Le Puy and French Cooking

[EL LECHERO]

I have a Camino Frances cookbook highlighting dishes along the Way. Is there any cookbooks like that for Le Puy?

 

[naplesdon]

There are numerous cookbooks written about the regional cuisines.

 

[EL LECHERO]

There are numerous cookbooks written about the regional cuisines.

I know, I was looking for recommendations

 

[lt56ny]

I know, I was looking for recommendations

There are numerous cookbooks written about the regional cuisines.

I think it would be difficult to find one. As was stated by our friend in France (I think you are in France now haha) your best best would be to look for regional cookbooks that include the route.
I say this for 2 reasons. I would say from my experience and others who have walked the overwhelming number of people are French and the overwhelming number of them are not "pilgrims" in the sense that we think of pilgrims. They are friends hiking on the Le Puy Camino. There are also far, far fewer people who walk or think of walking this route.
I have read about cookbooks for the Camino but of course they focus mostly on the regions along the CF and possibly for seafood that you may find on the Norte. The sheer number of people who have walked the CF and it's interest shatters the numbers of non-French interested in Le Puy. If you add that number to those who are interested in walking or just have heard and have an interest in the Camino a Spanish cookbook makes more popular and economic sense as the audience is much wider. So check out the regional books and enjoy. Of course I may be wrong and there are a bunch sitting in a Paris bookstore or on Amazon!!!

 

[naplesdon]

If I remember correctly there was nice bookstore in Le Puy that sold guidebooks. The Cathedral has a good bookstore as well. It might be worthwhile querying them.

 

[MichaelC]

It was rare to meet other native English speakers, so I'd be surprised if there were books in English. But if you are ok with French, search for Compostelle, recettes du chemin by Anne-Marie Minvielle. It divides the route from Le Puy to Compostelle into 25 "grand stages," and offers two recipes from each. Here's a review (in French).

With that, I suspect a recipe book would be better for nostalgia than for actually recreating recipes. My experience was that the food was excellent, but always based on very local and fresh ingredients. Dishes like confit de canard was common and affordable along one stretch, but would be very $$$ to recreate in the US. A simple dish like sausage & lentils wouldn't taste the same using American supermarket sausages and lentils. And a lot of the best dishes I had were made right on the farm - violet and vervain syrups, terrines from wild game, soft cheeses, wild berry tarts, this walnut liqueur they added to red wine, a even the Armagnac. I wouldn't even know where to source them.

Side note: I don't have the book, I've only read reviews. If I ever find an affordable copy I'd grab it!

 

[SueV]

I think it would be difficult to find one. As was stated by our friend in France (I think you are in France now haha) your best best would be to look for regional cookbooks that include the route.
I say this for 2 reasons. I would say from my experience and others who have walked the overwhelming number of people are French and the overwhelming number of them are not "pilgrims" in the sense that we think of pilgrims. They are friends hiking on the Le Puy Camino. There are also far, far fewer people who walk or think of walking this route.
I have read about cookbooks for the Camino but of course they focus mostly on the regions along the CF and possibly for seafood that you may find on the Norte. The sheer number of people who have walked the CF and it's interest shatters the numbers of non-French interested in Le Puy. If you add that number to those who are interested in walking or just have heard and have an interest in the Camino a Spanish cookbook makes more popular and economic sense as the audience is much wider. So check out the regional books and enjoy. Of course I may be wrong and there are a bunch sitting in a Paris bookstore or on Amazon!!!

I walked the Le Puy route in May this year and noted that the majority of other walkers were not pilgrims

 

[Lleslie]

This beautiful book may interest you, gorgeous photos, history and some recipes from along the pilgrimage trails in France. Written by a fellow South Australian sorry about the quality of the photos. Linda

 

[Karl Oz]

It sounds like there is a splendid opportunity for someone to write a Le Puy camino cuisine-oriented book! Of course, as noted above, the route traverses multiple regions, so this would provide both a thematic and gastronomic point-of-difference.

I haven't walked the Le Puy myself, but if I do then I might undertake the task myself. Just don't expect it soon!