Established in 1983, Paris Gourmet is the New York tristate area’s leading specialty food service importer and distributor. We source the finest products from around the world and make them available across the country through a network of independent distributors. 

Our staff of chef technicians conduct extensive research and development of products in pursuit of quality and innovation. They also provide multiple opportunities for continuing education, training, and support within the industry.

Paris Gourmet is located in New Jersey’s Meadowlands, 8 miles from New York’s Times Square.

Cuisine Tech is a line of products that help elevate the chefs plate.   From ice cream, to sauces, to even flavored pearls.  The possibilities are endless!

  Check out the videos below

From left to right, Chef Frederic Larre, Chef Sylvain Leroy, Chef Eric Bertoia, and Chef Calogero Romano 

Have you ever heard of "writers block" or needed some inspiration?  It happens to all of us, and in the food industry it happens to chefs as well.

Unlike most vendors, Paris Gourmet offers a solution to that problem.  A team of chef technicians that service our customers nationwide to answer any technical questions about our products, recipes, consulting, and our favorite... demo day!

Chef Calogero Romano and staff at Malverne Pastry Shop

"Demo day" is a unique service that Paris Gourmet's chef technicians provide.  Depending on your location, the chef technician schedules a date to spend a day in your kitchen to show you and/ or train your staff on how to produce pastries.

Paris Gourmet provides ingredients and recipes for the demo and prior to the day, the chef technician usually discusses and goes over details of what the customer is looking for.

It is a day filled with lots of cooking, photo taking, and the best part... tasting of all the pastries that were produced for that day!

To book a demo and for more information, please contact your sales representative.

Meet our Chefs:

Instagram @sylvainleroy79

Instagram @bertoiaeric

Instagram @flarre16

Instagram @charliepastrynewyork

Last month Paris Gourmet did a live virtual discussion of ingredients for CBD edibles.  

Paris Gourmet's Colin Deschamps, John Duffy, and chef instructor Calogero Romano educated us on ingredients like glucose syrup, purees, and many more ingredients to help diversify your edible creations.

For more information, check out our video and feel free to leave a comment below.

I spoke with Jean Francois Devineau, chef technician for Ravifruit, about his best tips and suggestions for working with IQF (individually quick frozen) fruits.

An integral ingredient in every kitchen, fruits are a great way to add color, variety, texture, and, of course, flavor to so many applications. Ravifruit’s excellent selection of IQF fruits are a superb way to take advantage of the harvest, year-round.

1) Think of IQF Fruits as Fresh Fruits...Only Better

You can use IQF fruit pretty much anywhere you’d use fresh fruit: atop tarts, featured in plated desserts, blended into coulis and sauces, as a garnish, or cooked into jams and preserves.

Conversely, don’t use IQF fruits where you wouldn’t use fresh fruit. For example, if included in ice cream cake, the frozen water in the fruit would make for some unpleasant, icy bits and “disrupt” the eating experience.  In many ways, IQF fruits are actually better than fresh. Ravifruit only uses fruit at their peak of ripeness and seasonality for their products, so they are consistently of the highest quality.  There’s also no waste or prep involved--just use what you need right out of the freezer, no thawing required, and you don’t have to spend any time peeling or pitting.

2) Proper Storage

It couldn’t be easier: Take what only you need, then wrap up the rest air-tight and pop the package back in the freezer.  Because these are truly individually quick frozen, you can utilize exactly the number or quantity that you want for each preparation.

3) Gorgeous Garnishes

Improving upon nature’s design is tough, so fruits are always a great choice for garnishes. The IQF process ensures that the fruits stay intact, without losing shape or bruising. Simply pluck whichever fruit you like from the freezer and brush on a neutral, clear glaze for simple, stunning garnishes.

 4) Ideal Apricots

Ravifruit only uses French Bergeron apricots, a particular varietal grown in France right where Ravifruit headquarters are located. Juicy, tasty, and colorful, these apricots are one of Jean Francois’s favorite products in the Ravifruit line. Use them straight from the freezer, or place them on a baking sheet, skin side down. Sprinkle generously with "cassonade" (Sugar in the Raw), then bake at 320 degrees F for 20 minutes. Let them cool, then refrigerate until needed (they’ll keep for several days like this). This protects the fruit from oxidation.

 5) Unrivaled Rhubarb

Rhubarb has become so popular in the U.S., and chefs love how its tartness plays against sugar in sweet dishes like crisps, compotes, and pies. When using IQF rhubarb, Jean Francois prefers to remove it from the freezer, then sprinkle it with sugar and let it defrost in the refrigerator overnight covered with plastic wrap. This takes away some of the bitterness and sourness of the fruit without stripping it entirely of its characteristic tangy nature.  Rhubarb makes marvelous compote and pairs perfectly with strawberries.

6) Perfect Plums

Plums are so beloved that the Ravifruit line of IQF fruits includes two very different varieties: Quetsche and Mirabelle. Quetsche plums are large, oval, purple fruits with a bit of sourness and great flavor. Mirabelle plums are sweeter, smaller, round and yellow--they are less common and only grown in the Northeast of France.  Great for tarts!!  Quetsche plums can be prepared using the same methods described for apricots above.

                 MIRABELLE                                                                              QUETSCHE

 7) Be Creative

Instead of a typical smooth coulis, introduce some texture by stirring in some diced IQF fruits. Use IQF morello cherries for a twist on the classic Black Forest Cake: make a miniature version in a verrine by layering chocolate cake, cherry coulis, whipped cream and whole cherries. Always add the morello cherries while still frozen for best results.  Create refreshing cold fruit soups and add texture and flavor to salads and dressings.

8) Or Stay Traditional

The modern technology used in the IQF freezing process marries very well with traditional, old-school applications. These fruits are the perfect choice for classics like tart tatin, gateau basque, clafouti, and open-face tarts.  Red currants are often used as a cake filling, or glazed when frozen and used as a decoration.  Red currant jam can be marvelous but requires a significant amount of sugar.  Summer fruit mix is often tossed in neutral glaze while still frozen and used to decorate tarts and cakes.

Everyone loves homemade jams, and IQF fruits are the most convenient starting point.  Use one part IQF fruit to one part fruit puree, add 40-50% sugar, mix, and allow to sit overnight.  Bring to a boil, preferably in a copper pot.  Remove from heat, and chill to 4ºC/ 38ºF.  Refrigerate for 24 hours, and repeat the cooking and cooling process again.  This process allows the greatest marriage of fruit flavors, and the best pectin development for a rich texture.

9) Take Advantage of the Selection Any Time of Year

You no longer have to wait for cherry season or use sub-par apricots in the winter with the consistent high-quality that the IQF process offers. The true integrity of the fruit, picked and immediately flash-frozen when it’s at its absolute best, is a wonderful opportunity for chefs to have access to these wonderful, natural ingredients year-round.

A familiar ingredient to the many home cooks who use it to set their jams and jellies, pectin is a natural polysaccharide found in numerous terrestrial plants, and in particularly high concentration within the cell walls of apples.

All pectin is not created equal, as the structure, amount, and chemical composition differs among various plants, within the same plant over time, and in the diverse parts of the plant itself. Hence there are several types of pectin available for culinary preparations as a gelling agent, thickener, and stabilizer.

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First isolated and reported by Henri Braconnot in 1825, the culinary action of pectin as a gelling agent was known long beforehand. To get good quality, well-set jams made from low-pectin fruits such as blueberries or apricots, cooks would mix some pectin-rich fruits or their extracts into the recipe. With the onset of industrialization, makers of fruit preserves turned to apple juice producers to get dried apple pomace that was cooked down to extract pectin, and eventually during the 1920s and 1930s factories were built for the sole purpose of extracting pectin in regions that produced apple juice in both Europe and the USA.

Yellow Apple Pectin is a high methylester type of apple pectin that has been standardized with dextrose and is typically used as a gelifier for pate de fruit and glazes that results in a slowly set, spreadable gel texture. Combine Yellow Apple Pectin with sugar prior before it is added to the other ingredients, as sugar increases pectin’s ability to gel and affect texture and consistency. It also requires the presence of an acid, such as citric acid, to set properly.

To create classic French pate de fruit candies, simply bring the fruit puree of your choice to a boil, then whisk in a Yellow Apple Pectin/sugar mixture followed by any remaining sugar(s) necessary for your recipe. Heat the mixture to 225 degrees Fahrenheit, then remove from heat and add an acidic ingredient (powdered citric acid works well). Dispense the mixture into molds or pour into a sheet tray with sides to set, then roll the molded or cut pieces of set pate de fruit in crystallized or granulated sugar.