Riviera Cuisine

About Riviera Cuisine

By the ULTIMATE French Riviera Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

French cuisine is revered for its precision, its history and its respect for seasonal produce, and on the Riviera it turns to the sun: olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, herbs and the catch of the Mediterranean. This is our guide to the dishes of the coast and the French art of the table.

French cuisine

French cooking is one of the world’s great culinary traditions, admired for its technical precision, its history and its deep respect for local, seasonal ingredients. Its influence is such that “the gastronomic meal of the French” was added to UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010. It is not one style but many, from meticulous fine dining to rustic country cooking.

Three styles

Haute cuisine is the pinnacle of fine dining, codified in the 19th century by the great chef Marie-Antoine Carême, with its methodical techniques, its mother sauces, such as béchamel and velouté, and its artful presentation. Bistro cooking is casual and generous, built on reliable, intensely flavoured plates. Cuisine bourgeoise is the home cooking of France: slow simmering and braising, and simple ingredients of high quality.

Olive oil instead of butter, tomatoes and herbs instead of cream: France, cooked in the sun.

The Riviera table

French cooking changes from region to region. In the cool north and east it means slow-braised meats, butter and cream: boeuf bourguignon, coq au vin, onion soup under melted Gruyère. On the sun-drenched Mediterranean coast, close to Italy, butter and cream give way to olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, herbs and fresh seafood. This is the cooking of the Riviera.

Niçoise classics

Salade niçoise: Nice’s famous salad of tuna, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, black olives and anchovies; the version most restaurants serve adds green beans. Socca: a thin, crisp pancake of chickpea flour and olive oil, baked in a very hot oven and eaten hot with black pepper, the snack of Vieux Nice. Pissaladière: an onion tart topped with anchovies and olives. Pan bagnat: the salade niçoise in a round bread roll soaked in olive oil, made for the beach. Ratatouille: the Provençal stew of courgettes, aubergines, peppers, tomatoes and onions.

Bouillabaisse

Along the coast to the west, Marseille gave France bouillabaisse, a saffron-scented soup made with a variety of Mediterranean rockfish, served with rouille and toasted bread, traditionally in two courses: first the broth, then the fish.

The art of the table

A true French meal is as much ritual as food. A proper gastronomic meal begins with an apéritif and moves through a starter, a fish or meat course, cheese and dessert, ending with a digestif. Wine and cheese are chosen to match the region: on the Riviera, that means a glass of Provence rosé in summer, and the wines of Bellet, grown in the hills above Nice.

Where to taste it

Start at the morning market on the Cours Saleya in Vieux Nice, in this guide, for the produce and the flowers, then eat socca in the lanes nearby. For the coast’s great restaurants, from beach clubs to the starred dining rooms of Monaco and Èze, see our story of eating on the Riviera and our restaurant list.

Our advice: lunch long and outdoors, order the dish of the day, and save one evening for a bouillabaisse.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Riviera Cuisine before you go.