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If you enjoy top-notch food and wine, there is no better place than Lyon, France’s gastronomic heartland. Local chefs have turned their backs on culinary trends and returned to their roots of traditional home-cooking. So here’s our list of top restaurants and gourmet food shops.
Text by Fiona Fleck
Illustrations by karine@tundragroup.com
Lyon has seen food fads come and go. First it was the “nouvelle cuisine” of the 1970s, which introduced minuscule portions of lighter, healthier food in place of old- style cordon bleu cooking. In the 1980s and '90s, Mediterranean-style and Asian fusion food were all the rage and – to some extent – still are. But now many chefs in the city, regarded as France’s gateway to the south and famed for some of the nation’s greatest culinary wizards, have had enough of fashionable food and are returning to their roots.
The last few years have seen a revival of the “bouchons” – small, modest restaurants serving simple, homely dishes. Lyon owes its tradition of these “bouchons” (named after the hay bales fed to travellers’ horses) to the famous matronly chefs of the 19th century, known as “mères”, or “mothers”. These portly, but dedicated, French women turned home-cooking into an art. Paul Bocuse, for example, who today has a three-star Michelin restaurant (the highest gastronomic honour), learnt to cook at Mère Brazier, the restaurant of Eugènie Brazier, who was the first woman ever to receive six Michelin stars – three for each of her two restaurants. Even the “haute cuisine” of Jean Paul Lacombe, head chef at the landmark Leon de Lyon, with two Michelin stars, is rooted in the tradition of the “mères”.
Today, amidst the rose-coloured Renaissance towers built by Italian merchants and the narrow “traboules”, or passageways, there are plenty of bouchons, each claiming to be authentic. To find them, simply stroll along the picturesque banks of the rivers Rhone or Saone, both of which are lined with culinary haunts.
And while many of the old “bouchons” remain, new versions are springing up. Chef Christian Têtedoie recently converted his garage, two doors away from his longstanding gourmet restaurant (called, appropriately enough, Christian Têtedoie) to recreate an old-style “bouchon” called Le Contretete, complete with antique porcelain, old kitchen utensils and simple wooden furniture. The menu offers many dishes pioneered by Lyon’s “mères”, although he admits they are a little lighter than they used to be. “Lyon cooks used to use a lot of lard, but now we use olive oil or grape-seed oil, because it’s healthier,” said Mr Têtedoie, whose wife Florence is the grand-daughter of one of those famous culinary matrons, the late Mère Perrier. That said, his menu still boasts a full roster of traditional food that doesn’t shy away from unpopular ingredients like offal: veal’s head braised in red wine is just one of the menu’s many attractions. He also serves quenelles, fish- or meat-flavoured dumplings, an old Lyon favourite, as well as braised guinea fowl, pork belly with chestnuts and andouilette sausage gratin. “True tradition is not about just copying what others have done in the past, but about rediscovering the spirit of what they were doing at the time,” Mr Têtedoie said.
Other bouchons have survived culinary fads, such as Mère Brazier, a restaurant honoured with one Michelin star, and another Mère Vittet, although critics maintain that they are a shadow of what they once were. But the bouchon is just one of an amazing choice of dining possibilities available to visitors to Lyon, which is home to some 1,600 eateries, including cafes, where you can eat and drink most times of the day, “guinguettes” (taverns), brasseries and gourmet restaurants, known as “les grandes tables”.
If you’re short on time, stroll down Rue Mercier or Rue des Maronniers. Both are filled almost entirely with restaurants. Residents say they rarely go to the same restaurant twice, as there is so much choice, and one of the pleasures of being in Lyon is discovering new places to eat. “There are some very simple restaurants that are completely unassuming, but where the food can be fantastic,” said Paul Stuart, a British resident of Lyon.
One explanation for the gastronomic excellence of the area is its outstanding produce. Few regions in France can lay claim to such an abundance of goods. Lyon’s cooks benefit from France’s best poultry, which comes from the city of Bresse; beef from the Charolais region, one of the top French cattle breeds; freshwater fish, like pike-perch from the pre-Alpine lakes to the east; fruit from the Rhone Valley to the south; and a smorgasbord of cheeses, all fresh from Lyon and the nearby Savoy and Dauphine regions. The city is also surrounded by some of the best wine regions: Burgundy to the north, Cotes du Rhone to the south and the Loire to the west.
When it comes to food, wine and the art of eating, few French are as knowledgeable and exacting as the Lyonnais. Mr Têtedoie – who’s also the head of the city’s association of chefs, Les Toques Blanches de Lyon (The White Chef Hats of Lyon) – offers an explanation: “In other towns people go out to the cinema, to the theatre or to a concert, but the Lyonnais go out to eat.”
And who can blame them.
Addresses:
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Paul Bocuse
Au Pont du Collonges Nord, Collonges-au-mont D’Or Tel. +33 472 429090
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Leon de Lyon 1 rue Pleney, Lyon
Tel. +33 472 101112
- Christian Têtedoie (and Contretete two doors down the road) 54 Quai Piere Scize, Lyon
Tel. +33 478 294010
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Mère Brazier 12 rue Royale, Lyon
Tel. +33 478 281549
1. Bugnes
These are giant fritters, or doughnuts, covered in bright pink icing sugar. They were originally the trademark sweet eaten during Lyon’s traditional “Carnaval” (carnival celebration) – the days of feasting before the Christian Lent, or fasting time. You will see them in most bakery or patisserie windows throughout the winter months.
Where: Maison Perroudon at 6, rue de la Barre, Tel. +33 478 373756, is one Lyon’s best patissiers and is open Sundays.
Also try: Pignol bakery and patissier at 17, rue E. Zola, which is round the corner from the central branch of Pignol.
2. Dumplings
Dumplings, or “quenelles”, flavoured with fish or meat, are one of Lyon’s most traditional dishes. Try fish quenelles of pike-perch, a freshwater fish found in many of the nearby lakes of the Savoy region served with Nantua sauce, a creamy, strongly flavoured seafood sauce which you can buy at any Lyon 'traiteur’ (a caterers or food shop that sells prepared dishes) ready made in a jar.
Where: Traiteur Monin, at 7, rue-de-Tournes, Tel. +33 478 376177.
WHEN IT COMES TO FOOD, WINE AND THE ART OF EATING, FEW FRENCH ARE AS KNOWLEDGEABLE AND EXACTING AS THE LYONNAIS
3. Sausages
Lyon is famed for its charcuterie – meaning sausages and cured meats.
Saucisson de Lyon is a cured sausage of raw meat that has been dried, salted or smoked. It has a gnarled surface, is bound in string and must be simmered in water before being served. Cervelas, another
Lyon sausage, must also be cooked. Look out for the truffled version, “Cervelas truffé”, flavoured with tiny pieces of black truffle. Andouillette, a Lyon sausage prepared with pork or veal intestines, or chitterlings, is served grilled, fried or with a sauce.
Where: Pignol, one of the city’s best “traiteurs”, or caterers, at 8 Place Bellecourt, Lyon’s big central square,
Tel. +33 478 373961. www.pignol.fr.
4. Cardoons
Don’t miss one of this region’s gastronomic curiosities, “chardons”, or cardoons, an edible thistle. You don’t eat the prickly bit of this southern European plant, but the leafstalk is prepared and eaten as a vegetable. Cardoons were traditionally eaten with Christmas dinner in the south of France. You can buy them fresh at the end of autumn and during the winter months, but there are lots of marinated versions sold in jars or tins at most Lyon traiteurs (caterers) all year round.
Where: Bahadourian at 20 rue Villeroy, 69003 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 78 60 32 10, is a long- established Armenian delicatessen that sells traditional Lyonnais products too. Or, try one of Lyon’s most exclusive wine shops, which doubles as an Epicerie: Malleval at 11, rue Emile Zola.
5. Cheeses
You will find virtually every cheese France has to offer in Lyon’s food stores and markets, but look out for the cheeses that are unique to Lyon.
There is Mont D’Or, a goat’s milk cheese, a mixture of cow’s and goat’s milk, or – increasingly common – cow’s milk only. Mont D’Or de Lyon is a soft cheese with a crust that’s sold in disks and should not be confused with its more famous rival, Mont D’Or Vacherin.
There is Cervelle de Canut, a soft curd cheese beaten with herbs, shallots, sour cream and white wine, which is a typical “Machon”, or Lyon mid-morning snack traditionally served in the city’s taverns. Today you are more likely to be offered this as an appetiser in restaurants.Look out for a rare goat’s milk farmhouse cheese, Rigotte de Condriere, which is also produced in the Lyon region.
Where: These cheeses and other “Machons” can be found at the city’s indoor market, Les Halles de Lyon at 102 Cours Lafayette, along with many other regional products.
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