Fabulously Delicious: The French Food Podcast

La pôchouse — the ancient freshwater fish stew of Burgundy and Franche-Comté, made from a specific combination of Saône and Doubs river fish cooked in Burgundy aligoté white wine — is one of the most distinctive and most overlooked dishes in the whole of French regional cooking. Today's Food Tour de France episode finishes in Chalon-sur-Saône — a river city in the Saône-et-Loire, one of the great stretches of Burgundian France — and tells the full story of a dish first documented in writing in 1646, born on the boats and riverbanks of Verdun-sur-le-Doubs where the Saône meets the Doubs, made by the boatmen and fishermen who cooked it in a pot from the morning's catch with the white wine available to them on the Burgundian riverbanks. Celebrated by its own brotherhood since 1949. Still served in the restaurants that line the Saône today. And still made from the same four-fish combination that the pôchoux — the fishermen of the Bresse patois — established on these rivers four centuries ago.
The episode covers the full story of la pôchouse — the four-fish combination of lean pike and perch alongside fatty eel and tench that gives the dish its specific character, the aligoté white wine that is both the cooking medium and the drink alongside it, the lardons and croutons that complete the preparation, and the Confrérie des Chevaliers de la Pôchouse de Verdun-sur-le-Doubs founded in 1949 that has been defending and celebrating this dish for over seventy years. We cover the annual festival at Verdun-sur-le-Doubs — the Fête de la Pôchouse, where local restaurants serve it according to ancestral rules, the Confrérie Saint-Nicolas des Radeliers builds a raft on the Petit Doubs, and the dish is eaten without accompaniment as tradition demands. And we connect the pôchouse to the broader family of French river fish stews — including the lamprey à la bordelaise we covered earlier in the series.
The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The pôchouse episode connects directly to the lamprey à la bordelaise episode from the Bordeaux stage earlier in the series — both are ancient river fish preparations cooked in wine, both are the food of the boatmen and fishermen of great French waterways, and both tell the story of France's rivers through what they have been feeding their people for centuries. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.
As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible.
My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 
You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Merci beaucoup!
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Nougatine de Nevers — the small artisan sweet of chopped almonds caramelised in copper, double-coated in orange royal icing and presented in a round tin decorated with portraits of Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie — is one of the most historically romantic confections in France. Today's Food Tour de France episode starts in Magny-Cours — home of the famous Formula One circuit, just south of Nevers — and tells the full story of a sweet created by a confectioner called Bourumeau in the mid-nineteenth century and launched into French high society at a dinner at the Préfecture of Nevers in 1862, when Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie paid an official visit to the city. The Empress was presented with a box. She ate one. Then another. Then several more. And by the time she returned to Paris she was placing orders. Within weeks the nougatine de Nevers was being eaten in the grand salons of the capital. The orange colour of the royal icing — as tradition has it — was chosen to match the complexion of the Empress herself.
The episode covers the full story of the nougatine de Nevers — from the disputed date of its creation, somewhere between 1840 and 1862 depending on the source, through the extraordinary imperial dinner that launched it into the French consciousness, to the registered trademark it has held since 1960 and the near-disappearance in the twentieth century that was only reversed by a Nevers native called Jean-Hugues Dessenne, who in 2007 decided that something this historically significant to his city was worth rescuing and relaunching. We cover the production process — the almonds caramelised in a copper basin, the cylinders that shape the nougaton, the patient double-coating in royal icing dried slowly in a warming oven that cannot be done by machine — and the connection to the faïence pottery of Nevers, where the nougatine is now sold in hand-crafted ceramic bonbonnières in the famous cobalt blue of the city, exported to the United States and Japan.
The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The nougatine de Nevers episode follows directly from yesterday's négus episode — Nevers has given this series two consecutive episodes and two of the most entertaining confectionery origin stories in the whole of the southwest. A press error and an empress who couldn't stop eating. Two sweets. One remarkable city on the Loire. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.
As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible.
My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 
You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Merci beaucoup!
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#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #NougatiNeNevers #FrenchConfectionery #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026 #NeversFood

Le Négus de Nevers: The Sweet Born From a Press Error in 1902 | Food Tour de France

Le Négus de Nevers — the soft chocolate-scented caramel enclosed in a hard caramel shell that has been made in Nevers since 1902 — is one of the most charming and most improbable origin stories in the whole of French confectionery. Today's Food Tour de France episode finishes in Nevers — the capital of the Nièvre department, a handsome city on the Loire — and tells the full story of a sweet born from a press error. In July 1902 a celebrated Ethiopian military leader called Ras Mekonnen visited France. The French press covered the visit enthusiastically — and some of those journalists, in their excitement, got the title wrong. They called him the negus — the title of the sovereign of Ethiopia, held at the time by Menelik II, who was Mekonnen's cousin and who never came to France at all. A confectionery in Nevers called Maison Grelier read the papers, created a sweet in honour of the visit and named it after the mistaken title. The négus. And the sweet has been made in Nevers under that name for over a hundred and twenty years.
The episode covers the full story of the négus — from the Maison Grelier tradition of creating a new sweet named after a significant event each year, through the commercial success that caused the confectionery to rename itself Au Négus, to the four generations of the Hiriart family who ran it from 1909 until 2013 when it was sold to the Ménard chocolate company. We cover what the négus actually is — a soft chocolate-scented caramel inside a shell of hard caramel, presented in a round iron tin with golden writing on a green background — and its coffee-scented alter ego the Abyssin, named for Abyssinia, the historical name for Ethiopia, which gives the whole naming structure of the Maison Au Négus range a gentle century-old nod to the East African connection that inspired the original creation. And we sit the négus alongside the great tradition of French regional confections — the bouchon bordelais, the Vichy pastille, the nougatine de Nevers — that are specific to a place and synonymous with it.
The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The négus episode connects directly to tomorrow's nougatine de Nevers episode — Nevers gets two consecutive episodes in this series, making it the most confectionery-rich city in the entire Food Tour de France. Two sweets. Two extraordinary stories. One city on the Loire. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.
As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible.
My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 
You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Merci beaucoup!
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#FrenchFoodPodcast #FabulouslyDelicious #foodpodcast #LaNégusNevers #FrenchConfectionery #FoodTourDeFrance #TourDeFrance2026 #NeversFood

Pastille de Vichy: The Sweet That Started as a Medicine | Food Tour de France
Pastille de Vichy — the small octagonal white tablet that has been made in Vichy since 1825, that entered the French pharmacopoeia as a medicine in 1837 and that 3.6 million of are produced every single day — is one of the most recognisable and most historically fascinating confections in France. Today's Food Tour de France episode passes through Vichy — the elegant Belle Époque spa town on the Allier river, famous for its mineral springs, its grand hotels and its complicated history — and tells the full story of a sweet invented by a member of both the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medicine, refused by Napoleon's ministry on the grounds of complexity and eventually turned into one of the most distinctive regional confections in the whole of France. The octagonal shape. The word VICHY on one side. Thermal Establishment on the other. A sweet that sits in that uniquely French space between medicine and confection — and has always been entirely comfortable there.
The episode covers the full history of the pastille de Vichy — from Jean-Pierre-Joseph d'Arcet's discovery of the digestive virtues of sodium bicarbonate in the Vichy mineral waters in 1824, through the pharmacist Nicolas-François Regnault's early production, the Brosson brothers' industrial manufacturing from 1833, and the court case of 1914 that formalised the free sale of the pastille beyond the pharmacy. We cover the two producers that make it today — the mainstream Pastille Vichy, now owned by Carambar & Co following a journey through Perrier, Warner-Lambert, Cadbury, Kraft Foods and Mondelez International, and the artisan Maison Moinet, in its seventh generation, still making the Pastille du Bassin de Vichy from the Roger source acquired in 1932. And we cover the connection to Louis Diat — the French chef who invented vichyssoise in New York and named it after the spa town near his birthplace — which we explored in depth in the main Fabulously Delicious series.
The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The pastille de Vichy episode sits at a fascinating crossroads in this series — connecting to the Louis Diat episode in the main Fabulously Delicious catalogue, which tells the full story of vichyssoise and the chef who named it after this town, and to the broader picture of central French food culture this part of the series has been building through the Auvergne and the Allier. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.
As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible.
My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 
You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Merci beaucoup!
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La Pachade: The Forgotten Potato Pancake of the Auvergne | Food Tour de France
La pachade — the thick, crispy potato pancake of the Auvergne that has been feeding the mountain people of this volcanic landscape for centuries — is one of those dishes that is completely unknown outside its home region and completely fundamental within it. Today's Food Tour de France episode finishes at Le Lioran — right in the heart of the Cantal mountains, in the same volcanic landscape where the Cantal cheese we covered in Aurillac has been made since before the Romans noticed it — and tells the full story of a dish that was once called le petit coussin de Jésus, the little cushion of Jesus, made at Christmas in the farmhouses of the Auvergne and eaten at breakfast after the bacon soup and before the cheese. A batter of egg, flour, milk and salt, cooked slowly in oil and butter in a steel pan until the edges are deeply crisp and golden and the centre is soft, yielding and completely cooked through. Simple. Honest. Entirely specific to this landscape.
The episode covers the full history and tradition of the pachade — its role as one of the central elements of the daily diet in rural Auvergne, the specific logic of why it was served at breakfast after soup and before cheese, the tradition of bringing it to the men working in the fields at five in the afternoon alongside salad, bacon, bread and Cantal. The crucial detail of the steel pan — never non-stick, never washed, reserved exclusively for this dish — and why experienced Auvergne cooks read the pan rather than the clock to know when the pachade is ready. And the apple version — the pachade aux pommes — where apple slices cooked beforehand are folded into the batter to produce something that sits beautifully between sweet and savoury and belongs to the autumn in a very specific way.
The Food Tour de France is a daily series running alongside the 2026 Tour de France on Fabulously Delicious — one episode for every stage start and finish. The pachade episode connects directly to the Cantal episode from Aurillac — the two episodes together give a complete and deeply satisfying picture of the food culture of the Cantal mountains and the volcanic Auvergne. The pachade and the Cantal belong at the same table. They always have. Search Fabulously Delicious on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the full series.
As Fabulously Delicious steps into its sixth year, one thing is clearer than ever: five years of French food culture has taught Andrew that the subject is genuinely inexhaustible.
My book Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide to the World’s Most Delicious City is your ultimate companion. This is a new 2026 update for the book and you’ll find hand-picked recommendations for the best boulangeries, patisseries, wine bars, cafés, and restaurants that truly capture the flavor of Paris. You can order it online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠andrewpriorfabulously.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 
You can help keep the show thriving by becoming a paid subscriber on substack where you'll also get fabulous extra content. Every contribution makes a huge difference. Join here at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Merci beaucoup!
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