Inheriting French gastronomy for the artisan jam maker: benefits or handicap to satisfy your hotel customers, shopkeepers or private individuals?

In the digital age, when food is delivered to your home directly from restaurants in just a few clicks and minutes, what do consumers think of French gastronomy and its traditional heritage?

In addition to these new modes of consumption, specialists say that the crisis we are going through will influence our behavior in a sustainable way and impact restaurants, hotels and commerce in general.

It is quite legitimate to wonder whether the food models of each culture will resist these new lifestyles and what place our legacies will have in the expectations of consumers in the future.

So how important can French gastronomy and its traditions still be in these new relationships with food and these practices that are being renewed and reinvented?

What is traditional know-how in food?

Questioning the place of gastronomic tradition in consumers’ expectations first requires agreement on the definition given to these ideas of tradition, traditional gestures, gastronomy.

According to the dictionary, tradition is one: “Doctrine, a practice transmitted from century to century, originally by word or example” but also one: “A set of notions relating to the past, transmitted from generation to generation”.

There is very little room for modernity and evolution in these definitions!

Yet in the minds of consumers, tradition is a positive value and respect for heritage is appreciated in food.

For the manufacture of our food, we value the craftsman and his traditional gestures, we seek the transmission of know-how and we worry when they are in danger of disappearing.

In the world, French Gastronomy is reputed as a heritage that guarantees quality.

It is even officially recognized with its inscription on the world heritage list by the UNECSO in order to be preserved.

Heritage of know-how and modernity: opposites or complements?

In France, traditional gestures and their respect are promoted by the French State itself through the label “Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant” (Living Heritage Company). Awarded following the examination of a file and an audit at the craftsman or producer who requests it, this label in food validates the respect of traditional gestures and practices of a trade, resulting from past gastronomic legacies.

However, it should not be forgotten that it is called “Living” Heritage! To deserve this recognition, it is not enough to inherit know-how: it is necessary to bring it to life!

The French government wants EPV companies to spread the traditions of French professions throughout the world and also to adapt and develop them so that they retain their value and quality.

French chefs of all backgrounds have understood this: they who have created or joined the Collège Culinaire de France. The association awards the title of Producer and Craftsman of Quality to producers and restaurateurs who meet their requirements.

Here are their principles:

• “To promote the quality of what we eat, based on the quality and richness of cooperation between men and women of culinary craftsmanship.
• To share the same vision, the same passion and the same commitment for the transmission and the future of the culinary artisanal heritage.
• To consider that everything is part of the product, its knowledge and respect. Cooking is the revelation of nature in culture. »

For these masters of taste, too, culinary legacies must be passed on and at the same time look to the future.

Culinary know-how is the basis for anchoring in the present and a vision of the future with quality. Complementary, not opposed!

What is the reality behind the manufacture of artisanal jam making, “à l’ancienne”?

What does it mean to make jam in an artisanal way today? It is a question of respect for traditional gestures, gastronomic recipes and old-fashioned way of cooking.

How does Andrésy Confitures embody the traditional legacies of the jam-making profession?

At Andrésy Confitures, these culinary legacies have been living every day since 1952 through the choices made by your artisanal jam maker during his 70 years of experience.

Here are the living legacies of your French jam maker:

• mastering the sourcing of ingredients: all the great cooks will tell you: knowing how to choose quality ingredients is the basis of gastronomy. This is why sourcing at Andrésy Confitures is a key expertise, transmitted through generations.
• The selection of fruit varieties adapted to the recipe: it is not enough to choose an excellent strawberry to obtain a good artisanal strawberry jam. It is also necessary to choose a variety of strawberry that is adapted to the needs of the recipe. In jam this means that the strawberry that will be delicious on your plate, raw and fresh, will not necessarily be the best on your toast after the cooking time necessary for the cane sugar confections.
• The mastery of recipes: there are many ways to make artisanal jams. These recipes revolve around 2 essential elements: fruit and sugar, because the jam is the result of an adapted confiscation of the ingredients. At Andrésy Confitures, our experience has taught us to choose the best recipe.
• The respect of the good tools: in the French tradition, the copper basin is the unavoidable cooking tool for jams. Do you know why? Only the copper basin allows to distribute uniformly and quickly the heat, administered in the right dose, for a respectful confection of the fruits.
• The practice of traditional gestures: do you know how to stir your recipe for a perfect osmosis of fruit and sugar? Do you know why it is necessary to “skim” at the end of cooking? So many secrets inherited by our family business, gestures learned through experience and respected for their relevance to the final quality of the manufacture of artisanal jam.

At Andrésy Confiture our culinary heritage is part of our daily life as a demanding jam maker: the choice and quantities of each ingredient, their balance in the recipe applied, their cooking time in copper basins, our traditional gestures, everything contributes to the success of our artisanal jam making!

Are the legacies of the artisanal jam maker still in adequacy with the expectations of today’s consumers?

You have the right to wonder to what extent these traditional legacies do not prevent us from meeting the needs of consumers, today or tomorrow.

Nowadays, and even more so with the crisis we are going through, society observers and trend specialists all agree: consumers say they prefer what is good, healthy, natural and simple.

They want fair trade, close to them by its location or its values, fair and respectful of each player, almost committed.

For years now, terroirs have reappeared on our plates and in our shops, tradition has become synonymous with quality and is enriched by conviviality, authenticity is valued and sought-after.

Since the beginning of the crisis, we have all rediscovered the benefits of proximity, the lack of relocated companies, meaning and values sacrificed for profit.

To learn more, read our article on Consumer Trends.

The brand Les Confitures à l’Ancienne: all the living know-how of the French jam tradition!

In France and abroad, the culinary tradition is still respected and even highly sought after as a guarantee of quality.

Our brand “Les Confitures à l’Ancienne” embodies this authenticity of tastes and recipes:

• fruit selected from the best terroirs, chosen for their quality in jam.
• Traditional, old-fashioned recipes: with 50% fruit and cane sugar
• The choice of cooking in copper basins, in small quantities, and steaming to preserve the quality of our fruit.
• Pot sizes adapted to your needs: individual for hotels or your gift baskets, groceries for sale in your stores or e-commerce, and even in kilos for caterers or restaurateurs.
• A packaging heir to our history: with this kraft paper from the very first existing packaging in the 20th century, and the cap on the top, inherited from the first glass jam jars without capsules.

To discover the brand Les Confitures à l’Ancienne : see the page of the Gastronomy collection

Respectful of the profession of artisanal jam maker, we do not make any less live our Gastronomy range so that it always remains the answer adapted to the needs of your customers:

• condiments for savoury breakfasts, brunches: French mustards and mayonnaise, ketchup, etc.
• Honeys, maple syrup and a spread: for sandwiches, pancakes and gourmet waffles.
• Compotes: old-fashioned and with pieces, just like at home.
• Powdered chocolates and tea: for the hot drink that comforts on toast!

How not to satisfy all expectations with this traditional, authentic and lively range? Download the catalog and discover all the flavors

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