Sue Style
Food, Wine and Travel
Writer
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Quote of the month:
'The pig is nothing but an enormous dish which walks while waiting
to be served.'
Charles Monselet
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PIGGING
OUT IN LYON (FT Weekend)
Lyon
is not for the fainthearted or the feeble of appetite. This is the home
of the tablier du sapeur (‘the sapper’s apron’, breadcrumbed and fried tripe
squares), of diverse cochonaille (piggery), calves’ liver, pigs’ trotters,
quenelles and crème brûlée – though preferably not all
at one meal.
The high point of a Lyon gastronomic tour is the Léon de Lyon. A selection of local specialities, described by chef Jean-Paul Lacombe as la cuisine lyonnaise revue et corrigée - lyonnaise cooking re-examined and ‘corrected’ - is distinguished by an asterisk. These share the limelight with compositions of more Mediterranean inspiration. For starters we had two house specialities: a ‘rustic terrine’ from free-range Cantal pork, slightly reminiscent of rillettes, with foie gras, an onion confit and a truffled rocket salad; and an unctuous combination of pig’s trotter and foie gras done up like an elegant sausage, sliced over waxy pink potatoes and served with a salad of flat-leaf parsley, chives and tarragon. From the latter (Mediterranean) category came a superb dish of variations on the crab theme: a crusty pyramid filled with dressed crab, a crab millefeuille, an ethereal crab mousse and a chick pea galette. The sommelier’s suggestion of an Ardèche Viognier from Georges Duboeuf (Lacombe’s father-in-law) proved sound.
To follow there were some featherlight, succulent quenelles de brochet, light years away from the gluey, leaden dumplings that masquerade under the name, bathed in a sensational sauce strongly based on crayfish shells – one of them, a rich Renaissance red, escaped the stock pot and provided a fetching garnish for the dish. Other choices were a lean and perfectly pinkly roasted pigeon with a chunk of braised bacon and new potatoes, and a challenging dish of pigs’ cheeks and tails gently stewed for hours and served with crusty crackling and spring vegetables.
Desserts have to be ordered at the outset, a requirement which tends to favour the kitchen staff rather more than the diner. We plumped blindly for the much-vaunted collection of six little desserts on the theme of praline from Saint-Genix. It’s probably one of those dishes you have to be born between the Saône and the Rhone to fully understand. A better choice for non-initiates would have been one of the many fruit-based desserts for which Lacombe is justly famous: warm apricot tart, lime parfait glacé or a harmonious-sounding marriage of chocolate and raspberries.
Lacombe also owns a whole stable of bistros dotted throughout the town. All serve the Lyonnais classics, but each has a personality and a distinctive décor of its own. Don’t miss the Bistrot de Lyon on the busy rue Mercière, not least for its wonderful art deco interior (the lavatories, especially, are worth a detour). Regular customers at the seven Lacombe bistros receive a carte de fidelité which is stamped after each meal. The reward for all this eating is a generous discount off a meal at the Léon (above).
For visitors to the Halle Tony Garnier, a dramatic edifice constructed in 1914 to house the town abbatoir, a lively place to eat is the surprisingly named Carnegie Hall. Once merely a boucherie, now a sanctuary for serious carnivores, the restaurant is noted for its beef. Through a plate glass window, huge carcasses impaled on great meat hooks can be discerned. Up on the wall there is a helpful diagram of a beef animal showing how the carcasse is butchered à la francaise: hit the appropriate button on the control panel and your chosen cut of meat lights up.
Starters are a bit limited (sundry salads, snails, sausages); it’s best to cut to the meat. We chose a palette de viandes or assortment of meats, and earned the waiter’s undying scorn by suggesting a plate between two. ‘Des grandes filles comme vous?’ (‘Big girls like you?’), he exclaimed incredulously. But he came round when we agreed to his recommendation that the meat be cooked rare and brought it with a good enough grace. We were vindicated in our choice – three untranslateable (though, thanks to the diagram, perfectly identifiable), tender, tasty pieces of beef and an escalope of veal, with a nutmeg-infused potato gratin and a few beans.
Thanks to our modest meat consumption, we were able to do justice to Renée Richard’s incomparable St Marcellin which came still wrapped in its waxed paper – a wise precaution, for it threatened to burst forth at any moment. A lemon tart brought things to a sharp, clean conclusion.
Bocuse, Lyon’s (and France’s) most celebrated chef, has gone into the generics business too with three brasseries distributed about the city. Le Nord is the classic Alsatian-type brasserie, Le Sud is Provençal in spirit and in décor, while at L’Est, housed in a former railway station, the cooking is described as ‘la cuisine des voyages’ . (L’Ouest completes the points of the compass next year.) At L’Est two dishes were extremely successful: saffron-flavoured spaghettini with tiny squid, mangetout and broad beans, and the classic herring salad. Less impressive was a dull, under-seasoned ragout of fish. We had an excellent pot of Macon-Viré from a good selection of open wines. The service was friendly but snail-like, so we gave up on dessert. Children of all ages enjoy the electric train which runs round the restaurant on rails and there’s plenty of pavement room in summer, shaded by big parasols and cooled by fans and periodic jets of tiny vapourised droplets.
The high point of a Lyon gastronomic tour is the Léon de Lyon. A selection of local specialities, described by chef Jean-Paul Lacombe as la cuisine lyonnaise revue et corrigée - lyonnaise cooking re-examined and ‘corrected’ - is distinguished by an asterisk. These share the limelight with compositions of more Mediterranean inspiration. For starters we had two house specialities: a ‘rustic terrine’ from free-range Cantal pork, slightly reminiscent of rillettes, with foie gras, an onion confit and a truffled rocket salad; and an unctuous combination of pig’s trotter and foie gras done up like an elegant sausage, sliced over waxy pink potatoes and served with a salad of flat-leaf parsley, chives and tarragon. From the latter (Mediterranean) category came a superb dish of variations on the crab theme: a crusty pyramid filled with dressed crab, a crab millefeuille, an ethereal crab mousse and a chick pea galette. The sommelier’s suggestion of an Ardèche Viognier from Georges Duboeuf (Lacombe’s father-in-law) proved sound.
To follow there were some featherlight, succulent quenelles de brochet, light years away from the gluey, leaden dumplings that masquerade under the name, bathed in a sensational sauce strongly based on crayfish shells – one of them, a rich Renaissance red, escaped the stock pot and provided a fetching garnish for the dish. Other choices were a lean and perfectly pinkly roasted pigeon with a chunk of braised bacon and new potatoes, and a challenging dish of pigs’ cheeks and tails gently stewed for hours and served with crusty crackling and spring vegetables.
Desserts have to be ordered at the outset, a requirement which tends to favour the kitchen staff rather more than the diner. We plumped blindly for the much-vaunted collection of six little desserts on the theme of praline from Saint-Genix. It’s probably one of those dishes you have to be born between the Saône and the Rhone to fully understand. A better choice for non-initiates would have been one of the many fruit-based desserts for which Lacombe is justly famous: warm apricot tart, lime parfait glacé or a harmonious-sounding marriage of chocolate and raspberries.
Lacombe also owns a whole stable of bistros dotted throughout the town. All serve the Lyonnais classics, but each has a personality and a distinctive décor of its own. Don’t miss the Bistrot de Lyon on the busy rue Mercière, not least for its wonderful art deco interior (the lavatories, especially, are worth a detour). Regular customers at the seven Lacombe bistros receive a carte de fidelité which is stamped after each meal. The reward for all this eating is a generous discount off a meal at the Léon (above).
For visitors to the Halle Tony Garnier, a dramatic edifice constructed in 1914 to house the town abbatoir, a lively place to eat is the surprisingly named Carnegie Hall. Once merely a boucherie, now a sanctuary for serious carnivores, the restaurant is noted for its beef. Through a plate glass window, huge carcasses impaled on great meat hooks can be discerned. Up on the wall there is a helpful diagram of a beef animal showing how the carcasse is butchered à la francaise: hit the appropriate button on the control panel and your chosen cut of meat lights up.
Starters are a bit limited (sundry salads, snails, sausages); it’s best to cut to the meat. We chose a palette de viandes or assortment of meats, and earned the waiter’s undying scorn by suggesting a plate between two. ‘Des grandes filles comme vous?’ (‘Big girls like you?’), he exclaimed incredulously. But he came round when we agreed to his recommendation that the meat be cooked rare and brought it with a good enough grace. We were vindicated in our choice – three untranslateable (though, thanks to the diagram, perfectly identifiable), tender, tasty pieces of beef and an escalope of veal, with a nutmeg-infused potato gratin and a few beans.
Thanks to our modest meat consumption, we were able to do justice to Renée Richard’s incomparable St Marcellin which came still wrapped in its waxed paper – a wise precaution, for it threatened to burst forth at any moment. A lemon tart brought things to a sharp, clean conclusion.
Bocuse, Lyon’s (and France’s) most celebrated chef, has gone into the generics business too with three brasseries distributed about the city. Le Nord is the classic Alsatian-type brasserie, Le Sud is Provençal in spirit and in décor, while at L’Est, housed in a former railway station, the cooking is described as ‘la cuisine des voyages’ . (L’Ouest completes the points of the compass next year.) At L’Est two dishes were extremely successful: saffron-flavoured spaghettini with tiny squid, mangetout and broad beans, and the classic herring salad. Less impressive was a dull, under-seasoned ragout of fish. We had an excellent pot of Macon-Viré from a good selection of open wines. The service was friendly but snail-like, so we gave up on dessert. Children of all ages enjoy the electric train which runs round the restaurant on rails and there’s plenty of pavement room in summer, shaded by big parasols and cooled by fans and periodic jets of tiny vapourised droplets.
Jean-Paul
Lacombe’s restaurants
- Le Léon de Lyon, 1 rue Pléney, 69001 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 78 28 11 33
- Le Petit Lyon, 3 rue Pléney, 69001 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 72 10 11 11
- Le Bistrot de Lyon, 64 rue Mercière, 69002 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 78 38 47 47
- Le Bistrot du Palais, 220 rue Duguesclin, 69003 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 78 14 21 21
- Maison Villlemanzy, 25 Montée St Sébastien, 69001 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 72 98 21 21
- La Terrasse St Clair, 2 Grand Rue St Clair, 69300 Caluire, Tel. +33 4 72 27 37 37
- Le Bouchon aux Vins, 62 rue Mercière, 69002 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 78 38 47 40
- Le Comptoir des Marroniers, 8 rue des Maronniers, 69002 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 72 77 10 00
- Le Nord, 18 rue Neuve, 69002 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 72 10 69 69
- L’Est, Gare des Brotteaux, 14 place Jules-Ferry, 69006 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 37 24 25 25
- Le Sud, 11 place Antonin-Poncet, 69002 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 72 77 80 00
- Carnegie Hall, 253 rue Marcel Mérieux, 69007 Lyon, Tel. +33 4 78 58 85 79
Sue
Style
Winchelsea, East Sussex and Alsace, France
contact:
sue@suestyle.com
Copyright Sue Style 2001-2004 All rights reserved
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