Foie gras, literally fat liver, is a culinary specialty made from the fresh livers of fattened geese and ducks.
Foie gras is an immensely popular delicacy and is the epitomy of French cuisine. It can be offered as a fresh product (to be eaten hot, grilled in a pan) or most usually as a canned whole foie gras or block of foie gras.
The production of foie gras encompasses different realities today. Gourmets cook a few foie gras per year for their personal consumption, chefs prepare different recipes cooking raw foie gras for their customers and artisanal or cooperative companies produce superior quality foie gras for a regional clientele or luxury grocery stores. Unfortunately, there also industrial companies producing high volumes of the standard quality foie gras sold in hypermarkets.
A whole goose or duck foie gras is the best quality foie gras available. It is a lobe of extra fresh foie gras, deveined and then seasoned simply (with no other ingredients than spices such as pepper and salt). Once cooked it is sterilized so that it can be safely stored for several years at room temperature.
Relatively more expensive than a block of foie gras, the price difference is reflected in the superior quality of the product.
The advantages of whole goose foie gras are numerous: composed of a single lobe of foie gras, and with its subtle taste, fine texture and natural appearance, it is traditionally prized by gourmets. Tasting sublime served simply on bread, fresh or toasted, (accompanied by a delicious sweet white wine, of course) it ranks as the “caviar” of all foie gras among true connoisseurs.
Expensive to produce and with a more subtle taste, goose foie gras remains the most prestigious of foods although in more recent times it has gradually been replaced by duck foie gras. It is for this reason that much of the foie gras traditionally produced in Alsace is now produced outside the country in Central Europe.
There is, however, a goose sector in South-West France which guarantees that geese born, raised fattened and slaughtered there are farmed according to strict standards. It is these products that we offer on the Foie Gras Gourmet website with foie gras produced in the Périgord (Grolière) or Landes (Foie Gras Gourmet) regions.
These foies gras are regularly acclaimed in blind tests carried out during prestigious competitions (Grolière's whole goose foie gras won the coveted silver medal in Paris in 2019). They are perfect for a special gift or simply for indulging yourself !