Cheese and cold cuts

The tomme vaudoise is the only soft dough with a bloomy rind typical of French-speaking Switzerland. It is said to have been made for the first time in the 17th century. The vacherin mont-d'or, although it originates from the Jura, is widely distributed throughout the canton of Vaud. A soft cheese, it is contained in a spruce strap and is eaten with a spoon, hot or cold. Otherwise test the etivaz, a hard cheese, pressed and cooked over a wood fire in large copper cauldrons. Made only in the mountain pastures during the summer season (May to October), it owes its name to the village of the same name. It is matured for a minimum of four and a half months in the cellar and is finally matured at eight months. It is also excellent at twelve months, as an "old cheese". To complete the picture of cheeses popular in the canton, the "tête-de-moine" is especially appreciated as an aperitif. It is eaten in strips that are scraped with a chanterelle mushroom. The recipe for this semi-hard cheese made from raw cow's milk has been wisely kept for eight hundred years.

The canton has a notable production of charcuterie. We should mention the Vaudois sausage, pure pork, which has a PGI, as does the cabbage sausage. The latter consists of pork meat with cabbage and spices. Finally, the boutefas is a large intestine filled with minced and spicy pork meat and fat.

The classics of Vaud cuisine

The papet vaudois is undoubtedly the most typical dish of the canton. Made up of leeks and potatoes, it is mainly garnished with a cabbage sausage. The green of the leeks and the white of the potatoes are reminiscent of the Waldensian flag. Other meat dishes include fricassee de caïon, a stew of meat and pork liver simmered in a creamy wine sauce. Compote aux raves et choucroute is a type of sauerkraut garnished with sausage where part of the white cabbage is replaced by fermented grated kohlrabi. In the canton of Vaud, fondue is prepared with mountain gruyère, which is melted in white wine and a dash of kirsch. The "half and half" consists of a mixture of vacherin and gruyère, while the "pure vacherin" is denser and more flavourful. In Lausanne's fondue restaurants, you will be offered all kinds of fondue, some of which contain quite unexpected ingredients such as morels, olives or tomatoes. Raclette is also very popular. Another nourishing recipe is the cheese crust in the form of a thick slice of toasted bread, soaked in white wine and covered with cheese au gratin, often accompanied by egg, ham or mushrooms.

In Lake Geneva, the féra is fished, which is eaten as whole fish, fillets, smoked, in the form of mousse or terrine. Not forgetting a traditional fish soup prepared with perch, féra, trout and arctic char, flavoured with leeks, carrots and white wine.

You will not be able to miss the unmistakable rösti, delicious patties of grated potatoes and chopped onions. They can be served as they are or with hams, eggs and cheese. Another potato dish, the gratin vaudois is a kind of gratin dauphinois but flavoured with onions and a dash of white wine. Also ideal in winter, the soup of the brigands of Jorat is a soup of split peas and pig's feet. Finally, the "dents-de-lion" salad is prepared with dandelion sprouts, bacon, hard-boiled eggs and croutons. Among the snacks is malakoff, a doughnut with breaded cheese, introduced in the canton of Vaud at the end of the Crimean War by a Swiss mercenary who helped to bring down the Malakov fort (1855). As for the "greubon carved", it is a kind of puff pastry filled with small pieces of bacon. Finally, Vully's cake is a flat brioche made with both salt and sugar. In its salty version it is filled with cream, bacon and cumin.

Sweet pastries

The people of Lausanne are big consumers of milk chocolate with no less than 11 kg per person per year. The "bouchons vaudois" are small melt-in-the-mouth sweets made of almond praline in a chocolate shell. But of course there are also many pastries such as bricelets, sweet or caraway, which look like fine, crispy waffles. Vully's cake in its sweet version is covered with a thin layer of sugar. The raisinée is a fruit juice - often grape juice - that is baked and concentrated. Once it has thickened, it fills the famous raisinée tart. Another delicacy, the slice, this brioche with raisins and lemon, is baked in a crown-shaped mould and recognizable by the deep cuts that gave it its name.

Let's continue with the brandon doughnuts, disc-shaped doughnuts, flavoured with a dash of white wine. As for the "gâteau à la papette", it is a tart topped with a compote of prunes and raisins, whereas the "tarte à la papette" looks like a kind of flat brioche topped with egg cream. Finally, biscôme is the name given to nicely decorated gingerbread biscuits.

You can enjoy these many pastries with a good amount of coffee, the Swiss being the seventh largest consumers in the world. Just like your neighbours, you love rich coffees, so you can easily find delicious espressos or café-crèmes. We won't forget the excellent hot chocolates either.

Water, beer and wine

Although tap water is of excellent quality in Switzerland, it is common in restaurants not to offer a free carafe of water. Otherwise you can order another drink that is very popular throughout Switzerland: Rivella. This kind of lemonade made from whey comes in different colours: red, blue (without sugar) and green (with green tea extracts). Unless you prefer a beer. Try La Vaudoise, a lager produced by the Jorat brewery since 2006.

But wine is the real star in the canton of Vaud (see the dossier on the vineyards of Lavaux). The main grape variety in the vineyards of Lavaux is Chasselas, which adapts well to the soil and climate to produce dry, fruity and robust wines. The greatest growth of Lavaux is undoubtedly the dézaley, which is one of the best white wines in Switzerland. The terraced vineyards of this corner of Switzerland, majestically overlooking Lake Geneva, have been classified by Unesco since 2006.