How To Make Perfect French Food Gift Hamper
If you’ve got a Francophile in your life, getting a gift for them can be hard. You don’t want to get them anything too cheap and cheesy. And you definitely can’t just up and take them to France every year without causing some serious damage to your bank balance.
But one thing you can do that they will love is to get them a gift basket that is brimming with their favourite gourmet French foods. Because if there’s one thing that a Francophile loves more than anything else, it’s the food.
In this post, we’ve pulled together the perfect foods to include in your French food gift hamper. The hamper will be packed with delicious delicacies, so by the time they have finished working their way through it, their bellies will be full, and their hearts will be content having savoured every morsel of food.
Bon Appetit!
How to build the perfect French gourmet food hamper
Here’s how to build the perfect French gourmet food hamper, including drinks, starters, mains, and desserts.
Drinks
Red Wine
Let’s start with the most important item of all: French red wine. When it comes to French reds, you have more options than pretty much anywhere in the world.
A strong Bordeaux is a safe choice. It is widely regarded as the King of French reds and is renowned for their complexity, diversity and depth of flavour.
Burgundy is another hamper option. It has a distinctive perfume and goes well with chicken and fish.
Lastly, you could try a wine from the Loire Valley, such as Beaujolais. These reds are a little lighter and fruitier than the others, going well with patés and cheese.
Starters & Appetisers
Duck Terrine With Armagnac
For hors d’oeuvres, we suggest adding Duck Terrine with Armagnac to your food hamper. The flavoursome French paté with traditional brandy combines duck with pork fat and poultry liver to create a rich, pleasant texture. It pairs really nicely with cornichons, cheese, crusty bread and mustard, making it a versatile option for a hamper.
Check out our Duck Terrine with Armagnac Case Offer.
Castaing Duck Foie Gras Bloc
Castaing Duck Foie Gras bloc is one of the finest examples of Foie Gras, made by specialists in the Landes region of southwest France. Its sweet and savoury combination pairs perfectly with lightly toasted bread and fig jam.
Check out our range of Duck Foie Gras here.
Oscietra Caviar
Caviar is the perfect food to include in a hamper. It has a long shelf life, so you don’t have to worry about it going off before they get around to eating it. It also has a rich flavour and smooth texture that pairs with a lot of different foods, giving you lots of options for what to include with it.
Check out our range of Oscietra Caviar here.
Rustic Bread
Rustic bread is also a good choice for the perfect gourmet French food hamper. It is a really simple accompaniment that goes with most of the other foods that we’ve listed in this post. The only thing to note is that it has a shorter shelf life than other options like crackers, so you’ll need to make sure that you pick it up fairly close to when you are giving the gift.
Crackers
Crackers are a great alternative to bread. They’re crisp and crumbly and go perfectly with pate, foie gras, caviar as well as foods like cheese. They also have a reasonable shelf life, which means that they don’t need to be eaten straight away.
French Mains
Cassoulet Gastronomique au Confit de Canard
Cassoulet Gastronomique au Confit de Canard is a traditional French dish made with duck confit, pork sausage and beans. It epitomises a side of French food that you don’t often see or hear about – comfort food. It’s the type of hearty meal that will pick you up after a long, hard day.
Check out our range Cassoulet ready meals.
Duck Confit With Wild Porcini Mushrooms
Duck Confit with wild porcini mushrooms is rich and hearty and will warm your soul. It’s a duck leg slow-cooked in duck fat so that the meat falls off the bone and the earthy flavours are infused into the meat. It’s pure comfort food and a great main dish to include in a food hamper.
Check out our range of Duck Confit products.
French Beef Stew In Bergerac Wine Sauce
French beef stew with Bergerac wine sauce is a classic French dish that is packed full of flavour. It’s packed with tender chunks of beef, savoury bacon, and a rich, wine-infused sauce that is like a warm hug, making it the perfect addition to a French food hamper if you’re making it in winter.
Desserts
Lauden Single Origin Chocolates
For hamper desserts, you want to keep it simple and delicious. And nothing is as simple and delicious as a box of artisan chocolates. Our Lauden Single Origin Chocolates are 64% Madagascan cocoa with a ganache filling and act as the perfect sweet treat to complement the rich mains that we’ve included in the hamper.
Les Sablesienne French Petits Sables Au Berre Biscuits
A hamper wouldn’t be complete without some biscuits in it. And these French biscuits are the perfect addition. Their sweet, buttery and crumbly texture makes them feel like the Gallic equivalent of shortbread – a tasty indulgence that pairs perfectly with a coffee after you’ve worked your way through the other dishes in the hamper.
Check out our full range of French Confectionary online.
Bon Appetit!
So, there you have it: our exclusive run-down of the perfect items to include in a gourmet French food hamper. It is a little culinary trip to France that includes everything from traditional entrées to luxurious hors d’oeuvres so that with each bite, you’ll transport them to the heart of French gastronomy. Enjoy!