• Closed in July 2020, ten months after its inauguration, the Cité de la gastronomie de Lyon has never found its audience.

  • The metropolis of Lyon announced Thursday that it would manage the premises for two years to relaunch the establishment.

  • Here are the outlines of the project.

By everyone's admission, the international city of gastronomy in Lyon, or at least its initial project, has been "a failure".

“Almost a fiasco,” says Bruno Bernard, the president of the Lyon metropolis.

The establishment, inaugurated in October 2019, closed ten months later without ever having been able to find its audience, in particular because of an excessively high entrance fee.

“The health crisis linked to the coronavirus epidemic did not help but overall the project lacked meaning.

There was, moreover, no association of decision-makers from Lyon, ”further decrypts the elected official who presented the outlines of the new project on Thursday.

For two years, the metropolis of Lyon will manage the premises, ensuring the operating cost estimated at one million euros.

Two years during which, the teams will work on a new organization while simultaneously planning events for the general public in order to gain momentum.

"We can't miss each other a second time"

A committee of experts (the Rabelais committee) has been appointed to set the course and build a program.

It now brings together 30 people, including 5 great chefs but also representatives of the agricultural world, nutrition and food experts, elected officials.

“The first time, we focused on the scenography but it was a failure.

You can't miss each other a second time, ”warns the three-star chef Régis Marcon, sponsor of the Cité de la gastronomie in Lyon.

“This place must be what was planned from the start.

It's not a museum here, he recalls.

The city of Lyon had been chosen (among the four French cities of gastronomy) for a very specific theme: gastronomy, nutrition and health.

"

A redesigned permanent exhibition

Exit the permanent exhibition. At least for the moment. “We are going to rethink it entirely to build something that holds up. The Bocuse space was ridiculous, with all due respect. It was pretension. We needed history, interactivity, we can't just push a button to make it work. When I saw plastic chicken feet in a casserole dish and a Marcon knife, I was ashamed, ”continues the great chef, eager to also increase the number of temporary exhibitions. “One could imagine an exhibition on a product like wheat or on another culinary culture like Japan,” he explains.

The new team also aims to increase the number of conferences, seminars or other events such as meals to music with “works adapted to recipes”.

Without forgetting the essential: interactive workshops with the public in order to "create a dynamic around nutrition", with, for example, themes articulated around the diet of people with diabetes or the discovery of a food profession.

“This must be a strong point of the place.

When we talk about gastronomy, we have to taste, smell, continues Régis Marcon ", assuring that the access ticket will be" low ".

As for the management mode of the premises, it has not yet been defined.

Just like the future entrance fee.

In the meantime, the city of gastronomy is open to the public free of charge on the first Sunday of each month.

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