Autumn on the menu: what we're cooking this season

Every year there is a week in late September when the kitchen changes gear. The last tomatoes are gone, the first girolles arrive from the Monts du Lyonnais, and the menu is rewritten from top to bottom. Here is what is on it this autumn — and why.

Starters: squash, mushrooms and a classic

Our velouté of roasted squash uses red kuri squash from a market gardener west of the city. We roast them whole until the skin caramelises, then finish the soup with chestnut cream, toasted hazelnuts and a few drops of sage oil. It is vegetarian, naturally gluten-free, and the dish regulars ask about first.

The œuf meurette stays all year, but in autumn the red-wine sauce is made with a young Brouilly and the lardons come from a pig farmer in the hills above Lyon. Simple, rich and very Lyonnais.

Mains: the girolle moment

Wild mushrooms are the reason we look forward to autumn. This year they go into a girolle and chestnut risotto finished with aged Comté — our vegetarian main — and they sit alongside the roast veal rump, served with a potato fondant, crispy kale and a veal jus that reduces for two days.

From the coast, the pan-roasted hake arrives twice a week. We serve it with a seared scallop, a classic beurre blanc and whatever the market has in the way of root vegetables.

And of course the quenelle de brochet stays: pike, baked in Nantua sauce until it puffs up in the dish. It is the most Lyonnais thing we cook, and the one we would never dare take off the menu.

Desserts: figs, then pralines

Late figs from the Ardèche go into a fig tart on almond cream for as long as they last — usually until mid-October. After that, the pink praline tart, bright and unapologetically sweet, takes over for the winter.

What to drink

Autumn food wants red wine with a bit of freshness. A few bottles we are pouring by the glass this season:

• A Morgon from a grower who has farmed organically for twenty years — perfect with the veal.
• A Saint-Joseph white, round and nutty, for the hake and the risotto.
• A Beaujolais Nouveau in late November, because it is tradition — and because the good ones are genuinely good.

Ask us for advice: we would rather open a bottle you will love than sell you the most expensive one on the list.

Where it all comes from

Most of our vegetables travel less than forty kilometres. Twice a week we drive out to the market gardeners and goat-cheese makers of the Monts du Lyonnais; the rest comes from the Saint-Antoine market on the banks of the Saône, where we know most stallholders by name. Fish arrives from the Atlantic coast on Tuesdays and Fridays, which is why the hake sometimes runs out on a busy Saturday. When something is not good enough, it does not go on the plate — the menu changes instead.

The chef's table

On Saturday evenings, twelve guests sit at the kitchen counter for a six-course tasting menu built around the best of the week's produce (€75, wine pairing €45). It is the best way to try the autumn menu in one sitting — and to ask the chef anything you like about it.

Book your table

The autumn menu runs until the end of November. Lunch is served Tuesday to Friday from 12:00, with a starter-and-main formula at €24, and dinner Tuesday to Saturday from 19:00. Reserve a table online — your table is confirmed instantly.