What to eat Isère? culinary specialties and gastronomy

The gastronomy of the Alps was developed from a simple fact: the availability of the few products that managed to grow on land that was difficult to cultivate at altitude, dairy products and meat from local breeds, products that could arrive regularly from the nearby valleys or in the bags of merchants crossing the mountains from eastern countries (spices in particular...). This is how, according to the culture and traditions, each village, mountain range and valley created its own recipe book based on cheeses, cream and butter, potatoes, wheat flour, charcuterie, etc. Products and dishes that had to be preserved during the long winters of scarcity while providing a maximum of calories to the workers of the Alps, but also dishes for celebration and sharing. Among these typical dishes, let us quote: ● Crozets: the pasta of the Savoyards. Smaller than Italian pasta, they are only five millimetres on a side, they are made of pure soft wheat flour or mixed with buckwheat flour. Crozets accompany all delicatessen dishes and in particular diots, sausages with which they are gladly married. ● Le gratin dauphinois: the great specialty of the Northern Alps. Everyone thinks they have the best recipe and is convinced they know how to make the best gratin. You only have to ask a few Dauphinois and Savoyards to find out. In any case, what is certain is that it is made with potatoes, garlic and milk. ● Ravioles : a traditional Vercors dish found throughout the northern and southern Alps, they are a simple dish to make - minimum cooking - but difficult to prepare. It is at the foot of the Vercors that the best slabs of ravioles with cheese and parsley are made. ● Les rissoles: puff pastry turnovers, gently fried and served hot in the northern Alps. Their preparation can vary a lot: for some, it is fruit cooked in compote or jam. For others, of a minced meat or fish! ● Tartiflette : there is the one with onions and the one without onions, with potatoes browned in the frying pan before putting them in the oven or in the oven altogether, with a peeled or not peeled reblochon cheese... Variations according to the regions, including a Pela without onions or bacon. ● Les tourtons

Cheeses are one of the greatest and most delicious treasures of the Alps. In order to preserve products made during the long winters, farmers have created many cheeses. Mainly made from cow's milk, but also from goat's and sheep's milk, these cheeses contribute fully to the gastronomic reputation of the Alps. Some emblematic cheeses: ● L'abondance: made from raw, whole milk, this PDO cheese with an amber rind and a soft, creamy paste is originally made from the milk of the abondance cattle breed. Today, the Tarine and Montbéliarde breeds are also used. ● Le bannon: it is one of the smallest PDO of France by its production. It is a goat cheese produced in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and the Hautes-Alpes. A raw milk cheese that has the particularity of being wrapped in chestnut leaves. ● Beaufort: this Savoyard cheese is produced in the Beaufortain, Maurienne and Tarentaise regions. Nicknamed the "prince of Gruyères", Beaufort is a cooked and pressed cheese. Melt-in-the-mouth, giving off hazelnut scents, it is best eaten in thin slices, diced or in the Savoyard fondue. ● Termignon blue cheese: produced thanks to the milk of cows grazing in the mountain pastures of Mont Cenis and Termignon, this blue-veined cheese has a taste that we will call pronounced. ● Les persillés de Savoie: under this generic name are grouped cheeses made from goat's milk, sometimes mixed with cow's milk. To put on your plate, the marbled cheese of Aravis, the marbled cheese of Tignes and the marbled cheese of Haute-Tarentaise. Of often confidential productions difficult to find elsewhere than in the cheese dairies of the Alps. ● Reblochon: this PDO cheese from the Aravis, recognizable by its saffron yellow rind and creamy-tasting ivory paste, has been made since the 13th century from cow's milk from a second milking called the "rebloche". ● Sérac: a cheese traditionally made in our mountain pastures from the whey that remains after making the cheese, like Beaufort for example. The sérac reminds us of the "poverty" of the alpines and their meagre food. ● Tome des Bauges: made only from raw cow's milk. Fruity cheese with a long tradition. ● La tomme de Savoie: with 2 m, they are all made from raw cow's milk. Their rind is grey in colour and covered with red or yellow mould. The paste offers a characteristic taste of hazelnut.

If the products of the Alpine terroirs offer exceptional quality, it is because the fruit and vegetables grow on soil that is not always very rich, but often preserved from pollution. And what about the quality of the pastures on the mountain pastures or the quality of the water in the lakes and rivers! The list is long of products to be tasted simply during a picnic while hiking, products prepared in a traditional way or in a creative way by the greatest French chefs: ● Lamb: in the Southern Alps, there are more recipes based on lamb - the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence offers us the incomparable Sisteron lamb -, including the famous lamb daube. ● The delicatessen of the Alps: in the mountains, cattle breeding is essentially intended for the production of milk and the many by-products including the famous mountain cheeses. Little red meat is consumed and there is a "religion" of the pig: the "caïon", easy to process, easy to preserve. The products made from pigs vary from one valley to another, even if the great classics such as diots, small pork sausages cooked in a frying pan with white wine, onions and aromatic herbs, can be found throughout the Alps. In addition to the mythical dishes based on pig, such as the "fricacha coffa" which essentially uses the offal, there is the mythical sausage of the Alps: the Magland sausage. ● Fruit and vegetables : walnuts, apples and pears. Not much fruit in the Alps because of the late frosts that occur in the valleys. However, there are pears and apples renowned for their pronounced taste and... walnuts which benefit from a PDO. The Grenoble Y contains a large production of walnuts, one of the most important in France. These are the basis of a multitude of gastronomic products that are the pride of the culinary heritage of the Alps: sweets, oils, cakes, wines, jams... A thousand and one sweets to be consumed without moderation. ● Honey : in a region where sweetness does not have a great importance in the meal, if we except the cake of Savoy and the numerous versions of the blueberry pie, honey holds an important place. It is a flagship product of the Alps, which are the leading beekeeping region in France, offering various flower honeys. Mountain honey" is a honey made from all the flowers that adorn the slopes or forests and there are many variations - in fact, it all depends on where the bees harvest the nectar. There is also a "fir tree honey" whose production is not always assured due to climatic factors. ● Fish: The abundance and purity of the waters of the Alps will delight all fishermen and fish lovers. Whether they are lake fish or river fish, we enjoy eating them. Of course, salmonids are the most popular and it is not unusual to enjoy a trout after a good fishing trip. In the lakes, it is the perch, the féras and the omble-chevalier that spawn before inviting themselves to our plates. Other inhabitants of the rivers of the Alps, crayfish, are still a delight for connoisseurs. But beware, their capture is highly regulated. ● Poultry. If poultry is raised in the plains, particularly on the Grenoble side where a delicious and traditional chicken with crayfish is cooked, poultry remains an exceptional dish often reserved for the holidays. Among the emblematic poultry of the Alps, let us point out the grey hen of Vercors or the guinea fowl of the Drôme.

No one will die of thirst in the Alps! And there is something for everyone in the bottles, starting with the mineral waters that flow naturally through the mountains. Waters that are more famous than any other drinks (it should be noted, a rarity in France) in the region. The mineral waters of Evian, Thonon-les-Bains and Aix-les-Bains, to name only the best known, have many virtues. As for the wines, they too have a long history. Long denigrated for their quality, the wines of Savoie are now served on the greatest tables. Taken in hand by a new generation of winegrowers, the vineyard has the particularity of being essentially composed of indigenous grape varieties - roussette, altesse, mondeuse... -, giving unique wines that go well with many dishes (not only Savoyard!)

Taking advantage of the quality of the water in the Alps and a new fashion, microbreweries have sprung up like mushrooms in the mountains to produce delicious and varied beers. Another alcohol produced in a region where apple trees grow more easily than other fruit trees: cider. Finally, if there is one alcohol from the Alps that is known throughout the world, it is Chartreuse. This liqueur produced by the monks of the Grande Chartreuse contains only plants, 130 in total, and alcohol carefully selected for a remarkable ageing. Another traditional alcohol of our mountains, always extracted from a plant, the génépi is tasted throughout the Alps.