Female chefs made Lyon’s bouchon’s legendary. Anna Richards explores how they’re now helping to keep a centuries old Lyonnais tradition alive: mâchon, meet the new mères Lyonnaises
Everyone knows French breakfast. A sweet, and dare I say it, rather insubstantial meal, a typical petit déjeuner is a croissant, brioche or tartine slathered in salted butter and jam.
Brunch culture hasn’t taken off, save for a couple of expat-heavy enclaves. When you do find a restaurant offering a brunch menu, it tends to be a Sunday exclusive, served at midday (that’s just lunch, right?) and composed of far too many courses. You might be able to get a glass of wine, but certainly no limitless mimosas.
Long before bottomless brunch became so key to a millennial’s social calendar that it came to define a whole generation, the Lyonnais were drinking carafes of Beaujolais as the clock struck nine. The accompaniment? No poached eggs, smoked salmon and avocado toast, but liver, kidney and tripe.
Lyon’s historic Mâchon feast
Mâchon, this hearty morning feast of offal and wine, was traditionally served to workers on their lunch break. Lyon’s silk industry boomed for some 300 years, between the mid-16th and mid-19th centuries, and many weavers would begin work in the middle of the night. By the morning, they were famished, and a pain au chocolat was hardly going to cut it.
Elsewhere in the country, this combination of a savoury breakfast washed down with wine is known as a casse-croûte, and will still often be eaten by manual labourers. In Lyon, where women-led bouchons already served up a unique menu of tripe, calf’s head and andouillette, mâchon became a cultural institution.
“People often come once or twice a week,” says Florence Perrier, owner of Le Café du Peintre in Lyon’s 6th arrondissement. “There are very few tourists; it’s a local’s thing. I always try to make time to have a drink with them after their meal.”
In the past, most bouchons in Lyon were run by women. The most famous of these women, Eugénie Brazier, was the first chef ever to be awarded six Michelin stars in 1933. No-one even matched her for over 60 years. As Perrier says, though, Brazier was far from the only woman shaping Lyon’s culinary scene.
“I was born in a restaurant, and my first experience of cooking was watching and learning from my mother and grandmother,” says Perrier. “The mères Lyonnaises shaped Lyon’s dining scene, but there are dozens of them whose names we’ll never know.”
The mères Lyonnaises
This reference to mère wasn’t just to do with gender, but the many parental duties performed by the women running bouchons.
“Many of them, my grandmother included, took on a multitude of different tasks,” says Perrier. “Silk merchants had to travel a lot, so often the mères Lyonnaises would do their laundry between journeys, or even act as bankers. The merchants were paid in cash, and my grandmother regularly looked after the wages of a man who often travelled for work.”
While in the times of Perrier’s grandmother, mâchon was typically prepared by women, Le Café du Peintre is now one of only a handful of women-run bouchons in the city.
“There’s also the Bouchon des Filles and Chez Hugon,” says Valérie Girod, president of the mâchon-munching society, Mâchon des Filles, “and the bouchon we’re sitting in now, Café Lobut.”
The chef Sandrine Huit later comes to join us for a cigarette. The rain thunders down on the patio, the sky stripped of all colour that isn’t a bruised grey which matches the pavement. Behind, the bouchon’s awning is scarlet.
Mâchon des Filles was formed 20 years ago. The existing mâchon group, Les Francs-Mâchons, was staunchly traditional. Members had to be over 30, had to have been recommended by two other members, and spaces were limited. Most limiting of all, though, Les Francs-Mâchons was exclusively male.
Girod set up Mâchon des Filles with a handful of other women (two of whom would go on to found the Bouchon des Filles). Provided that their members were legal adults, there was no age limit. They welcomed a range of nationalities (counting Brits and Americans among their number) and you didn’t need a personal connection. If someone attended the required number of mâchons and got on well with the rest of the club, it was good enough for them.
Membership rules may be more relaxed, but those around the mâchon itself are taken extremely seriously.
“We begin eating at 9am on the dot. We don’t choose what we eat, and that’s what makes a true mâchon,” says Girod. “In the past, the chef would have heated up leftovers from the day before. It’s a bit like going to your grandma’s and being told, ‘right, I’ve got a cut of meat and a slice of cake from yesterday, so that’s what you’re having.’”
The fact that there’s often no menu doesn’t stop the women from experimenting.
“We had a Mexican mâchon recently, prepared by a Mexican chef, Carla Kirsch Lopez, owner of Alebrije,” says Girod. “Tacos with tête de veau (calf’s head) — a delicious fusion.”
Five Lyonnais bouchons for a mâchon
Le Café du Peintre: The locals’ haunt in Lyon 6, with three generations of knowledge handed down, mother to daughter. Florence Perrier’s favourite dish on the menu is veal liver.
Les 4G: A favourite with the boy’s club, the Francs-Mâchons, hidden in high-rise Lyon 9, with few tourists. It doesn’t get much more authentic than this.
Le Bistrot d’Abel: The little sibling of what claims to be Lyon’s oldest bouchon, chef Bastien Depietri uses his grandmother’s recipes to create his dishes. Reservations essential.
Café Lobut: The best for walk-ins, Café Lobut opens from 8am on weekdays and Sandrine Huit never lets anyone go hungry. Just don’t turn up unannounced with the whole mâchon club.
Bouchon des Filles: From mâchon eaters to mâchon makers, Isabelle and Laura inject a much-needed dose of girl power into Lyon’s bouchon scene.
Anna Richards is a writer & guidebook author living in Lyon. Her work has appeared in Lonely Planet, National Geographic and many more.
Want more France?
Discover more fabulous destinations in France with our free magazine The Good Life France
Love France? Have a listen to our podcast – everything you want to know about France and more!
All rights reserved. This article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten (including translated) or redistributed without written permission.
