Many French people will celebrate Christmas Eve with family, friends or as a couple this Sunday, December 24 in the evening. And the various presidents of the Republic also have the custom, like everyone else, of celebrate the end of year holidays with a good meal. Jacques Chirac, in particular, had a preference for a menu very particular carnivore for this dinner surrounded by his family, as biographer Jocelyne Sauvard explained in an interview given in 2016 to Planet.fr.
“Child, Bernadette Chirac used to enjoy a roast turkey in its own juice. As an adult, she kept this habit, but she adapted it to her husband’s tastes. first affirmed the writer, specifying: “So, at the Élysée for Christmas, “We very often served poultry with truffles under the skin, but also cold meats, white pudding and poultry supreme with foie gras, to please the ex-president.” In December 2014, still with our colleagues from Planet.fr, it was the great chef Bernard Vaussion, who worked in the service of French governors from 2005 to 2013, who revealed that Jacques Chirac, who was very greedy, “also enjoyed a seven-hour leg of lamb.”
>> PHOTOS – Jacques Chirac, or the embodiment of French elegance
A former first lady who takes care of her employees
The former President of the Republic could also count on his wife to send little words to the kitchen teams, as the chef pointed out with a certain tenderness: “Bernadette Chirac, who was a very involved hostess, did not fail to give us her comments whenever she had the opportunity. She sometimes came to tell us that she was proud of the very positive feedback her guests had given her. It wasn’t due, she wasn’t required to do it.” To celebrate Christmas, the other former Presidents, for their part, seemed to have taste preferences for shellfish. This was the case of François Mitterrand, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande who loved seafood more than meat when they stayed at the Élysée.
Article written with the collaboration of 6Medias
Photo credits: DOMINIQUE JACOVIDES / BESTIMAGE