Fabulously Delicious: The French Food Podcast

Bordeaux: The Food Capital of Southwest France You Need to Know is the latest episode of Fabulously Delicious — and it makes the case that this UNESCO World Heritage city is one of the most extraordinary and most underrated food destinations in all of France. Most people arrive in Bordeaux for the wine. This episode is about everything else — the lamprey, the canelé, the Aquitaine caviar, the markets, the chefs and the two thousand years of trade and cultural collision that made this port city on the Garonne one of the great eating cities of Europe.
The first half covers the full history of Bordeaux — from the Celtic tribe who first settled on the crescent of the Garonne around 300 BC, through three centuries of English rule following Eleanor of Aquitaine's marriage to Henry Plantagenet in 1152, to the eighteenth century golden age that built the Grand-Théâtre, the Place de la Bourse and one of the most beautiful waterfronts in Europe. We cover what makes Bordeaux cuisine unlike anything else in France — a cuisine built at the crossroads of Atlantic, Mediterranean and Iberian influences, shaped by what arrived at the docks and what grew in the surrounding countryside.
The second half goes deep into three of the most extraordinary food products Bordeaux has given the world — the canelé, born from the leftover egg yolks of the wine trade; lamprey à la bordelaise, the true à la bordelaise dish that most visitors never discover; and Aquitaine caviar, the only PGI protected caviar in the world, farmed in the rivers of the Gironde. We also cover the remarkable figures Bordeaux has given to French gastronomy — from Adolphe Dugléré, who served the Dinner of the Three Emperors in 1867, to Raymond Oliver, Philippe Etchebest and Hélène Darroze.
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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.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!
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The Story of Louis Diat: The French Chef Who Invented Vichyssoise in New York is the latest episode of Fabulously Delicious — and it tells the remarkable and largely untold story of one of the most influential French chefs ever to work on American soil. Louis Diat was born in 1885 in Montmarault in the Allier department of central France, spent forty-one years as head chef of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Manhattan, cooked for kings, presidents and the Prince of Wales, and in 1917 created crème vichyssoise glacée — one of the most celebrated cold soups in the history of fine dining — inspired by a childhood memory of his mother's kitchen in rural France.
The episode follows Diat's extraordinary journey from a small town in Bourbonnais country, where he was waking up before school at eight years old to make soup, through his classical training at the Ritz Paris under César Ritz himself and the Ritz London, to his arrival in New York in October 1910 at just twenty-five years old. Within weeks he was head chef of the newly opened Ritz-Carlton, with Auguste Escoffier overseeing the inauguration of the restaurant. The story of how a childhood memory — his mother pouring cold milk into leftover potato and leek soup on warm summer mornings — became one of the most famous dishes in the history of French gastronomy is one of the most quietly beautiful origin stories in all of French food.
The second half of the episode covers Diat's forty-one years at the Ritz-Carlton, his cooking for some of the most powerful figures of the twentieth century, the Chevalier du Mérite Agricole he received in 1938 for bringing French culinary culture to America, his time as in-house chef at Gourmet magazine from 1947, and the farewell luncheon he prepared for his kitchen staff on the day the Ritz-Carlton closed for demolition in 1951. It also covers the remarkable Diat family legacy — including his brother Lucien, who became executive chef at the Plaza Athénée in Paris and taught Jacques Pépin.
Louis Diat is one of the great overlooked figures in French culinary history. The New York Times called him an artist of the menu and said he had raised the leek and potato to greatness. This episode is the full story of the man behind that tribute — and behind one of the most famous soups in the world
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Support the show
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.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!
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Brie de Meaux — the king of cheeses and arguably the most famous soft cheese in the world — has one of the most extraordinary stories in the entire history of French food. This episode of Fabulously Delicious tells the full story of Brie de Meaux, from Charlemagne ordering cartloads of it in 774 to the Congress of Vienna in 1815 where Talleyrand staged a tasting of 52 European cheeses and Brie de Meaux was crowned the greatest of them all. Raw cow's milk, a soft white rind, a straw-yellow custardy interior with notes of hazelnut, almond and mushroom — and a history that spans more than a thousand years.
The episode covers the full history of this remarkable AOC and PDO protected cheese — from the monks of the Abbaye Notre-Dame-de-Jouarre in the Seine-et-Marne who first produced it, to King Philippe-Auguste sending 200 wheels to his courtiers as New Year gifts in 1217, to Louis XVI stopping to finish a plate of Brie and a glass of red wine while fleeing the French Revolution. And there is one gloriously aristocratic detail that tells you everything about this cheese — there is exactly one farmhouse producer of Brie de Meaux making it from their own herd today. That producer is the Rothschild family.
The second half of the episode covers everything you need to know about buying and enjoying Brie de Meaux — how it is made, including the extraordinary hand-moulding process using the traditional pelle à brie that cannot be replicated by machine, the two-month production time from fresh milk to finished wheel, the best season to buy it, how to store it, what wines to pair it with, and why you should always eat the rind. This is French cheese history, French cheese culture and practical French cheese guidance all in one episode.
Brie de Meaux is one of the great cheeses of France and this episode is the story it deserves. Whether you are a devoted fromage enthusiast or simply curious about why one soft cheese from a small region east of Paris became the most celebrated in the world, this episode will change how you think about it. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for more French food stories every week.
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
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.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!
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French Food News April 2026 brings together the biggest stories from the world of French food, drink and gastronomy this month — from a potential merger that could create the largest spirits company in the world, to a World Stuffed Cabbage Championship held in a porcelain factory in Limoges. This episode of Fabulously Delicious covers the full breadth of what is happening right now in French food culture — the serious, the surprising and the gloriously niche — with everything you need to know about the stories shaping French gastronomy in April 2026.
The big business story this month is Pernod Ricard — the French spirits giant behind Ricard, Martell, Jameson and Absolut — confirming merger talks with Brown-Forman, the American company that owns Jack Daniel's and Woodford Reserve. If completed, it would create the largest spirits company in the world and put a very considerable French stamp on global whiskey culture. We also cover Roland-Garros 2026 and the brand new Jardin des Chefs — a dedicated food destination inside the tournament grounds running from the 24th of May, featuring Michelin-starred chefs, signature dishes and the Balle de Break, a chocolate treat in the shape of a tennis ball that is either the best or most ridiculous idea in French food this year.
The episode also covers the 2026 Roux Scholarship, one of the most prestigious culinary competitions in Britain, with deep French roots, where winner Harrison Brockington from Gather restaurant in Totnes impressed judges including honorary president Mauro Colagreco with his Mediterranean-inspired surf and turf. We look at the Le Cordon Bleu London pâtisserie scholarship worth over £75,000, open now with applications closing the 29th of May. And we discuss a fascinating Le Monde article on why young French chefs under thirty are increasingly reluctant to take on management roles in professional kitchens — a significant cultural shift for a country where the chef has always been an almost mythological figure.
The episode closes with the World Stuffed Cabbage Championship — held at the Bernardaud porcelain factory in Limoges, presided over by Philippe Etchebest, and won by Frenchman Olivier Caillon. Because every month of French food news should end with something that makes you smile. Search Fabulously
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
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.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!
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The Story of Roger Vergé: The Chef Who Brought Sunshine to French Cuisine is the latest episode in the Fabulously Delicious Story of French Chefs series — and it tells the full story of one of the most important and most joyful figures in the entire history of French gastronomy. Roger Vergé, founder of Le Moulin de Mougins on the Côte d'Azur, creator of cuisine du soleil and one of the founding fathers of nouvelle cuisine, is a chef whose influence shaped an entire generation of cooks — and whose name deserves to be far more widely known than it is.
We start at the beginning — Commentry in central France, the blacksmith father, the aunt Célestine who gave a five year old boy a wooden bench so he could stand next to her at the stove and watch her cook. From there we follow Vergé through his classical training in Paris at the Tour d'Argent and the Plaza Athénée, his extraordinary years working in Morocco, Algeria and Kenya, and the experiences that gave his cooking a perspective completely unlike anyone else in his generation. In 1969 he opened Le Moulin de Mougins with his wife Denise — a converted seventeenth century olive oil mill near Cannes — and within five years it had all three Michelin stars.
The chefs who trained at the Moulin de Mougins went on to define fine dining across the world — Alain Ducasse, Daniel Boulud and David Bouley among them. We cover the full story of the restaurant, the cooking school Vergé founded to share his cuisine du soleil philosophy, and the extraordinary 1982 project that saw him partner with Paul Bocuse and Gaston Lenôtre to open Les Chefs de France at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Florida — bringing serious French gastronomy to an audience that would never otherwise have encountered it. Because Roger Vergé believed that French food should be for everyone.
He retired in 2003 and died in June 2015 at his home in Mougins, aged 85 — in the village he had made famous, where the sunshine was always brightest. The Gault Millau described him as the very incarnation of the great French chef for foreigners. His own description of his cooking was simpler and more beautiful — cuisine heureuse, happy cooking. This episode is the full story of the man behind that philosophy, and why French gastronomy was warmer for his presence in i
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
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.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!
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