The Andouillettes would be a bang-up name for a Mardi Gras dance troupe, I decided at the counter of a crowded market eatery in Lyon, France.
I was feeling alone and far from home, yet at the same time connected to something visceral that I recognized all around this foreign city. Still, andouillette should most definitely not be confused with Louisiana andouille.
Andouilette, the French sausage made with intestines stuffed in the casing, is a traditional dish at bouchons in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
“Most Americans, they wouldn’t eat that,” said the man sitting at my elbow at the counter, washing down his bavette steak with a glass of Gamay, giving this stranger in a strange land a welcome validation.
Andouillette is all innards. It’s a length of intestine filled with more of the same. I’ve read of old Cajuns calling something similar “gut-gut,” though I have never found it in Louisiana.
You find it all over Lyon, on traditional restaurant menus and packed for home. Cooked in a strong, buttery mustard sauce it was surprisingly, well, tolerably palatable, if also very bouncy.
But I was not digging in purely for pleasure. I ventured from one famous food city to learn from another much older, much larger star burning in the constellation of cuisine.
Lyon is famous for its food traditions. It is also a magnet for culinary talent from around the world, and a city where global leaders in their field convene. That’s because of its foundation and how the people who value that have leveraged its potential.
Booths and pavilions feature food from around Europe and across the globe at Sirha Lyon food trade show in Lyon, France, which draws 4,700 vendors and attendance of 210,000 people over five days. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Team USA, including lead chef Stefani De Palma, commis Bradley Waddle and coach Sebastian Gibrand, compete during Bocuse d’Or, known as the World Cup of cuisine, held at Sirha Lyon food trade show in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Eating oysters and shellfish right from the counter of a stand at the Chez Leon stand at Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse food hall in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Even in famously foodie France, Lyon is next level. It is regarded as the nation’s capital of gastronomy, which resonates coming from New Orleans, which should have the same status for the United States.
These are both cities where food culture is part of a civic identity, and cities that trade on a reputation for hospitality. How does this register in French, and in the great city of Lyon?
Doors open for NOLA
Others have recognized the connection, beyond andouillette explorations.
New Orleans & Co., the city’s tourism sales and marketing agency, organized a delegation of staff and local chefs to represent the city at Lyon’s giant international food trade show, called Sirha Lyon (five days, 257,000 attendees, 4,700 exhibitors, at least 100 stands alone dedicating to fine cured ham, of which I tried to sample each one). I was following the delegation on their mission.
Chef Wilfredo Avelar (left) talks with a visitor to the New Orleans & Co. booth at the Sirha Lyon food trade show in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Alice Glenn, executive vice president of the tourism agency New Orleans & Co., talks with business prospects visiting the New Orleans booth at the Sirha Lyon food trade show in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
This event is also the home of Bocuse d’Or and Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie, twin events known as the World Cup of food. Followed closely by people who attach national pride to the culinary arts, the events are covered robustly in the media and draw an arena-sized hall of passionate fans.
Chefs compete in the catering competition at the Sirha Lyon food trade show, which features the Bocuse d’Or in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Supporters of Team Japan cheer at Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie, the Pastry World Cup, held at Sirha Lyon food trade show in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
A newspaper in Lyon, France covers the biannual return of the Sirha Lyon food show and Bocuse d’Or chef competitions in the French city. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Media and fans records the action at Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie, the Pastry World Cup, held at Sirha Lyon food trade show in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
New Orleans hosted a semifinal round for these competitions last year, and now they are set to return in 2026 for another in their biannual series. It will mean chefs from around the world, and icons of the industry, will again gather in New Orleans in pursuit of the highest honors in the realm of global cuisine.
The event organizers picked New Orleans as its gateway as it seeks to build a higher profile in the U.S., and that can open new doors for the host city.
Chefs in New Orleans for the Bocuse d’Or and Pastry World Cup Americas selection gather at a reception at Arnaud’s Restaurant to sample local Creole cuisine prior to the international competition. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
“New Orleans to me is very impressive, the mix of cultures, it does something important for gastronomy, and to me, gastronomy is culture,” Florent Suplisson, the director of Bocuse d’Or, told me when visiting the city last year. “It’s specific to the U.S., and it’s different here in New Orleans. I love that.”
Roots and reach
Lyon has its own food traditions. But the idea of food culture here goes beyond the textbook dishes and the bouchon restaurants, where they are alternately faithfully preserved and flogged for tourists.
The city has positioned itself as a venue where worldwide culinary talent competes, where old traditions endure next to young chefs developing next-generation restaurants.
The bouchon restaurant is a fixture of Lyon, France, where a traditional cuisine endures. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Salade Lyonnaise, thick with lardons of bacon, is part of the bouchon menu tradition at Le Bistrot d’Abel in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
For every meal here that started with salade Lyonnaise (another bouchon staple; essentially greens providing a metaphorical fig leaf to a bowl of fatty lardons), there was a modern restaurant with new energy pulsing through locally relevant flavors (a subtle Japanese touch at one restaurant, Flair, a clear Basque influence at another, Roliko).
Roliko in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
BY IAN MCNULTY | Staff writer
Scallops with cured ham at the restaurant Roliko in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
BY IAN MCNULTY | Staff writer
An elegant dessert ends a tasting menu dinner at the restaurant Flair in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Together it showed the same dance between textbook and new chapters that animates the New Orleans dining scene, one that should be better known.
One thing Lyon does well is bring its food identity beyond the confines of the restaurant dining room. It’s part of a culture that registers all over.
The chef Eugénie Brazier is one of the heralded mere Lyonnaise, celebrated in Lyon, France in public displays like this. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
BY IAN MCNULTY | Staff writer
A chocolate statue of chef Paul Bocuse was crafted by Valrhona for the Sirha Lyon food trade show, which features the Bocuse d’Or in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Chefs are celebrated like sports heroes on murals and banners around town. Les mère Lyonnaise, the women whose successive generations brought the region’s traditional, hearty home cooking to the highest levels, are particularly lionized.
Images and tributes to the late Paul Bocuse, known as the godfather of modern French cooking, turn up in unrelated restaurants and in the lobbies of hotels. The food hall where I tried andouillette is named for him too, a marketplace that draws tourists for sure, but also sees locals making their daily groceries from its specialty suppliers.
Butchers cut meat at vendor’s stand at Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse food hall in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
A dog and its owner inspect a cheese vendor’s selection at Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse food hall in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
The idea is that cuisine isn’t simply something prepared and consumed, but a calling that is pursued, an industry that is valued and a culture that is shared and practiced with vigor and gusto.
It’s about more than having many restaurants, or restaurants that draw acclaim and awards. Experiencing a city like this, through its spectrum of restaurants, at its markets and at events built around food, feels like taking part in a narrative. We have it, we can do better at harnessing it.
Chefs compete in the catering competition at the Sirha Lyon food trade show, which features the Bocuse d’Or in Lyon, France. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Taking lessons from another city isn’t about copying them play-by-play. What seems to work naturally in Europe doesn’t always translate back home. But we can take inspiration from a place where much of what excites us about cuisine and what we value in our food culture is recognized and engaged as its calling card to the world.
There are many places in the world to travel for food, and lately even in the U.S. more cities are promoting themselves on food tourism in the competition for travel dollars.
Yet the New Orleans experience remains unique. We can do more to elevate it and celebrate it and add value.
