Among all the traditional cuisine dishes, only one stands out when we ask the inhabitants of France which dish best describes the country outside its borders.
Last year, on the occasion of the 2025 Michelin Guide ceremony, the Ipsos institute questioned 1,000 French people on the “French dish that best represents France abroad”. A great slow-cooked classic comes clearly ahead of two other family recipes.
The ranking of dishes that best represent France abroad
In his study The French and gastronomyIpsos summarizes this verdict in one sentence: “According to the French, beef bourguignon, cassoulet and veal blanquette are the 3 ambassador dishes of France throughout the world.
Beef bourguignon comes first with 39% of responses, ahead of cassoulet at 31% and veal blanquette at 22%, then duck confit at 20% and garnished sauerkraut at 17%. Except that this ranking mainly tells how the French see themselves, not what foreigners really think.
Beef bouguignon takes first place on the podium
A slow-cooked dish par excellence, beef bourguignon concentrates everything that the world readily associates with French gastronomy: beef, red wine, tender vegetables and time. Served steaming in a cast iron casserole, it recalls Sunday meals and the image of a generous terroir, far from miniature plates.
Its score of 39% is due to several very concrete elements. This traditional dish remains easy to tell to a tourist, because it combines Burgundy wine, long-simmered meat and a rich brown sauce, three strong images of the French meal.
When 92% of those questioned say they have a good opinion of national gastronomy, according to Ipsos, this kind of reassuring recipe quite naturally becomes a symbol to export.
Cassoulet, blanquette, confit, sauerkraut: the rest of the top 5
Behind this leader, cassoulet brings together 31% of responses, veal blanquette 22%, duck confit 20% and sauerkraut garnished 17%, again according to Ipsos.
These slow-cooked dishes draw a very clear map of the French terroir:
- South-West for cassoulet and confit;
- Alsace for sauerkraut;
- Burgundy for Burgundian red wine;
- And blanquette, which evokes a more bourgeois France, that of neighborhood bistros and brasseries.
The Ipsos study also shows that, for the French, the most gastronomic regions are the South-West, the Lyon region and Brittany, with Alsace and Burgundy coming just behind. This top 5 ambassador dishes fits well with this mental map of taste, like a sentimental tour de France of Sunday meals.