“A bouchon is a uniquely Lyonnaise institution. A casual, laid-back kind of a pub-slash-bistro with a limited, usually old-school menu and always, always, an unpretentious vibe.” C’est vrai. Not unlike AB himself.
You know what they say: A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Even today, nearly 10 years to the day after Lyon aired on Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown as the third episode of Unknown’s third season, more viewers than you might think rate Lyon as one of their favourites, judging from some of the comments in the Bourdain subgroups on Reddit and other social media platforms. Lyon, which premiered on CNN on 27 April 2014, found Bourdain in a cheerful, effusive mood about a country close to his heart, in his opening voiceover, “… the story of one man, one chef, and a city.
“Also, it’s about France and (many) other chefs, and a culinary tradition that grew up to change the world of gastronomy. … It’s about a family tree, about the trunk from which many branches grew.”
The tree of life!
And it was about food, lots of food. Great food. “Some of the greatest food on earth,” in Bourdain’s words
Find France on a map and pick a spot down to the right and somewhat near the middle, and you’ll find the country’s second-largest city — we’ll always have Paris in the top spot — roughly halfway between Burgundy and Rome, midway between the Alps to the east and the Mediterranean to the south.
“Over the past century, the system here, the tradition, whatever it is that took hold here, churned out a tremendous number of the world's most important chefs,” including, Bourdain added, his host, sounding board and culinary consigliere for the hour, “this guy! Daniel Boulud. Like Prince or Madonna, he needs really only one name. In New York or anywhere in the chef world, Daniel. The name of his three star restaurant in Manhattan, one of many in an empire that stretches from London to Singapore. He came from here, a farm outside the city of Lyon, through the city's great kitchens into New York … Why Lyon? Why here? Look at the fundamentals, the things that Lyonais think of as birthrights. The right to eat delicious cured pork in unimaginably delicious forms … Terrine, pâté, sausages, rillettes. It’s an art that's revered here, and widely enjoyed. Few names garner more respect from aficionados of pig.”
Then the school lunches. Yes, you read that right. Cafeteria food for the kiddies. Ca va bien.
Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out.
The scenes where Bourdain, all six-foot-four of him, stuffs himself into a tiny red Citroen alongside Boulud on a pilgrimage back to Boulud’s old elementary school in the Lyon countryside are, well, Pythonesque. The Citroen, in not terrific shape to begin with and too slow for France’s equivalent of the autobahn, becomes the subject of invective hurled by passing motorists and truck drivers with things to do, places to go, and deadlines to meet.
No matter. They’ll all get there eventually.
“I'm automatically taken back to memories of my own school days,” Bourdain reflects, on camera. “The smell of caustic pine cleaner, chalkboards and fear. The cruel ministrations of tiny-eyed lunch ladies slopping can loads of prison chow into steam tables. The tuna noodle surprise that haunts my sense memories still.
“This is a very sophisticated meal for children. I was a little… “In school, frankly, like a lot of other students, I wanted pizza, pizza, pizza.”
Here, the very thought of pizza seems inappropriate. Inapproprié.
“This is Marie,” Bourdain says, introducing the rural Lyon equivalent of the school lunch lady. “Head chef, cook, host, and server for 320 hungry and very discriminating French schoolchildren, ages 3 to 12.
“On the menu (on this school day): Today, pumpkin soup, homemade couscous and a sauce supreme … (that’s) pumpkin soup with onion, nutmeg, and chicken stock. Basic good pumpkin soup.
“Dessert is homemade fromage blanc, cheese with chocolate and orange segments.”
But wait, there’s more.
Marie is on a budget.
What, you thought these kids were dining at Les Halles?
Bourdain: “In the USA, the greatest country in the world, no doubt we spend an average of $2.75 per student for public school lunch. Compare and contrast.”
Like, $1.25.
That sound you just heard is Jamie Oliver crying.
Vive l’ecole! Stay in school, kids.
Bourdain:: “The kids attack their food like hungry trenchermen, wiping out three servings in the time it takes me to eat one. I guess they like it … these kids eat fast. Look how fast this kid eats. Turn your head, he'll dish your food right out of your plate. Push up your tray just like in prison, and move it along. Move it along.”
Of course, French kids are not as, erm, grossiére — i.e. rude — as English kids when it comes to trying unfamiliar food in the school canteen. “What is this [grout]?” one boy famously snapped at Oliver on Jamie’s School Dinners, back in the day, after being served veggies rather than his more familiar diet of, dear lord, fish fingers and stale fries.
Make that French fries. Frites, what?
The school cafeteria scene is a thematic anchor of sorts, appearing roughly a third of the way into Lyon. The readers on Reddit are right: Bourdain rarely, if ever, looked so happy as he does in this episode of Parts Unknown.
Boulud, for his part, the eponymous Daniel, learned the niceties of fine dining from his father, a country dweller with country tastes.
Bourdain again: “Meeting Daniel's dad, one seems to understand the roots of his perfectionism. His mom, dad, wife, Katherine and Danielle collaborate, with some debate, on super old-school farmhouse classics.
“The sort of things, good times and bad times, a family could make with (ingredients) readily available on the farm.”
From farm to table, literally.
One example:
“(This) is a hollowed-out pumpkin layered with toasted chunks of kale bread, nutmeg, grated cheese, mushrooms, fresh cream from the cows and the meat of the pumpkin … Daniel's dad can be a bit of a Gallic MacGyver.
“Sitting here with his family in the house he grew up in, you can see where all (this passion) comes from. Their son is now a gigantic international success.”
In the end, it keeps coming back to family. How Bourdainesque.
“His first love [was] French food,” a visitor wrote on Reddit, just a day ago today.
This is April 2024, remember, 10 years after Lyon originally aired.
“He talks about it in one of his books,” the reader continues. Discovering what could be as a kid on a family trip to France.”
And how. Bon appetit.