The first people to eat frog legs in France were monks in the 12th century. Catholic Church doctrine mandated that the monks eat a meatless diet; frogs are amphibians, and thus considered fish by the church. Religious locals followed suit, and frog legs evolved into a famous French delicacy.

Chartreuse is a unique herbal liqueur produced by Carthusian monks in the French Alps based on a secret 400-year-old recipe. Only two monks know the precise combination of 130 herbs and plants detailed in the original 1605 recipe. Chartreuse comes in two variations — green and yellow — which are both naturally colored. Green chartreuse is the original formula, made with a sugar beet-based spirit.

Ratatouille was first made in the 1700s, in France’s southern Provence region. The chunky vegetable stew was made out of necessity by farmers in the region, particularly in the city of Nice. When all the vegetables in the garden ripened all at once, the farmers picked them and made them into this stew. It’s typically served over rice or alongside meat or fish.

You cannot have true Comté cheese unless it’s produced in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France. Only two breeds of cow can be used for milk (Montbéliarde or Pie rouge de l’Est), and the cows’ main food source must come from the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté geographical area.

In 12th-century Brittany, a region in western France, it was difficult for locals to grow food on the area’s moors. Buckwheat, however, took to the landscape and thrived. The Bretons took the grain and ground it into flour, then mixed it with water and salt. The batter resulted in a thin pancake: the first crepe.

A proper baguette requires a special ingredient during its creation: steam. The first 10 to fifteen minutes of a baguette’s bake time are typically in a steam oven. Steam allows for the baguette to have an oven spring, which is a final rise that happens shortly after the bread goes into the oven and before the hard crust forms.

The tarte tatin, an upside-down apple tart, is named after Stéphanie Tatin. She and her sister owned a hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron, a railway town in the north-central region of Sologne, in the late 1800s. Legend says Stéphanie either stuck a tart in the oven upside-down or forgot the crust — et voila, the tarte tatin was created.

Croquembouche, which means “crunch in the mouth,” is an impressive display of cream puffs. Also known as profiteroles, these crisp pastries are filled with vanilla cream. Caramel is used as glue in order to assemble the cone-shaped tower, which is then decorated with caramel, chocolate, icing, and other accouterments. The croquembouche dates back to at least the 18th century, when the showstopper was a mainstay at French weddings.

Courvoisier and Hennessy are both types of cognac, which is a type of brandy made in the Cognac region of France. In addition to geography, the production of cognac must also adhere to the Appellation of Origin (AOC) parameters. Cognac must be distilled from white wine, and only during the distillation season from October 1 to March 31. The cognac is distilled twice in copper pot stills, and then aged in French oak barrels.

Herbes de Provence is a mixture of dried herbs and spices created in the Provence region of southern France. There are many variations, but the basic recipe starts with fennel, marjoram, parsley, rosemary, tarragon, and thyme. Additions may include basil, bay leaves, summer savory, chervil (French parsley), sage, oregano, mint, and lavender.

In 1838, Austrian entrepreneur August Zang opened a Viennese bakery in Paris. He sold “kipfel” — a crescent-shaped Austrian pastry considered the predecessor to the croissant. After Zang’s bakery closed, Parisian bakers tried to replicate kipfel, but with puff pastry — resulting in the croissant we know and love today.

Coq au vin is traditionally made by slowly cooking a rooster in red Burgundy wine, but the recipe is often applied to more readily available whole chickens. In addition to wine, the dish includes mushrooms, pearl onions, and lardons, a type of cured pork belly similar to bacon. Coq au vin is originally from the Burgundy region of France, so Burgundy wine is standard.

Hollandaise is an emulsified sauce that comes together by slowly whisking clarified butter into warm egg yolks, then flavoring with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. The sauce easily splits or turns into scrambled eggs if the proper method isn’t used. Hollandaise is one of the five “mother sauces” of classical French cuisine, and it is the base for secondary sauces like bearnaise and dijon sauce.

Foie gras means “fat liver,” and it refers to the liver of either a goose or a duck. Migratory birds naturally fatten themselves before migration, but to make foie gras, the birds are fattened by a controversial process of force-feeding. The liver is enlarged to 10 times its usual size, resulting in a rich, buttery product that is expensive to consume.

The Madeleine is a small sponge cake that is a popular accompaniment at afternoon tea. The simple fluffy cake is from the Lorraine region of northeast France, and it became popular when King Louis XV brought the treat to Versailles in 1755. Madeleines are baked in pans specifically molded to create the scallop seashell shape.

France has nine distinct wine regions, but L'île de France, which is the region including Paris and the surrounding areas, is not one of them. France’s wine regions include Bordeaux, Burgundy, Loire Valley, Champagne, Alsace, Rhône, Languedoc-Roussillon, Savoie, and Jura. The Languedoc-Roussillon is the largest wine region in France, but Bordeaux is the most well-known.

Soufflés get their name from the French verb “souffler,” meaning to puff up or to blow out. Souffles can be savory or sweet, and they get their fluffy texture from beaten egg whites. The dish is notoriously difficult to make, as changes in temperature and pressure can cause a souffle to “fall,” meaning the air is knocked out of it.

Bouillabaisse was invented in Marseille, a port city in southern France, by sailors who worked on fishing boats. They would come to the port, sell all the best fish, and use the rest of it to make bouillabaisse. Eventually, local restaurants began using better ingredients and selling it as a high-class meal. A true bouillabaisse includes plenty of fish — about three pounds in each person’s serving.

The French macaron, a pillowy meringue and almond flour cookie, is a culinary highlight of any trip to France. However, macarons were actually invented in Italy, where monks in Venice had been making them since the eighth century. Catherine de’ Medici likely brought them to France in the 16th century. Macarons are not to be confused with macaroons — while they also originated in Italy, they are larger, denser, and made with coconut.

Escargot is French for “snail,” and the dish is, quite simply, edible land snails. The typical French preparation of escargot involves cooking them with butter, garlic, and parsley, and then serving with bread. Escargot is often served in the shell and on a special plate with a designated fork to extract the meat from inside the shell. The meat is often described as mild in flavor and chewy in texture.