Twenty-five EU leaders will tuck into roast goose

As the EU energy summit gets under way, Finnish ovens are being fired up to fill 25 eminent European bellies with "roasted goose supreme".

Other delights on the menu on Friday include tartare of lavaret (a white fish) and sea buckthorn berry mousse.

Last year, French President Jacques Chirac, pronounced Finnish food the worst in Europe.

LUNCHEON MENU Smoked lamb roast with cranberry sauce Braised arctic char with tarragon sauce Ginger flavoured pears Wines: Dolcetto di Dogliani 2004 Sancerre Blanc 2004 Perrin Muscat Beaumes de Venise 2001 Finnish food recipes

In the run-up to the G8 summit in Scotland in 2005, France's Liberation newspaper quoted Mr Chirac denigrating cuisine in Britain, saying: "After Finland, it is the country with the worst food."

The president was reportedly sharing a joke with Germany's then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the time.

In the past, Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also compared Italian and Finnish food culture and found the latter vastly inferior.

DINNER MENU Lavaret tartare with grilled fennel Artichoke soup Rosemary roasted goose supreme with rowanberry sauce Chocolate and sea buckthorn berry mousse Wines: Am Sand Gewurztraminer 2002 Corullon 2003 Gruner Veltliner Eiswein 2005

"There is absolutely no comparison between culatello (speciality ham) from Parma and smoked reindeer," Mr Berlusconi was quoted as saying.

His country succeeded in hosting the European Food Safety Authority in 2005 in Parma instead of in Helsinki, Finland.

In 2001, he told the European Union that Finland did not deserve the food safety agency as "Finns don't even know what prosciutto is".