Regional food specialities of Bugey

Bugey truffles, Comté cheese, products from the Kario Distillery, farm products, salted walnuts and oven-baked pies are some of the local specialties of Bugey that can be found on the markets, in direct sale at the producers’ and during the traditional oven festivals in the heart of the local villages.

Cheeses from Bugey

Where to find Comté cheese nearby?
– At Fruitière du Valromey in Arvière-en-Valromey.
– At Fromagerie de Brénod.
– At Bugey Côté Fermes in Belley.

La Fruitière du Valromey sells Comté, tomme, raclette, butter, cream and cottage cheese.
It has an exhibition room explaining the process of cheese making and a store.

Find goat’s milk cheese at the various Bugey markets as well as at Bergerie Au Rythme du Troupeau in Les Bergonnes.

To know more about the Fruitière du Valromey

Comté et Raclette de la Fruitière du Valromey

Bugey wines

Owning some of the most prestigious wine labels in France, Bugey wines will surprise you: Bugey brut, Bugey Chardonnay, Roussette du Bugey, Gamay, Pinot noir, Mondeuse, rosé…

To be a winegrower in Bugey is all about hardworking, know-how, passion for the land, work of the vine, exceptional environment, welcoming tradition and conviviality.
Push the doors of the cellars to meet men and women behind the scenes, you will meet producers with a personality similar to the Bugey region: assertive and authentic.

List of good addresses of producers in Bugey

Marc du Bugey

Obtained from the distillation of the marc (i.e., grapes kept after pressing), Marc du Bugey is then aged for many years in oak barrels. The strength of the alcohol is rounded out by the years.

Digestive of choice on the best tables in France, Marc du Bugey will make your tasting an exceptional moment.

Marc du Bugey is on sale:
– At the distillery Kario in Belley.
– At the Maison Angelot in Marignieu.
– At the Caveau Quinard in Massignieu-de-Rives.
– At the Domaine Monin in Vongnes.
– At the Caveau Bugiste in Vongnes.

Truffles

Bugey, with its sunny limestone hills, is favorable to its development.

The Périgord black truffle (tuber mélanosporum) is found here, as is the Burgundy truffle (tuber uncinatum).

Very widespread at the time of notorious local writer and lawyer Brillat-Savarin, the truffle then disappeared from Bugey before being “rediscovered” by enthusiasts in the 70s and 80s.

Since then, its success has been celebrated at various events: truffle market, truffle night, truffle menus at Auberge de Contrevoz, truffle weekend…

Baked and salted walnut pies

Essential part of the local traditional oven festivals, the various wood-fired pies can be discovered every year from April to October in the villages of Bugey.

These village festivals are an opportunity to rekindle the old town ovens during a weekend of celebration.

The origin of Bugey’s oven festivals goes back to the Middle Ages. The villagers had to pay a tax to the lord who had built the oven, in exchange for its use.

Find the dates of the different festivals of the oven in the calendar of events

Kario Distillery's drinks

For more than 115 years, the Brothers of the Holy Family in Belley have been producing beverages with beneficial properties, a clever blend of often rare alpine plants.

Kario Distillery has a vast choice of plant drinks: the famous KARIO, a drink with 32 plants, the alcoholic version, KYLON (23°), the green and yellow STELLINA as a digestive liquor, Marc du Bugey (30 years old) aged in barrels of unrivaled finesse, and the latest, Holypop the organic soda that comes in a range of 7 flavors.

Distillerie Kario Office Tourisme Bugey Sud Grand Colombier ©i.chatelan 26

Recipes

Salted pie with Bugey nuts

Ingredients (for 6 people):
Bread dough
Onions
Nuts
Salt
Pepper
Nut oil

Preparation:
Spread a bread dough on a sheet pan where you will lay out a mixture of sliced onions, finely chopped nuts. Add salt, pepper and sprinkle with walnut oil. Bake in a hot oven for 40 minutes, being careful not to let the filling dry out.

Sugar pie

Ingredients (for 6 people):
250 g flour
1 tablespoon milk
4 eggs
175 g butter
100 g sugar
10 g baker’s yeast
1 pinch salt

Preparation:
Pour 60 g flour into a small bowl. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and mix with the flour to make a soft dough. Cover and place in hot water at 35°C or 40°C for 15 minutes. Pour the remaining flour into a bowl and break the eggs on top. Knead by hand to obtain a smooth dough that comes off the edges of the bowl. Add salt and 50 g of sugar. Knead for a few more minutes, then add 125 g of softened butter and knead. Mix in the leaven, which will have doubled in volume. Let the dough rise for several hours, then roll it out and let it rest for 2 hours, cut the rest of the butter into small cubes on the pie and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Bake for 30 minutes in a very hot oven (250°C th.8). Take out the pie as soon as the color turns gold.
To be enjoyed with a glass of Bugey Brut or Bugey sparkling rosé.

Moelleux with carrot tops and saffron from Bugey

Ingredients (for 6 people):
200 g flour
1 packet baking powder
3 eggs
100 ml milk
60 ml hazelnut oil
60 g hazelnuts
100 g tartar-type cheese
60 g grated Parmesan cheese
150 g diced ham
2 carrots and the tops of a bunch of organic carrots
1 teaspoon and a half salt, pepper
0.1 g saffron from Bugey in filament

Preparation
Infuse the saffron in 3 tablespoons of milk for a few hours. Preheat your oven to 160°c. Wash the carrots and the tops. Chop the hazelnuts, carrots and tops in a food processor. Add eggs, milk, saffron milk, oil and cheeses. Mix. Add flour and yeast, while stirring, then add diced ham. Add salt and pepper. Mix again and pour into a cake tin or 40 minutes for individual moulds. Recipe suggested by la Safranière du Bugey

Iced parfait with Marc du Bugey

Ingredients (for 4 people):
300 g cream
220 g sugar
50 g water
9 egg yolks
1.5 dl Marc du Bugey
3 sheets of softened gelatin

Preparation:
Whip the fresh cream like a chantilly without squeezing it too much (not too firm). Cook the sugar and water (syrup) to 118 °. At the same time, beat the egg yolks with a mixer and soften the gelatin leaves. Slowly pour the cooked sugar over the frothy yolks. Whisk until completely cool. Add the melted gelatin sheets, incorporate the cream with the Marc using a chinois (fine sieve). Pour into small individual aluminum molds and freeze for at least 48 hours. Take out at the time, unmould and decorate… and enjoy. To be kept in the freezer (it’s an ice cream…).

Dining and wine pairing:
As an accompaniment to Marc du Bugey soufflé, you can enjoy the Gris Perlé. The finesse of its bubbles, delicately sweet, the aromas of black and red fruits will refresh your taste buds. You will finish your meal very gently.
Recipe by Lionel Guillen, suggested by the Caveau Bugiste de Vongnes.

Le Caveau Bugiste

Diots with white wine from Bugey

Ingredients:
8 pure pork diots
12 to 15 potatoes
1 bottle of white wine (Chardonnay du Bugey)
1 large handful of vine shoots
For the sauce:
3 finely chopped shallots
80 g. butter
1 large glass of white wine (20 cl)
1 teaspoon of tomato paste
Salt, pepper

Preparation:
Wash the potatoes and put them in a pot. Cover them with vine shoots. Pour the white wine so that it covers the potatoes without drowning the vine shoots. Put the diots on the vine shoots, cover and cook for 1 hour at a low boil (be careful not to let the diots get wet). Prepare the sauce: melt 30 g of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and brown the shallots. Add the wine and tomato paste, salt and pepper. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add the remaining butter little by little. Serve the diots directly in the pot after draining the whole. Present the sauce on the side.

The right food and wine pairing:
The sausages are waiting for the wine to kick in. Serve with a firm, richly flavored “La Roussette du Bugey” white wine.
Tip by Julien Duc, chef at the Zest Urban restaurant in Belley.

Rillettes of lavaret with white Manicle

Ingredients(for 8 people):
800 g lavaret fillets
100 g chopped shallots
1 bay leaf
2 beautiful thyme sprigs
40 cl white Manicle
Olive oil
Flower of salt
Mill pepper
Espelette pepper
200 g mascarpone

Preparation:
In a frying pan, sweat the chopped shallots in a little olive oil, moisten with white Manicle, add thyme and bay leaf.In a bowl, remove the skin from the lavaret fillets, crumble them by removing the bones, add the mascarpone and seasoning.
Depending on the smoothness of the mixture obtained, add more cooking broth.
Finally add the chopped chives and put in the refrigerator for 2 hours before eating.
You can accompany your rillettes with a slice of toasted bread, a green salad and a glass of white Manicle.
Several producers of Manicle: André Miraillet in Cheignieu La Balme, the Domaine Monin and the Caveau Bugiste in Vongnes.
Recipe by Franck Pellicioli, Chef of the Auberge de Contrevoz.