Cooking in Burgundy and Champagne [antikvár]

COOKING IN BURGUNDY AND CHAMPAGNEMany people consider these two territories as being blessed by God. Those who appreciate good wine and good food - and everything that has to do with them - know that there are few other places anywhere in the world where Mother Nature has so generously bestowed so many of her gifts. These marvels are found in Burgundy in particular, but also Champagne, the home of the vineyards that produce that nectar that has always made the dreams of men, connoisseurs and non. Frenchmen and citizens of the world - and fortunately continues to do so. These two regions of France, while geographically contiguous, have quite dissimilar points of view in many respects - actually, in just about all respects. It is enough to think of how wine - and what wine! - is produced in Burgundy and in Champagne to explain many of the differences. There are those who disparagingly insist that the first, with no sparkle, is a laical creation exalted by the potentates ofold, the Dukes of Burgundy, and that champagne was instead invented in the blessed cellars of the abbeys; and they go further yet, claiming as its greatest défenseur - or sponsor, in modern-day terms - no less than pope Urban II. It is not by chance that the windows of Notre-Dame d'Épernay narrate the life of Bacchus and not that of Jesus, who, they say, must not have been much of a connoisseur if he transformed water into wine and then served it immediately, without allowing it to stand for even an hour! But leaving aside all these more or less ideological disputes. Burgundy is also well-blessed -with its meats and vegetables, its snails and its extraordinary fowl, its moutardes and its sauces, certain excellent white wines (like Chablis and Mersault, Puligny-Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne), and of course the whole family of red wines, from the Cőtes de Nuits to the Cőtes de Beau ne, that merit one adjective only: unforgettable.The great culinary traditions of these regions may well be defined as typically northern European. The fats used in this type of cooking are mainly lard, bacon fat, fresh cream, and butter - in short, fats of animal ori-A WORD FROM THE NUTRITIONISTgin and therefore abounding in saturated fatty acids. The meats are also often anything but lean, and are just as often cooked in what might appear to be enormous quantities of wine or other alcoholic liquids - per-haps only naturally given the excellent wine-mak-ing traditions of these regions. All this makes for delicious but extremely rich fare.So "Bon appétit!" - but watch your calories and your cholesterol count!