We’ve got a French Valentines Day dinner menu and recipes for Valentines Day dinner at home – which is so much more romantic than dining out on the restaurant industry’s busiest night of the year. At home, you can serve a whole platter of oysters (rather than one a piece!), turn the jazz up and the lights down as low as you like, tuck into seconds, and skip dessert – or take it to another room.
When we lived in Sydney when we were younger, we’d dine out for Valentines Day, birthdays, our anniversary, and, frankly, any excuse for a celebratory meal at one of Sydney’s finest restaurants. But I have to confess: the most memorable meals were the $18 prix fixe 3-course menu du jour at an atmospheric, dimly-lit, French neighbourhood bistro called L’Ironique near our home in Balmain. French bistros and brasseries are where to book a table if you’re lucky to live near one.
These days, I’d rather celebrate our love with a home-cooked meal, good bottle of wine, and Pepper curled up on her mat nearby. Have Valentines Day dinner at home and you can sip more than the two welcome glasses of bubbly included in the set menu. In fact, you could sip bubbly with your entire meal if you wished. You can linger as long as you like at your romantic candlelit table without a bill being slid not-so-discreetly in front of you. Even better? No bill!
Valentines Day dinner at home means you can serve whatever cuisine you like, but just as Paris is the world’s most romantic city, a French Valentines Day dinner menu is the most romantic meal you can make a loved one in my opinion. Start with freshly shucked oysters if they’re in season, stick to classic dishes that can’t fail, put on some jazz, light some candles, and pop that bottle of bubbles.
And let’s face it: these days, Valentines Day is not a good night to dine out at a good restaurant. For most restaurants, Valentines Day is the busiest night of the year. Restaurateurs want to take advantage of that and turn as many tables as they can, which means you’ll probably be rushed through dinner, and service won’t be as good as it usually is, even at your favourite restaurant.
You’ll also be paying more for the gastronomic experience at that fancy restaurant you’ve been trying to get to for ages than you would any other night. Sure, there’ll probably be welcome glasses of sparkling included, luxuriant ingredients such as oysters and lobster, heart shaped chocolates, and a red rose. But it’s all so contrived. I’d much rather create a romantic meal at home.
And do the math: I bet you’ll be paying way more than those little extras are reasonably worth, just because restaurants can change exorbitant prices on Valentines Day. And nobody is going to quibble because that’s just what restaurants do. And it’s easier than cooking a Valentines Day dinner at home. Or is it? Not as far as we’re concerned, if you stick to 3-4 classic French dishes.
We’ve also got some special Valentines Day dinner recipes that we shared a few years ago, for more ideas for a romantic meal in, and our Valentines breakfast ideas if you’re going to continue the celebration of your love all weekend, or you’re too exhausted to celebrate Friday night and you’re going to kick off a Valentines weekend on Saturday morning.
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Now let me tell you all about my suggestions for a French Valentines Day dinner menu and recipes if you’re planning a romantic Valentines Day dinner at home this Friday.
French Valentines Day Dinner Menu and Recipes for a Romantic Meal at Home
Here’s our French Valentines Day dinner menu and recipes if you’re planning a romantic meal at home this Valentines Day.
Traditional French Tapenade from Provence
Kicking off our French Valentines Day dinner menu is this easy olive tapenade, which we recommend serving with a nice bottle of bubbly. Our recipe is based on the traditional French tapenade recipe from Provence in southern France and it’s a breeze to make.
There are only four ingredients – black olives, capers, anchovies, and olive oil – although I also add a little red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar, although that’s not strictly traditional.
While hailing from Southern France, olive tapenade is quintessentially Mediterranean so I use the juiciest olives from Kalamata, briny capers from Pantelleria, Ortiz salted anchovies from Spain, and grassy extra virgin olive oil from Valencia. If you have time, you could serve it with homemade cheese straws.
I don’t recommend making more than one quality home-made dip, as you’ll spoil your appetites. But if you really want to prepare a couple, try our smoked salmon dip or French onion dip but serve small portions. Leftover dips will last a few days in the fridge.
Easy Olive Tapenade Recipe for Traditional French Tapenade from Provence
Deeply Flavoured French Onion Soup
Next on our French Valentines Day dinner menu is a fragrant French onion soup. Our recipe makes a classic French onion soup, which I give a subtle Southeast Asian twist.
Inspired by French chef Raymond Blanc’s vegetarian French onion soup recipe, which uses toasted flour to add a nuttiness to the broth, I added a little fish sauce for umami and star anise for aroma and flavour to create a deeply-flavoured onion soup.
When I developed this recipe, I’d been a lifelong French onion soup lover but not a maker. Terence has long been the cook of the French onion soups in our household. The hearty French onion broth that Terence has made for decades is based on Julia Child’s classic French onion soup recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
French Onion Soup Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Soup with an Asian Twist
I have two suggestions for you to choose from for a main course for our French Valentines Day dinner menu: the first is an easy French style braised chicken, while the second is one for meat lovers, cote de boeuf.
French Style Braised Chicken with Jus
I recommend this easy French style braised chicken for a main course for our French Valentines Day dinner menu. This recipe makes the juiciest chicken with crispy skin from just seven ingredients – stock, olive oil, lemon, garlic, a homemade chicken seasoning, and butter.
One of our best chicken recipes, it’s a foolproof dish with little work required other than basting. Whether you cook the chicken on high, go low and slow, or reheat it, the chicken remains succulent.
Serve it with chicken jus and sides of vegetables, such as caramelised Brussels sprouts or blistered green beans and Hassleback potatoes or creamy mashed potatoes. We have more recipes for vegetable side dishes here.
Alternatively, if the weather’s warm where you are, you could opt for a simple fragrant herb salad or this radish cucumber salad with feta, rucola and fresh herbs on the side. If you’ve made and enjoyed our Spanish style braised chicken with olives and capers or Italian roast chicken recipe with peppers and leeks, you’ll love this French style braised chicken.
French Style Braised Chicken Recipe with Lemon, Garlic and Chicken Jus
Chef Pierre Gagnaire’s Cote de Boeuf
An alternative main course for our French Valentines Day dinner menu is this succulent, perfumed cote de boeuf, or more correctly, côte de bœuf. This recipe came courtesy of superstar French chef Pierre Gagnaire, and it was one of our most memorable souvenirs of our two-week stay in Paris way back in the spring of 2010 when we launched Grantourismo.
It’s another of my best Valentines Day dinner ideas for French food lovers. We recommend a cast iron Dutch Oven for cooking your cote de boeuf and you’ll also need a meat thermometer. You don’t want to get this wrong! Bon appétit!
Cote de Boeuf Recipe Courtesy of Chef Pierre Gagnaire in Paris
Creamy Mashed Potatoes
This creamy mashed potatoes recipe makes our favourite potato side dishes, creamy potato mash, and it’s the perfect accompaniment to our French style braised chicken, fragrant cote de boeuf, five-spice pork belly, or a crispy skinned fish fillet.
A simple dish, Terence’s creamy mashed potatoes rely on a very simple formula: one kilo potatoes, 250 grams butter, and 250 millilitres of full cream milk. Add a good few twists of a salt grinder – and fresh pepper if you wish – and you have a classic creamy potato mash.
A tip: while some chefs, particularly French-trained chefs, like to use a food mill, Terence prefers to use a potato ricer followed by a tamis, pushing the potatoes through with a bowl scraper.
Creamy Mashed Potatoes Recipe – How to Make Perfect Potato Mash Every Time
Soft-Centred Chocolate Cake
A French brasserie classic known as Moelleux au Chocolat in French, or molten chocolate cake, a soft-centred chocolate cake or lava cake is one of the dishes that every cook should master to become a better home cook and it’s our suggestion for dessert on our French Valentines Day dinner menu.
Unlike a soufflé or a crème brûlée, this is a very easy recipe that requires no voodoo to work. Chocolate, butter, eggs, sugar, flour. That’s it. Simple? Yes. Moreish? You bet. You definitely want to prepare more than one each. Terence loves to serve this lava cake with local berries and home-made vanilla ice cream but I’m just as happy with a dollop of cream.
Soft-Centred Chocolate Cake Recipe for a Chocolate Lava Cake or Molten Chocolate Cake
Please do let us know if you make our French Valentines Day dinner menu in the comments below as we’d love to hear how our recipes turned out for you.
