Elevate your croissant with our jam & spread collection

Every year, as the calendar turns to late May, the city of Paris transforms. The ancient clay courts of the 16th arrondissement come alive with the sharp crack of rackets, the rhythmic thud of yellow balls, and the roar of tens of thousands of fans packed into one of sport's most iconic venues. The French Open — known to the world as Roland-Garros — is about to begin.

For two extraordinary weeks, the greatest tennis players on the planet battle it out on a surface that rewards patience, endurance, and raw mental strength above all else. There is no other Grand Slam quite like it. And there is no better excuse to settle in with a warm croissant, a generous spread of fine jam, and the television remote firmly in hand.

At Matumi Distributors, we love a sporting occasion as much as we love great food. So this year, we thought we'd take you on a journey — through the rich history of Roland-Garros, through the magnificent clay courts of Paris, and then back to your own kitchen, where we've got everything you need to make the experience truly special.

The story of the French Open stretches back over 135 years, to a Paris that was still basking in the glow of its famous Exposition Universelle. In 1891, the Championnat de France — France's national tennis championship — was held for the very first time. It was a modest affair by modern standards: open only to members of French clubs, with a first winner, somewhat ironically, being H. Briggs, a British player living in Paris.

Women's singles were added in 1897, mixed doubles in 1902, and women's doubles in 1907. The tournament grew steadily in prestige, though it was briefly suspended during the First World War between 1915 and 1919. When it returned, it was clear that French tennis was entering a golden age.

Here is a beautiful irony at the heart of the tournament: the stadium that hosts the world's greatest clay-court tennis event is named after a man who had almost no connection to tennis at all. Roland Garros — born in 1888 on the French island of Réunion — was a pioneering aviator and a hero of the First World War.

As a young man, Garros became obsessed with aviation at the age of 21, and in 1913 he achieved what is believed to be the first-ever flight across the Mediterranean Sea. When war broke out, he turned his passion for aircraft towards his country's defence, developing innovative ways to equip planes with forward-firing machine guns. He was a true pioneer — brave, inventive, and deeply French in spirit.

Tragically, Roland Garros was shot down and killed in aerial combat on 5 October 1918 — just weeks before the armistice that ended the war. When the new Paris tennis stadium was built in 1928, it was his former classmate Emile Lesieur, then president of Stade Français, who proposed naming it in honour of his brave friend. The name has endured for nearly a century, giving the world's most gruelling tennis tournament a deeply human, deeply heroic story at its core.

The late 1920s and early 1930s were French tennis' golden era. Four players — Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet, and René Lacoste — dominated the sport so completely that they became known as Les Quatre Mousquetaires: The Four Musketeers. Together, they won the Davis Cup for France six consecutive times between 1927 and 1932.

Their legacy is enshrined in the tournament's most coveted trophy: the Coupe des Mousquetaires — the Musketeers' Cup — awarded to the men's singles champion. Crafted by Parisian jewellers Mellerio dits Meller since 1953, the trophy is made of pure silver, stands 40 centimetres tall, and weighs a remarkable 14 kilograms. Each winner's name is engraved on its base, but the original trophy remains permanently with the French Tennis Federation — champions receive a smaller silver replica.

The women's equivalent — the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen — is named after another French legend, Suzanne Lenglen, who revolutionised women's tennis in the early 1920s with her athletic, flamboyant style of play.

Ask any tennis professional what sets Roland-Garros apart, and they will tell you it is the clay. Unlike the grass at Wimbledon or the hard courts of the Australian and US Opens, the burnt-red clay of Paris slows the ball dramatically, makes it bounce higher, and transforms every match into an endurance test of the highest order.

The courts are not simply spread with a layer of dirt. They are an engineering achievement — five distinct layers that create the perfect playing surface:

This surface rewards baseline players who can sustain long, punishing rallies — sometimes stretching 30, 40, even 50 shots in a single point. Men's matches are played over best-of-five sets, meaning a match can stretch across five hours or more. It is for this reason that many consider the French Open the most physically demanding two weeks in professional sport.

Over 135 years, Roland-Garros has produced some of sport's most extraordinary champions and most memorable moments. The Open Era alone gave us the reign of Björn Borg, the dominance of Chris Evert and Steffi Graf, and then — most remarkably of all — the era of the Big Three.

Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic so completely dominated the men's game that from 2004 to 2024, at least one of them appeared in every single Roland-Garros final. Nadal's record at Roland-Garros is almost incomprehensible: 14 men's singles titles, including five consecutive victories between 2010 and 2014. His mastery of clay is considered by many to be the greatest performance by any athlete in any sport, in any single venue, in the history of professional competition.

Now, as the tournament enters its 2026 chapter, the clay courts await a new story. Jannik Sinner arrives as world number one. Carlos Alcaraz carries the hopes of a generation. And a host of other contenders — men and women alike — will spend two weeks pushing themselves beyond their physical and mental limits in pursuit of the most coveted clay-court prize in sport.

There is something deeply fitting about pairing the French Open with French food. The tournament is, at its heart, a celebration of French elegance — the precision, the patience, the insistence on doing things properly. And what could be more elegantly French than a freshly baked, golden croissant served warm from the oven with a generous spoonful of fine preserve?

At Matumi Distributors, we believe your Roland-Garros viewing experience should be as memorable as the matches themselves. That's why we've put together everything you need — from a simple, foolproof puff pastry croissant recipe to a curated selection of premium jams and spreads that will transform your breakfast table into something worthy of Paris.

The method is simple: thaw your puff pastry, brush with a buttery vanilla mixture, slice into triangles, roll tightly, glaze with egg wash, and bake at 200°C until puffed and golden. Add chocolate before rolling for a pain au chocolat, or dust with cinnamon for a warming twist. Either way, the result is something that makes a South African Saturday morning feel unmistakably Parisian.

A croissant without jam is like a tennis match without crowd noise — technically fine, but missing something essential. Matumi Distributors stocks a carefully selected range of artisan jams and preserves, each one chosen to bring real depth of flavour to your table.

Chaloner's hand-cut Seville orange marmalade brings a gorgeous bittersweet sharpness that cuts beautifully through the richness of buttered pastry. The strawberry jam is bright, fresh, and universally loved. Weltevrede's Green Fig Preserve — made at a farm in the Karoo town of Prince Albert — is a showstopper: deep, earthy, and unlike anything you've tasted from a jar. And the Fountains Marula Jelly is a proudly South African choice, honouring our own extraordinary fruit on your very French breakfast table.

This Roland-Garros season, let the spreads be as thoughtfully chosen as the players on court.

Roland-Garros is more than two weeks of tennis. It is a story that spans 135 years — of a nation's passion for sport, of a wartime hero whose name lives on in every backhand down the line, of four musketeers who built a dynasty on red clay, and of champions who have pushed the boundaries of human athleticism year after year.

It is a tournament where the surface itself becomes the story. Where the clay rewards patience and punishes complacency. Where the greatest players in the world are humbled and elevated in equal measure. And where, somewhere in the stands, a fan bites into a warm croissant and thinks: there is nowhere on earth I would rather be.

We can't put you in those stands. But we can get your table as close to Paris as possible. Matumi Distributors is your partner for the finest jams, spreads, and pantry staples — this French Open season and beyond.