In the early 1960s, French food was taking over American kitchens thanks to the publication of Julia Child’s book dedicated to French cuisine, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The cookbook brought fancy French cuisine to home cooks who were used to making casseroles and burgers and had never even heard of French staples like boeuf bourguignon and steak au poivre. The oversized cookbook introduced cooking techniques and ingredients that were new to most Americans, like shallots and truffles. The beauty of Child’s book was that it took the mystery out of French cuisine, making it available to home chefs everywhere.
While authentic French dishes feature regional ingredients and French seasoning like herbs de Provence there are many foods that are labeled French that have nothing French about them. Some got accidentally mixed into French culture by historical inaccuracies in naming, and others because they seemed French and therefore, somewhat fancy. In this article, we have done our research and are ready to call out falsely labeled French foods and share what locals actually eat.
If you are a dedicated Francophile and want to live, breathe, and eat everything French, then you should check out the list of French imposter foods so you can avoid them and only eat real French foods like decadent cream-filled pastries, strong smelling cheeses, and crunchy baguettes, To really eat like the French hungry diners need to swap their pancakes for crepes, grilled cheese for a Croque Monsieur, and chicken soup for a proper bouillabaisse.
In honor of Bastille Day, the national day of France on July 14, we celebrate French culture by separating real French foods from those claiming to be French. (And if you are looking for some restaurants with true French cuisine, check out The 15 Best Old-School French Restaurants in America.)
French Vanilla
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between plain old regular vanilla and French vanilla? Well, wonder no more, we have the answer and it may surprise you. To understand the ins and outs of vanilla, we have to start with the basics. Real vanilla, not that imitation stuff in the bottle, comes from vanilla beans, and vanilla beans come from vanilla orchids. These vanilla orchids grow best in warm tropical climates and get named for the place they are grown, such as Mexican vanilla and Tahitian vanilla, but there is no French vanilla orchid so there is no naturally occurring French vanilla.
The real reason it’s called French vanilla is because it gets its name from what was once called the French style of making ice cream. Unlike American-style ice cream that uses cream as a base the French style uses egg yolks, making it more like custard than actual ice cream. The difference between the two comes down to color and texture. French vanilla has a darker color and a thick texture, while plain ol’ vanilla ice cream is bright white with a light texture.
Of course, both flavors are in other products besides just ice cream, like coffee creamers, puddings, teas, and syrups, but here, the difference is in the actual flavor. French vanilla is more complex and has notes of hazelnut, caramel, and butterscotch, while plain vanilla doesn’t.
As for the name French vanilla, most food historians agree that it was Thomas Jefferson who first coined the term French vanilla. Apparently, early in his career, during his time across the pond in France, he fell in love with the ice cream made with eggs and brought back a recipe for his cook to make it. It is hard to know if this is true, but there is one piece of historical evidence that helps the authenticity of the claim. There is a handwritten recipe for French vanilla ice cream in The Library of Congress that is thought to have been penned by Jefferson himself.
French Onion Dip
You know that creamy, tangy party dip that graces every buffet table and party platter, French Onion dip, is not actually French. The popular party dip is actually from sunny California, and the original name was simply California dip. So you are probably asking yourself how it ever got mixed up with Francophile culture. Well, according to food historians, a creative home cook and housewife in California decided to create her own party dip by mixing sour cream and a packet of powdered Lipton onion soup mix, and voila, she had made everyone’s new favorite party dip.
Unfortunately, the California housewife never got any credit for it because no one really knew who she was. But she must have had plenty of friends and held many parties because word spread about the dip, and it even appeared in popular magazines of the time. Eventually, the good folks at Lipton caught wind of it, and they decided to play with the recipe and improve it by playing with the measurements and adding a few other ingredients. When they had perfected the dip, they renamed it French Onion Dip and printed it on the boxes.
As far as the French connection, there isn’t one. Lipton’s powdered packets of French onion soup are not available in France. But, onion soup has been eaten in France since the Middle Ages, as onions were a cheap and easy crop to grow, so people of all classes ate onion soup. Later, chefs began adding chunks of white bread smothered in Gruyere cheese to the soup, creating the French onion soup we know today.
While French onion dip is not French, French onion soup is French. However, the Lipton powdered version is definitely American.
French Dip
Who doesn’t love a tasty French dip sandwich piled high with roast beef served on a toasted bun cut diagonally for the perfect corner to dip in savory au jus? The sandwich just hits right, and surprisingly, this combination was a happy accident that has nothing to do with France. The French Dip sandwich sits somewhere between a Philly cheesesteak and an Italian beef sandwich, but it is entirely its own thing. The only thing that makes it seem like a legitimate French food is the au jus.
The French Dip is actually a Californian invention, and two different restaurants take credit for it. One version claims that a cook accidentally dropped the sandwich into the meat drippings, and the hungry customer ate it anyway. Another version claims that a disgruntled customer complained about a stale roll, so the cranky chef threw it in the drippings to soften it up. And yet another version claims that a policeman asked for an entire loaf of French bread filled with savory pork and that the first French Dip was actually made with pork. All three versions seem plausible, but it’s impossible to know the real story. As for the word French to describe the sandwich, one theory claims the cook was French, hence the name.
French Fries
The humble potato is often associated with Idaho or Ireland, but somehow, but the salty fried treat that comes from spuds somehow got associated with France and were called French fries when they aren’t even from the land of wine and baguettes at all. French fries were actually created in Belgium in the late 1600s.
According to food folklore, one winter, it was so cold that the river froze, and the little fish that made a large portion of the local’s diet were unavailable. So, the resourceful locals decided to cook potatoes in the same way they cooked fish by frying them in oil. Of course, this is challenging to prove. The hard facts tell us that potatoes were introduced to Europe in 1589 by Sir Walter Raleigh, who brought them over from his New World expeditions in South America, where they had been grown since 8000 B.C.E. From Ireland, the root vegetable slowly spread to other parts of Europe, and as cultures shared traditions, fried potatoes eventually became popular throughout the continent.
The main reason that we called them French is that Thomas Jefferson ate them in France in the early 1800s, and when he returned to the U.S., he asked his cook to make potatoes in the French style to serve to his guests. Of course, they were a hit, and people started calling them French-style potatoes which eventually became known as just simply French fries. So, while greasy, salty French fries aren’t credited specifically to the French, they are found throughout Europe, including France.
French Salad Dressing
French salad dressing has a murky back story and many food historians have mixed ideas on the history of the orange salad dressing, making it difficult to pin down exactly where it came from. However, one thing is for sure: it is not French. One idea is that it is an Americanized version of a simple vinaigrette. According to one early mention of French dressing in the Ladies Home Journal of 1900 describes French dressing as a mix of oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. It is difficult to understand why they refer to this as French because oil and vinegar have been a popular way to eat salad and dress vegetables since ancient times. So this oil and vinegar combo, while popular in Europe and the Mediterranean, isn’t exactly a French invention.
We know that in the early part of the 1900s, food manufacturers were starting to mass produce food items like salad dressing, and these premade dressings started gaining some traction, eventually leading to new recipes for French dressing. The base of French dressing is just oil and vinegar, but the recipe took on new forms, with some versions adding paprika and spices to the mix, while others added ketchup, Tabasco, and Worcheshire sauce. And somewhere along the line, the orange bottle of French dressing appeared on shelves, and the public just went with it. There was no French board of certification or any type of governing board certifying its origin like other designated French products. Basically, the name just stuck, and the dressing is on every supermarket shelf.
Interestingly, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulated the dressing from 1950 to 2022 and stated that French dressing had to have vegetable oil, vinegar, lemon or lime juice, salt, sugar, tomato paste or puree, and selected spices. And in 2022, they decided that each company could make their own recipe for French dressing. It is ironic that the U.S. made laws about the dressing, and the French couldn’t seem to care less because it’s not actually their dressing, to begin with. French dressing isn’t even that popular in the U.S.
French Toast
This one actually seems like it could be French, but unfortunately, they don’t get credit for this one either. To be honest, there are many versions of French toast-style dishes all over the world, so it’s difficult to know the exact origins. The recipe for French toast is simple; it’s just bread soaked in a mix of milk and eggs, and from there, the variations are endless. In the U.S., it is often served with fruit, honey, syrup, and powdered sugar. In Greece, it’s eaten with Feta cheese and honey; in Spain, it’s soaked in wine, not milk; in Scotland, it’s eaten with sausage like a sandwich; in New Zealand, it’s eaten with bananas and bacon, and in New Orleans, it’s soaked in custard with rum. While it’s generally a sweet dish, it can be savory, too. In India and England, it’s eaten with onion, chili, and ketchup.
As for the name, well, the dish goes by many names, such as eggy bread, gypsy toast, and Bombay toast, but the reason that we call it French toast in the U.S. has to do with grammar. Apparently, an innkeeper in Albany, New York, named Joseph French, served it to his guests in 1724, and he meant to call it French’s toast as he was proud of his creation, but he forgot to add the apostrophe and the name stuck.
But just because it’s not originally French doesn’t mean you can’t find it in France. If you are in France and craving French toast, ask for le pain perdu, and you will get the sweet French version of the breakfast pastry.
French Roast Coffee
Coffee and coffeehouse culture has been popular all over the world for a long time, from smoky Parisian cafes to New York coffeehouses with spoken word poetry to Italian stand-up cafes where espresso is measured out into tiny cups. Coffee culture is strong, and coffee lovers know exactly what they want in their beans and some like them dark, very dark.
French roasted coffee beans are one of the most popular dark roasted coffee beans, but they are not actually French and are even called Turkish roast in some places. So, what does French roast mean? It just means it’s a dark roast; that is it. The name probably comes from the idea that in Europe, coffee drinkers prefer a dark roasted bean because it has more flavor and a deeper, more intense taste. To be clear, any type of coffee bean—including single-origin coffees from small farms to coffees grown on huge plantations can become French roast. The only requirement for French roast is dark roasting them until they’re nearly black, resulting in a smokey-flavored coffee.
While French roast isn’t necessarily French, the coffee maker, the French press, is a French invention. The French-press like contraption was first created in 1852 by two French men. However, the original design was fairly rudimentary and didn’t keep all the grounds out of the finished product. Later, in 1924, another French man perfected the design of the French press coffee maker and it has been called the French press ever since.
French’s Mustard
This one is a confusing one because of the name. French’s mustard refers to the bright yellow mustard that is usually associated with backyard barbecues and burgers. It has nothing to do with France and is named for the French family that started serving it on hotdogs in 1904 at the St. Louis World’s Fair. The same company also makes other condiments like ketchup and relishes.
So here is where it gets confusing, there is French mustard from England too. English French mustard is darker than the yellow one with a tangy taste. It has nothin to do with France and is a product of the Coleman company. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find since it was discontinued.
The only mustard that is truly French does not have the word French in the name instead it is called Dijon, named for the Dijon region of France where it is porduced. Dijon mustard replaces vinegar with white wine to get its uniquely sophisticated flavor. Interestingly, Dijon is not a protected food, meaning that it can be produced anywhere and is still called Dijon. However, if you want the real deal, then check the label. And, if you find yourself in that part of France, you can visit the Dijon factories that are still operating in the area.
Croissants
It is hard to believe that the buttery, flaky croissant, considered a quintessential French pastry, is not French. It is actually a food that migrated from the north and was then perfected in France.
The croissant actually originated as an Austrian pastry called a kipferl, which is a sweet crescent-shaped pastry. Food historians argue that the kipferl was the precursor to the French croissant and that it is possible that Marie Antoinette had her French chefs make it when she was longing for her homeland. Although there isn’t any historical record that her chefs made them for her, it does make sense.
The first mention of the croissant was in 1839, and it referred to an Austrian crescent-shaped pastry made with yeast wheat dough. Later, in 1915, the Austrian pastry made its way to a French bakery, and baker Sylvain Claudius Goy changed the dough and made the pastry with a laminated dough with butter folded into the layers, creating the first proper flaky French croissant.
The history of the croissant is the perfect example of how cultures trade and borrow recipes and cooking techniques while also changing them to suit their own tastes and styles.
Quiche
The egg-based brunch staple, quiche, is more sophisticated than scrambled eggs and easier to make than an omelet, but the fancy sounding French name does not make it French. Quiche actually comes from the German word kuchen, which means cake. German kuchen was an early version of quiche that has been around since medieval times, making the Germans the true creators of quiche. Later, the French took it and made it better as they tended to do with foods. So we can thank the Germans for this tasty brunch item. Quiche comes in many forms, but the most popular one in France is Quiche Lorraine, which is made with eggs, heavy cream, and bacon or ham.
While the Germans get credit for quiche, there are other countries that have similar egg pies. In Italy, the veggie heavy frittata is similar to quiche but made without a crust. And in Spain, the classic Spanish tortilla made with potatoes and eggs is the preferred brunch item.
French Crullers
If you are a fan of Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts, you may have noticed a popular menu item missing from the lineup: the French crullers. Both chains discontinued the popular pastry. You may still be able to find them at local bakeries or ones that specialize in European pastries, but you won’t find them anywhere in France. These sweet pastries are similar to doughnuts, but they have a different dough. Most doughnuts are made with yeast dough, but French crullers are made with choux pastry—the same pastry used in cream puffs.
Despite the name, these sweet delicacies are actually Dutch creations and are available all over northern Europe, but not in France. But don’t worry, there are plenty of amazing true French pastries all over the country, so you might have to go without French crullers in France, but you won’t go without a sugary sweet pastry.
Tarte Flambée
With a name like tarte flambée, it is easy to think of this as a French food, but it’s actually not. Tarte flambée is the French version of the German dish called flammekueche, which literally means “cooked in flames,” and the French version translates to “fired pie.” It is similar to Italian pizza but much old, some food historians date it all the way back to the Middle Ages. The dish is made with a rolled-out flat, non-leavened dough cooked in the fire and topped with sour cream, bacon, and onions. It was originally from the Alsace region of France, that was actually a part of Germany and was ceded to France after World War I. Now, the traditional German dish is considered a French dish.
These days, you can find tarte flambee in both France and Germany. It can be savory or sweet, and the toppings vary by season, but the dough must be cooked over an open flame. If you have a wood-fired pizza oven at home, you can try and make it yourself.