Bouchon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A bouchon is a type of restaurant found in Lyon, France, that serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, such as sausages, duck pâté or roast pork. Compared to other forms of French cooking such as nouvelle cuisine, the dishes are quite fatty, and heavily oriented around meat. There are around 20 officially certified traditional bouchons, but a larger number of establishments describing themselves using the term.
Typically, the emphasis in a bouchon is not on haute cuisine, but rather, a convivial atmosphere and a personal relationship with the owner.
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[edit] History
The tradition of bouchons came from small inns visited by silk workers passing through Lyon in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
According to Le petit Robert this name derives from the 16th century expression for a bunch of twisted straw. A represntation of such bundles began to appear on signs to indicate restaurants, and by extension the restaurants themselves became known as bouchons. The more common use of "bouchons" as a stopper at the mouth of a bottle, and its derivatives, have a different etymology.
[edit] Today
These bouchons are considered "authentic", as certified by the organisation Les Authentiques Bouchons Lyonnais: Abel, Brunet, Café des deux places, Café des fédérations, Daniel et Denise, Chez Georges le petit bouchon, Les gones, Hugon, Le Jura, Chez Marcelle, Le Mercière, La mère Jean, Le mitonné, Le Morgon, Le musée, Chez Paul, Les Trois Maries, A ma vigne, and Le vivarais. The list is somewhat subject to fluctuation.
While many bouchons are now oriented strongly towards the tourist market, with increased prices and less traditional fare as a result, a typical meal in a real bouchon costs around €12-15 as of 2006.
"Bouchon" is a popular restaurant located in Yountville, California and Las Vegas, operated by the American chef Thomas Keller. The cuisine is not true bouchon, however, as the menu is not as heavily meat oriented as traditional Lyonnaise cuisine is.
[edit] Cuisine
Typical items in the bouchon repertoire include:
- Soup
- Tripe soup, pumpkin soup
- Salads and cold entrées
- Chicken liver salad, pig's head cheese, groins d'âne moulinhuile, marinaded herrings, frisee salade avec lardons et oeuf
- Hot entrées
- Chicken liver cake, apple and pork boudin (sausage)
- Offal
- Andouillette (pork offal sausage), assorted offal gratin
- Fish
- Stingray, quenelles (fish dumplings), grilled fillets
- Meat
- Coq au vin, pot au feu (pot roast), chicken thighs stuffed with morilles (mushrooms), rabbit with chestnut
- Vegetables
- Cardons à la moelle (leek in bone marrow), barboton, pailasson de Lyon
- Desserts
- Walnut tart, lemon meringue pie, caramelised apples, bugnes de Lyon (miniature beignets)
[edit] References
- Everylen et Jean-Marc Boudou (2003). Les Bonnes Recettes des Bouchons Lyonnais. Libris. ISBN 2-84799-002-X.
