soaking up the slow, beautiful pace of French countryside life. Find all the details at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #bouchonbordelais  #JacquesPouquet #Bordeaux #FrenchFood #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026

Vins de Tursan: The Secret Vineyard of the Landes | Food Tour de FranceVins de Tursan — the AOC wine of the Landes that most people outside the southwest of France have never heard of — is one of the most distinctive and most underrated appellations in the whole of French wine. Today's Food Tour de France episode starts in Hagetmau, right in the heart of Tursan wine country, and tells the full story of a vineyard that covers 450 hectares of hillside between the Landes forest and the first foothills of the Pyrenees, produces white wine from the baroque grape — a variety grown almost nowhere else in the world — and whose revival in the 1980s was driven almost entirely by one man. A chef who became a winemaker. A man who already had three Michelin stars and decided that wasn't enough. Michel Guérard, the founding father of cuisine minceur, came to Eugénie-les-Bains in the Landes and changed what people thought about Tursan forever.The episode covers the full story of Tursan — from its first recognition as a wine of higher quality in 1958, through the fragmented landscape of small farm producers that earned it the name the secret vineyard of the Landes, to the AOC designation that came in 2011 following decades of work by Guérard and the producers who shared his belief in what this corner of the southwest could produce. The baroque grape that defines white Tursan — late-ripening, aromatic, structured, grown almost nowhere else on earth — is the heart of the appellation. Combined with Gros Manseng, Petit Manseng and Sauvignon Blanc in a blend that is specific to this landscape, it produces a white wine of genuine distinction that pairs beautifully with the fish of the Landes and the rich dishes of Gascon cuisine.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The Tursan episode connects directly to the garbure episode from Pau — white Tursan is one of the finest wine companions to the great slow-cooked soup of Gascony — and to the broader picture of southwest French food and drink culture this series has been building stage by stage. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For those who want to take things further, why not come cook with me here in Montmorillon, in the heart of France’s Vienne region? Combine hands-on French cooking classes with exploring charming markets, tasting regional specialties, and soaking up the slow, beautiful pace of French countryside life. Find all the details at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #VinsdeTursan #MichelGuérard #Hagetmau #FrenchFood #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026

Garbure: The Great Slow-Cooked Soup of Gascony | Food Tour de FranceGarbure — the thick, slow-cooked cabbage and duck confit soup of the Gascon and Béarnais tradition — is one of the great dishes of southwest France and one of the most honest expressions of what French mountain cooking actually is. Today's Food Tour de France episode starts in Pau — the second of two consecutive episodes in this elegant Pyrenean city — and tells the full story of a dish that has been feeding the people of Gascony for centuries. Born in the farmhouses and field kitchens of the rural southwest, built from whatever the season provides — green cabbage, haricot tarbais beans, duck confit, dried pork, potatoes, leeks, garlic — and left to simmer slowly on the stove from morning until evening. Théophile Gautier put it in a novel. Alexandre Dumas gave recipes for it. And the rule for how thick it should be has never changed — thick enough to stand a spoon in.The episode covers the full history and tradition of garbure — from its Occitan origins and first written references in the sixteenth century, through its role as the daily food of Gascon peasants, to the modern fermes-auberges and village festivals where it is still served today in enormous shared pots. We cover the regional variations — the horse cabbage of the Landes version, the duck confit and tarbais beans of the Gers version, the slow reduction of the Béarnais version that Anatole France described as having remained twenty-four hours on the fire — and the wines that belong alongside it. Madiran, Irouléguy, Pacherenc-du-Vic-Bilh. And finally the great tradition of the chabrot — pouring red wine directly into the last of the broth in the bowl and drinking it together — which the etiquette books ignore and the Gascons have always done anyway.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. This episode connects directly to the haricot tarbais episode from Lannemezan — the bean that is essential to any serious garbure — and to tomorrow's béarnaise episode, which tells the story of the other great food associated with Pau. A city that has given two episodes and two very different expressions of southwest French food culture to this series. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For those who want to take things further, why not come cook with me here in Montmorillon, in the heart of France’s Vienne region? Combine hands-on French cooking classes with exploring charming markets, tasting regional specialties, and soaking up the slow, beautiful pace of French countryside life. Find all the details at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #garbure #goudale #chabrot #pau #FrenchFood #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026

Sauce Béarnaise: The Classic French Sauce That Isn't From Béarn | Food Tour de FranceSauce béarnaise — one of the great sauces of classical French cuisine, named after the Béarn region of the southwest and associated with the city of Pau — was not actually created in Béarn at all. Today's Food Tour de France episode finishes in Pau and tells the full and rather wonderful story of a sauce invented in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, just outside Paris, by a chef called Jean-Louis-François Collinet who looked up at a bust of Henri IV on the wall — the king who was born in Pau — and named his accidental creation after the king's hometown on the spot. A hot emulsified sauce of clarified butter, egg yolks, shallots, tarragon and chervil that became one of the defining preparations of French gastronomy. Named after a place it has nothing to do with. Which is, in French food history, not even slightly unusual.The episode covers the full origin story of béarnaise — the failed shallot reduction that became a classic, the involvement of Alexandre Dumas as possible co-inventor, the specific role of tarragon that makes béarnaise béarnaise and nothing else — and the technique that Fernand Point, whose episode we covered earlier in the main Fabulously Delicious series, described with characteristic precision. A béarnaise, he said, is nothing but an egg yolk, a shallot and a little tarragon — but it takes years of practice before the result is perfect. The episode also covers the small family of derivatives that béarnaise has spawned — sauce Choron with tomato, sauce Foyot with meat glaze, and the sauce paloise of the Basque country, where mint replaces the tarragon and the result is served with lamb.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. Pau gets two episodes in the series — yesterday's garbure episode covered the great slow-cooked cabbage and duck stew of the Gascon tradition, and today the béarnaise completes the picture of a city whose name is attached to two of the most celebrated things in French food culture — one of which it actually produced, and one of which it definitely did not. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For those who want to take things further, why not come cook with me here in Montmorillon, in the heart of France’s Vienne region? Combine hands-on French cooking classes with exploring charming markets, tasting regional specialties, and soaking up the slow, beautiful pace of French countryside life. Find all the details at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #saucebearnaise #Béarnaise #pau #FrenchFood #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026

Cassoulet: The God of Occitan Cuisine | Food Tour de FranceCassoulet — the slow-cooked white bean stew that the gastronome Prosper Montagné called the God of Occitan cuisine — is one of the most celebrated and most fiercely contested dishes in the whole of French gastronomy. Today's Food Tour de France episode starts in Carcassonne — one of the three cities at the heart of the great cassoulet debate — and tells the full story of this extraordinary dish. From its disputed medieval origins during the Hundred Years' War to the three-way rivalry between Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse that has been running for over a century without resolution, this is French food history at its most passionate, most specific and most gloriously argumentative.The episode covers everything you need to know about cassoulet — what it is, what goes in it and why the answer to that question depends entirely on which city you are in. Castelnaudary's version — white beans from the Lauragais, goose confit, pork shank and sausage, finished in a baker's oven fired with black mountain wood — is considered by its makers the only authentic original. Carcassonne's version adds red partridge and a piece of lamb, which Castelnaudary regards with undisguised suspicion. And Toulouse's version contains duck confit and Toulouse sausage, sometimes covered with breadcrumbs, with a serious ongoing debate about how many times the crust should be broken during cooking. Between six and eight, depending on who you ask. This is the level at which the cassoulet argument operates.The story of the Grande Confrérie du Cassoulet de Castelnaudary — founded in 1970, its members wearing robes and cassole-shaped headdresses, counting Jacques Chirac, François Mitterrand and the French national football team among its formally inducted dignitaries — is one of the most entertaining in French food culture. The episode also covers the history of the tarbais bean, the cassole terracotta pot that gives the dish its name, the wine to drink alongside it, and why eighty percent of France's industrial cassoulet production comes from six producers in a single city that calls itself, with magnificent confidence, the World Capital of Cassoulet.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish, covering the food of the places the race passes through. This is French food culture told through the greatest race in the world. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series — and if you want the full story of the haricot tarbais bean that is one of the great ingredients of cassoulet, go back and find the Lannemezan episode earlier in the series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #foodtourdefrance #tourdefrance #cassoulet #carcasonne

La Pôchouse: The Forgotten River Fish Stew of Burgundy | Food Tour de FranceLa pôchouse — the ancient freshwater fish stew of Burgundy and Franche-Comté, made from a specific combination of Saône and Doubs river fish cooked in Burgundy aligoté white wine — is one of the most distinctive and most overlooked dishes in the whole of French regional cooking. Today's Food Tour de France episode finishes in Chalon-sur-Saône — a river city in the Saône-et-Loire, one of the great stretches of Burgundian France — and tells the full story of a dish first documented in writing in 1646, born on the boats and riverbanks of Verdun-sur-le-Doubs where the Saône meets the Doubs, made by the boatmen and fishermen who cooked it in a pot from the morning's catch with the white wine available to them on the Burgundian riverbanks. Celebrated by its own brotherhood since 1949. Still served in the restaurants that line the Saône today. And still made from the same four-fish combination that the pôchoux — the fishermen of the Bresse patois — established on these rivers four centuries ago.The episode covers the full story of la pôchouse — the four-fish combination of lean pike and perch alongside fatty eel and tench that gives the dish its specific character, the aligoté white wine that is both the cooking medium and the drink alongside it, the lardons and croutons that complete the preparation, and the Confrérie des Chevaliers de la Pôchouse de Verdun-sur-le-Doubs founded in 1949 that has been defending and celebrating this dish for over seventy years. We cover the annual festival at Verdun-sur-le-Doubs — the Fête de la Pôchouse, where local restaurants serve it according to ancestral rules, the Confrérie Saint-Nicolas des Radeliers builds a raft on the Petit Doubs, and the dish is eaten without accompaniment as tradition demands. And we connect the pôchouse to the broader family of French river fish stews — including the lamprey à la bordelaise we covered earlier in the series.The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The pôchouse episode connects directly to the lamprey à la bordelaise episode from the Bordeaux stage earlier in the series — both are ancient river fish preparations cooked in wine, both are the food of the boatmen and fishermen of great French waterways, and both tell the story of France's rivers through what they have been feeding their people for centuries. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #LaPôchouse #BurgundyFood #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026 #FrenchRiverFood

Anniversary Episode - Celebrating Five Fabulous YearsFive years ago, Fabulously Delicious: The French Food Podcast was born out of a simple but passionate belief — that French food is one of the greatest love stories ever told, and that every dish, every ingredient, and every chef has a story worth sharing. In this very special anniversary episode, your host Andrew Prior takes a moment to step back from the kitchen and reflect on the incredible journey that has brought us here, from that very first episode exploring the delicious difference between a macaron, a macaroon, and Macron, to six seasons of culinary adventures across the length and breadth of France.Over five fabulous years, Fabulously Delicious has been graced by some truly extraordinary guests. Gabriel Gaté, the beloved French-Australian chef and television presenter who brought French cooking into Australian living rooms for fifteen years via his legendary Tour de France gourmet segments. Will Studd, the Cheese Authority, documentary maker and one of the world's great champions of raw milk cheese. Bruno, host of the Great Canadian Bake Off and proud son of Clermont-Ferrand, who opened a window into the honest, down-to-earth food of the Auvergne. Molly Wilkinson, the American pastry chef living in France, whose insights into Le Cordon Bleu and the art of French patisserie were a genuine joy. And Katie Quinn, whose knowledge and infectious enthusiasm for French bread — from the laws of the baguette tradition to the hierarchy of the boulangerie — reminded Andrew exactly why he started making the show in the first place.But this episode is about more than looking back. It's a celebration of the community of Francophiles, foodies, home cooks, and dreamers who have made Fabulously Delicious what it is today — listeners who have trusted Andrew to spend half an hour exploring a single cheese or a single chef in greater depth than most food podcasts would dare. Andrew also looks ahead to two very exciting announcements: the return of his immersive French food tours, and the podcast's very first live episode, to be recorded at the Alliance Française in Manchester.As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible. Every answer leads to three more questions. Every episode opens a door. More regional deep dives, more chef stories, more cheese, and more of the unexpected corners of French food culture that nobody else is covering — the next five years are going to be absolutely fabulous. Whatever you do, do it fabulously.My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠ For those who want to take things further, why not come cook with me here in Montmorillon, in the heart of France’s Vienne region? Combine hands-on French cooking classes with exploring charming markets, tasting regional specialties, and soaking up the slow, beautiful pace of French countryside life. Find all the details at ⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠Substack ⁠Merci beaucoup!⁠Newsletter⁠ ⁠Youtube⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠ ⁠Website ⁠#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast

French Cheese: The Full Story is the most comprehensive episode Fabulously Delicious has ever made on French cheese — covering everything from the monastic origins of French cheesemaking to the raw milk collapse that has seen France lose ninety percent of its artisan cheese culture in a single lifetime. French cheese history, French cheese culture, practical French cheese guidance and a passionate argument for why one of the greatest food traditions in the world deserves your full attention.The episode begins with a statistic that stops most people in their tracks. Seventy years ago one hundred percent of French cheese was made from raw milk. Today that figure is ten percent. We go back to the beginning — the monastery cellars of the Benedictines and the Cistercians, the extraordinary story of Roquefort as the oldest legally protected food in the world, the history of Camembert and Brie, and the AOC and AOP system that protects French cheese today. The heart of the episode is a guide to the five families of French cheese — the framework that makes French cheese make sense. Fresh, bloomy rind, washed rind, pressed uncooked, pressed cooked and blue — each one explained through its most celebrated examples, from Époisses and Munster to Comté, Reblochon and Ossau-Iraty.The second half takes you on a regional tour of France through its greatest cheeses, goes inside the French fromagerie to explain exactly how to navigate one, covers how the French actually eat cheese and why they are right about almost all of it, and closes with the future of French cheese — the threats, the revival and why every choice you make at the cheese counter genuinely matters.If you have listened to the Fabulously Delicious episodes on Brie de Meaux, Abondance or Époisses, this episode is the full picture those episodes were drawn from. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for more French food stories every week.My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at andrewpriorfabulously.com For those who want to take things further, why not come cook with me here in Montmorillon, in the heart of France’s Vienne region? Combine hands-on French cooking classes with exploring charming markets, tasting regional specialties, and soaking up the slow, beautiful pace of French countryside life. Find all the details at andrewpriorfabulously.comYou can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at Substack Merci beaucoup!Newsletter Youtube Instagram Facebook Website #FrenchCheese #FrenchCheeseHistory #FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious