Dining with Bocuse & Veyrat

Dining with Bocuse & Veyrat

Haute cuisine today owes a great deal to the renovations of Lyonnais master chef Paul Bocuse.

Back in the mid-1970s he unleashed his revolutionary dishes on an unsuspecting world, taking a stodgy, moribund tradition and creating fireworks by fusing unlikely ingredients, lighting up sauces, and putting the grand classics of Escoffier into jogging shoes. The amazing thing is that he did it all in traditional Lyon.

For centuries, dining here has not been for the fainthearted. Indeed, most people throw out the dieter's notebook and roll up their sleeves in this city -- everyone knows it's time to eat!

Lyon's cuisine is strong and cholesterol-heavy, the portions are trencherman-huge (oddly enough, many of these time-honored dishes were created by women, one reason so many Lyon dining establishments are affectionately called La Mère).

Typical dishes are sabodet, a sausage made of pig's head; gâteau de foie de volaille (chicken liver pudding); museau vinaigrette (pickled beef muzzle); and the daunting tête de veau (calf's head).

There are also such exquisitely light delicacies as quenelles (poached fish dumplings, often in sauce Nantua), which appear on tables in restaurants from the truly elegant to the truly simple.

Lyon is most famous for its traditional bouchons (taverns), with homey wooden benches, zinc counters, and paper table coverings, that serve salads, pork products like garlicky rosette sausage, and sturdy main courses such as tripe, veal stew, and andouillette (chitterling sausage).

Also the word for cork, bouchon in this case refers to the handfuls of straw used by grooms to bouchonner (rub down) horses after a day's ride. Taverns supplied piles of straw at the door and sold simple fare to horsemen.

Unfortunately, the bouchon tradition has led to a host of modern-day fakes, so look for the little plaque at the door showing Gnafron, a Grand Guignol character, raising a glass of the grape, signifying a seal of approval from the town's historical association.

If you're not enthralled by traditional Lyonnais fare (only so much pork tripe and pike dumpling can be consumed in a day), turn to the full rainbow of Lyon's vast modern and postmodern culinary wealth, best seen in the absolutely extraordinary creations of Megève's poet-chef, Marc Veyrat: butter and creams from the north, Charolais beef to the west, olive oil and seafood from the Rhône estuary and the Mediterranean to the south, and game and highland delicacies from the Alps to the east.

For a full account of this chef's fireworks, see our reviews of his La Maison de Marc Veyrat in Annecy and his La Ferme de Mon Père in Megève.

The Dombes is rich in game and fowl; the chicken is famous, especially poulet de Bresse, traditionally cooked with cream. Thrush, partridge, and hare star along the Rhône.

Local cheeses include St-Marcellin, Roquefort, Beaufort, Tomme, and goat's-milk Cabecou.

Privas has its marrons glacés (candied chestnuts), Montélimar its nougats. Alpine rivers and lakes supply abundant pike and trout.

When in the Alps don't forget to try a raclette, cheese melted over potatoes.

Mountain herbs yield liqueurs and aperitifs such as tangy, dark Suédois; the sweet, green Chartreuse; and bittersweet Suze (made from gentian).