Mountain cuisine, nourishing and comforting, is strong in an identity where the products used are local and in season, long before the locavore trend in big cities. This particularity makes mountain gastronomy a varied cuisine: each massif having its recipe, its specialty (s).
The Alps: from crozet to blueberry pie
The culinary specialties of the Alps are varied, inspiring many chefs. As proof, Savoie alone has 35 starred restaurants. The rather classic recipes showcase cheese. Raclette, fondue and reblochon en tartiflette are the leitmotif of mountain gastronomy.
Savoyard crozets, small square pasta mixed with Beaufort, fresh cream and bacon are a tradition of Savoie Mont Blanc. Sometimes the crozets are even accompanied by Diot's sausage.
© Matt Squirrell
And for a sweet note, the famous blueberry pie is a specialty of the region.
© Pixabay
The Jura: cheese in the spotlight
Still cheese and not least in the Jura mountains, the Mont d'Or is all the rage. The cheese, melted in the oven, is eaten with steamed potatoes and cold meats. Another equally light dish, potatoes with morbier and bacon.
The Vosges and its oven specialties!
In the restaurants of the Vosges mountains, food lovers will be able to enjoy the tofaille: potatoes with bacon and onions. The blueberry pie is also consumed in the Vosges. It is called the "brimbelle pie". It is the dessert of choice for farm inns in the Hautes-Vosges.
© Marmiton
The Pyrenees and its cabbage specialties
The peasant soup complete with cabbage, potatoes, and smoked breast is the favorite mountain soup of the Pyrénées-Orientales. Another dish from the Pyrenees mountains, trinxat, a dish of Catalan origin made with cabbage, boiled potato and fatty bacon.
Truffade and spit cake in the Massif Central
Truffade, this oven-baked dish made of potatoes and Cantal, is served with green salad in Auvergne. For its part, the spit cake is the specialty of Aveyron.
© Sven Teschke
Mountain recipes with strong local specificities and similarities: the predominance of cheese and potato, comfort food for long winter evenings.