Lyon - France's gastronomic star

Article by: Nicola Williams, June 2008

I've dined in the French capital for years and I still can't tell you what Parisian cuisine is. Salivating over caneton (duckling) accompanied by the chinks of silver and Seine-side views at one of the city's oldest haute-cuisine addresses, savouring calf kidneys in a jam-packed bistro with zinc bar, lace curtains and too much noise, or digging into a perfectly perfumed tajine at the city mosque are exquisite culinary moments. But I've never come across one defining dish that screams Paris.
Lyon, France's third largest city, has not just one plat but a riot of piggy-driven cuisine to pick from. The offal and other ghoulish animal parts thrown into andouillettes (pig-intestine sausages), tablier de sapeur (breaded fried stomach), boudin noir (black pudding) and other meaty dishes might not be to everyone's taste. But they are unforgettable - and distinctively Lyon.

Bouchons

Take Chez Paul, near Lyon's opera house, one of a bevy of staunchly traditional bistros called bouchons after the straw bundles 19th-century inn keepers hung out for coachmen who wanted to rub down their horses. Its monstrously sized fixed lunch - a snip at €19 - gets tongues wagging every time, not least because of the sugar cubes spiked in a fiery pea-green alcoholic concoction that's served as a digestive. The succession of short sharp sensations the sugar cube machine-guns at tastebuds as it dissolves - mint, clove, thyme - is tongue-numbing. The recipe? 'A house secret!' says Josiane, the matronly 62-year-old who cracks the whip in the kitchen with the same formidable ease as Mère Brazier, Mère Filloux and other 'mothers' who made Lyon's culinary reputation in the 1930s.

Bouchons are of bijou dimensions, serve 100% traditional fare and stoically refuse to change or open weekends. Popular demand has recently forced the best-known, Café des Federations, to open (reluctantly) on Saturdays. With its tightly packed bistro tables and checked cloths, it's akin to Grandma's kitchen - precisely its charm. Wine is copiously poured from un pot, an unlabelled 46cl glass bottle with a coloured elastic band around its neck to denote a run-of-the-mill Côtes du Rhône or Beaujolais. The elastic allegedly stops drips, too, although not noticeably on the night I was at Chez Georges (tel: 04 78 28 30 46; 8 rue du Garet, 1er), where I heroically consumed two radishes and a hunk of sausage, a salade du petit bouchon (a mix of lentils, pork sausage, muzzle and calf's trotters), fish stew and the creamiest fromage frais this side of the Alps, topped with sugar and thick whipped cream, as cheese course. Chez Georges, scarcely changed since 1951, has a snap of the original Georges peering from the wall in his blue shirt sleeves.

Contemporary spaces

Porkers are its backbone, but Lyon's continuing gastronomic reputation rides on creative innovation.

L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges (tel: 04 72 42 90 90; 40 quai de la Plage, Collonges au Mont d'Or), the gastronomic restaurant of the undisputed king of Lyonnais cuisine, Paul Bocuse, has held onto its three precious Michelin stars since 1965. These days it lures more lapdog ladies than laptop gourmets. Yet the king's latest project, fast-food outlet Ouest Express (41 rue des Docks, 9e), brings the old-school empire into the swing of modern dining trends. In a similar vein, 58-year-old chef Jean-Paul Lacombe transformed his twin-starred gastronomic classic Léon de Lyon earlier this year into a cheaper but equally lovable brasserie.

Nicolas Le Bec - a high-flying, travel-mad 30-something who wouldn't be seen dead with an andouillette in his oven or wearing chefs' whites (he wears black) - is out to democratise fine dining with his new lounge bar Espace Le Bec at Lyon's St-Exupéry airport, and a vast dining-drinking space with a kids play area planned for 2009 on the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône.

Back near the opera house on rue Royale, 1er, Mathieu Vianney is reinventing the very restaurant that earned Lyon its first trio of Michelin stars in 1933 - the mythical La Mère Brazier.

Taste it

Lyonnais cuisine is all about quality local produce, so making a trip to indoor market Les Halles de Lyon (102 Cours Lafayette) is a must. Drink a vin blanc (€1.40) with the locals then drool over andouillettes at Chez Bobosse, 240 cheese types at Fromages Maréchal and foie gras at Rolle. For lunch, try typical Lyonnais quenelles (pike perch dumplings) at Giraudet or a gargantuan shellfish platter from a dégustation de coquillages stall. Don't leave without buying a round of impossibly runny St-Marcellin (€2.60) from legendary cheesemonger Mère Richard and a fat knobbly Jésus de Lyon from pork butcher Colette Sibilia.

Try it

The lunch menu at Nicolas Le Bec is exceptionally good value (€58). Glean secrets from the chef at one of his two-hour cookery workshops; they cost €60 and must be booked weeks in advance to ensure a place.

It might sound like a raw deal, but the cooking workshops over lunch (€17) at L'Atelier des Chefs are so New Generation, darling: feast on a DIY cooking session crammed with handy hints then eat the result. Equally creative are the cooking classes (two hours, €18-25) at Badiane, a bookshop for cooks that peppers Saturday-afternoon shopping with free tastings.

The culinary arts and hotel management courses at Institut Paul Bocuse target professional cooks and serious amateurs. Its haute-cuisine restaurant Saisons (tel: 04 72 18 02 20; 8 chemin du Trouillat, Ecully; menus €26-48), where students hone their skills in a Lyonnais chateau is one of city's best-kept secrets. Again, advance reservations essential.