The Mothers of Lyon
The Mothers of Lyon, or Mères Lyonnaises, were the cooks and chefs who first brought the spotlight to Lyon’s gastronomic scene.
The title Mère was used for the women who either owned or headed bouchons, restaurants, or inns and symbolized a maternal and nurturing touch within Lyon’s dining scene. In an era where professional kitchens were predominantly dominated by men, they were recognized with respect despite many not having any formal training. The Mères cooked simple yet nourishing dishes and cultivated comforting spaces with genuine hospitality for all social classes. The first mention of these honorary titles were in 1759 when Mère Guy became famous for both her eel stew and crawfish gratin at an inn on the banks of the Rhône. In the early 1800s, Mère Brigousse was recognized for her dumplings in the Charpennes district.
The number of Mères grew in the 1900s. Many women lost their positions cooking for bourgeois families in Lyon due to the changing household economics so they opened their own restaurants. The combination of the Mères’ restaurants, the impact of World War I, and the 1929 economic crisis changed Lyon’s cuisine. The Mothers cooked simple yet refined food adapted from the dishes they made for their previous clients with quality and local ingredients — often using inferior cuts to not waste any food. While the dishes were rooted in home-cook traditions, the technique, presentation, and ingredients made an impact on modern-day French cuisine.
The women cooked for their community until the introduction of the Michelin Guide. The guide was loaded with useful information: mechanics, gas stations, hotels, and restaurants — but really it was a marketing piece to sell cars and the need for tires. With this guide, the Mères’ Restaurants in Lyon were able to get the recognition they deserved, and the guide became France’s authority on regional cuisine.
Why aren’t these women, especially Mère Brazier, remembered like their male counterparts?
We’ve grouped these women to be in a single category versus looking them as individual people like we do for many male counterparts. Most tend to think of professional kitchens as being male dominated (and they usually are) studded with a few females who’ve made names for themselves. In this case, many of the “living-legends” like Paul Bocuse and Georges Blanc were taught in these kitchens and didn’t give their mentors enough credit. Madeleine Kamman (the French chef, teacher, and cookbook author) accused chefs like Paul Bocuse of appropriating the cooking of their mothers and grandmothers and presenting it as their own.
While some may argue the media wasn’t singing praises of chefs then, we know the names of famous male chefs like Marie-Antoine Carême and Auguste Escoffier — both of whom predated these women. I think we can all agree that it was largely their gender. The route to becoming a top chef in France followed strict rules in the 19th and 20th centuries. Boys would start apprenticing in kitchens as early as 10, work their way up the ranks, and then train in Paris. Women weren’t made into apprentices but were the ones cooking for their families and loved ones — or in the Mères’ cases, their community. It also had to do with the categories of the culinary scene at the time: haute-cuisine, prepared by classically trained chefs (mostly men) and cuisine de la grand-mère or grandmother’s style cooking. We still often describe women’s style of cooking as “rustic” which discredits and diminishes the quality and skill it takes to prepare the dishes.
It’s important to read about these women’s lives and accomplishments and know their names, however brief their stories are written —or remembered — in history.
The Women that Shaped Lyon’s Cuisine
Mère Fillioux
Born in 1865, Françoise Fillioux was the one of the first to gain a reputation after opening her own bistro. Hiring only women, she trained many of the other Mères who also became successful and acknowledged. Interestingly, she never made more than her five signature dishes saying, “I know how to cook them, and I will never make any others.” Her dish volaille demi-deuil, or truffled hen, made her famous, and her recipes still have an impact on French cuisine today.
Signature Dishes:
volaille demi-deuil: chicken with truffles stuffed under the skin
truffle & cream soup
poached chicken
artichoke hearts stuffed with foie gras, quenelles, and crawfish
lobster with shallots, tomatoes, wine, and brandy
Mère Brazier
Eugénie Brazier was born in 1895 on a farm in Burgundy and had a seemingly tough childhood. She was taught to cook by her mother as soon as she was able to hold a spoon. She knew how to make two types of tarts by the age of five — although she wasn’t yet allowed to use the oven. Eugénie was only able to go to school in the winter as there were less farm chores that needed to be done. Her mother passed away when she was 10, and she was then sent to cook and clean at a larger farm to earn a living for her family. At 19, she had a child out of wedlock (a major scandal at the time) and was kicked out of her house by her father. She and her son traveled to Lyon to work for a wealthy family where she stepped in as the cook. With no cookbooks to consult, she would ask merchants or hotel staff for recipes and cook them from memory. She then went on to apprentice under Mère Filloux at her restaurant. The two strong women butted heads often, and Engénie finally moved on to open her first restaurant in 1921.
The first few years were hard. She had little money, and it was just her and her boyfriend that made the restaurant run. She would buy chairs two at a time, had to borrow more chairs for service, and the dining room was heated by her kitchen stove. During WWII, she often broke rationing rules, which led to her being fined multiple times and then arrested.
La Mère Brazier finally began to get recognition while serving customers like Charles de Gaulle, French President Valèry Giscard d’Etaing, actress Marlene Dietrich, and Mayor of Lyon Édouard Herriot. However, never forgetting the hardships she endured, she always kept a few seats available for the working class. She then went on to open her second restaurant and trained Paul Bocuse, but more impressively, she became the first person to be awarded six Michelin stars between both of her restaurants in 1933. (Her record was unmatched until 1998 when Alain Ducasse received his sixth star.)
In 1953, she declined a job at Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, refusing to uproot. She was also offered the Legion of Honor, the highest French order of merit, but declined by saying the award “should be reserved for more important things than cooking well.”
Eugénie’s recipes can be found in “La Mère Brazier: The Mother of Modern French Cooking.” Part cookbook and part memoir, it holds 300 of her recipes she created using the bounty of local produce, fish, cheese and dairy, and wines of the region. Her signature dishes are seemingly influenced by her time spent at Mère Fillioux’s restaurant, but she was known as the better cook. Her restaurant is still open today and has many of her classic dishes are still on the menu. She is now recognized as The Mother of French Cooking.
Signature Dishes:
Langouste Belle Aurore: lobster drenched in brandy and cream
poularde en demi deuil: chicken with truffles stuffed under the skin
fond d’artichauts au foie gras: foie gras served in an artichoke
cervelle de canut: Lyonnaise cheeses with herbs
Mère Blanc
Èlisa Blanc took over her parents’ restaurant in Bresse, cooking many of the recipes she learned from her mother. Èlisa was awarded her first Michelin star in 1929 (and the first Michelin star given to a woman) and her second in 1931. She was considered “the greatest cook in the world” by food writer Curnonsky. She began the legacy of the Blanc name with her restaurant La Mère Blanc. It was then passed down to her children who passed it down to their son, Georges Blanc, who received its third Michelin star. The restaurant is currently called Restaurant Georges Blanc.
Signature Dishes:
veal chops with sorrel
Bresse chickens with morels
Mère Bourgeois
Marie Bourgeois was hired as a cook for a wealthy family. Upon marrying her husband, they bought a former inn near Lyon serving dishes made with local fish and game. She was the first woman to receive the Club des Cent award given by a prestigious gastronomic society that only crowns two exceptional chefs a year. She also received three Michelin stars and held them for four years until her death in 1937.
Signature Dishes:
poularde aux morilles: chicken with morels
le pâté chaud de la mère Bourgeois: hot pâté en croute
l’île flottante aux pralines roses: floating island with pink pralines
Mère Bidaut
Léa Bidaut ran her first bouchon, Daniel et Denise, before opening her own restaurant La Voûte Chez Léa earning her one Michelin star. She followed the traditions of the other Mères by cooking fairly simple food but of the highest quality (she also taught Eugenie Brazier a few recipes). Her menu was not printed and changed daily. When other restaurants began to serve the same dishes as her, she began serving regional dishes like tried tripe with chervil and pike quenelles. She was known for walking around the market near her retaurant with a sign on her cart reading, “Attention, weak woman, but big mouth.”
Signature Dishes:
sauerkraut with champagne
potato paillasson
orange-flavored rabbit leg
baked cardoon with bone marroow
Lyons salad
Mère Castaing
Paulette Castaing met her husband while they were both apprenticing under Mademoiselle Cheynet at the Hôtel Beau Séjour. After denying a job offer by Eugénie Brazier, they opened their own restaurant Beau Rivage where she managed the kitchen and her husband was the head waiter. She was known for her skill at cooking fish and making sauces. She received two Michelin stars and held them until they sold their restaurant. She is considered the last of the Mères.
Signature Dishes:
poached trout
matelote d'anguille: eel stew
pike mousseline
Mère Bizolon
Marie-Joseph Bizolon set up free open-air refreshment stations as a place of encouragement and comfort for soldiers during WWI, for which she received a Legion of Honor. After the war, she turned her husband’s shoemaking shop into a modest bouchon. Unfortunately, she was murdered in 1940, and the crime was never solved. A street in Lyon is named after her.
“Cooking is not complicated. You have to be well organized, to remember things, and to have a bit of taste. I learned to cook by doing it, simple as that.”