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Gastronomy
Flavours from land & sea |
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Loire-Atlantique is blessed with very rich soil, and makes the most of its fruits.
The waters, marine or land-locked, deliver up their fish, which are then accompanied by vegetables from the market gardens. Guérande salt and Muscadet bring out all the flavour of these products… For dessert? Douceurs nantaises, of course! |
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// FISH
For seafood, you can feast on sardines and anchovies in La Turballe and oysters in Bourgneuf bay. Prawns take the honours in Le Croisic. The auctions also offer winkles, langoustines, scallops, spider and other crabs, bass, sole…
The Loire, the other rivers, the ponds and the Grand-Lieu lake provide pikeperch, shad, pike… A local tradition, civelle is eel fished from the river when young. This is a sought-after dish that can be eaten fried or cooked in a court-bouillon, accompanied by a vinaigrette and parsley.
The marshes of La Brière provide eels, which can be enjoyed grilled or stewed in a wine sauce or served with a parsley vinaigrette; frogs’ legs, cooked with parsley or a sauce poulette; duck, crayfish…
As an accompaniment for fish, sauce au beurre blanc (a sauce with butter, vinegar and white wine) is a local invention created by Clémence Lefeuvre, a chef in the Nantes vineyards, at the beginning of the 20th century.
Guérande salt, extracted using purely natural means, was the first product of the sea to be awarded a “red label” in 1991. Bass en croûte de sel is a delight: the fish is covered in a layer of the famous grey salt and cooked in the oven. |
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// WINE
On the banks of the Loire, the vineyards of the Nantes region produce four appellations d’origine contrôlées (AOC, wines that have been awarded a superior quality label): Muscadet, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire and Muscadet Côtes de Grand-Lieu.
These are dry white wines with fruity flavours made from the Melon grape variety.
Le Gros Plant, a dry white wine made with the Folle Blanche grape, has the quality label AOVDQS (vin délimité de qualité supérieure – one step down from the AOC wines), as do the Coteaux d’Ancenis, red, rosé and white wines of various grape varieties. |
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// MARKET GARDEN PRODUCTS
The banks of the Loire are one of the best market gardening regions in France, producing tomatoes, corn salad, leeks, lettuce, cabbage, turnips, peas, carrots, radishes, strawberries and raspberries.
Nantes corn salad has a glistening green colour, a delicate, crunchy texture and a mild, nutty flavour, which make it the département’s most valuable market garden product. Produced out of season, uniquely in France, the early leek has a delicate, slightly sweet flavour. |
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// BISCUITS AND CONFECTIONERY
Biscuit factories began to appear in Nantes in the 17th century, supplying crews on long voyages with sea biscuit. Sugar was imported from the West Indies in the 18th century, and represented more than half of all commercial trade through the port of Nantes at the time.
In 1866, the son of a Nantes confectioner created the “Petit Beurre”. The success of this biscuit made his name and that of his wife, Lefèvre-Utile (LU), known all over the world. The Biscuiterie Nantaise also became famous, with its celebrated BN biscuits.
Brightly-coloured tetrahedron-shaped boiled sweets, berlingots de Nantes were created at the beginning of the 19th century and are available in seven flavours. Another Nantes speciality, rigolette was invented by the confectioner Charles Bohu in 1902, who named it after his cat. In La Baule and Le Pouliguen, the Niniche lollipop has been a great success every summer since 1938. |
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// USEFUL INFORMATION
/ Twenty or so restaurants in the département are taking part in the “Qualité France” programme, which aims to promote fresh, regional produce with transparency and respect for tradition. |
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