Between Land and Sea: The Rich Cuisine of Normandy

With a unique location and a past full of legends and historic events, Normandy is a region of France that has over the centuries developed a rich tradition and a gastronomy rivaling some of the best French terroirs.

The people of Normandy love good food. For their cuisine, they have learned to make the best use of the fertile lands that grow bountiful produce and nurture healthy animals, and a long, rugged coast which waters provide a generous diversity of fish, crustaceans and mollusks. Incidentally, Normandy is the first producer of oysters, mussels and coquilles Saint-Jacques (scallop; shell of St James) in France.

The cheeses produced in the region are staggering in quantity and quality. Most famous of all is of course is the camembert; the Camembert de Normandie, A.O.C. (controlled designation of origin) in particular is of very high standard, such as other A.O.C. Normandy cheeses like Pont-l’évêque or Neufchâtel.

Dairy products in general take their letters of nobility thanks mostly to the vache normande (Normandy cow), renowned for the superior quality of its milk. Le beurre de Normandie (Normandy butter) is a classic; a typical favorite is butter containing salt crystals with a sumptuous melting texture. In Lower Normandy, le beurre d’Isigny (Isigny’s butter) is one of the four butters in France labeled with the AOC, Label Rouge.

Apples find numerous uses in the cuisine of Normandy, especially with cidre (cider), and Calvados, a fruit brandy made of cider which pairs perfectly with deserts such as sorbets, chocolates and cheeses.

In particular, the trou normand (literaly, ‘the Norman hole’) is a small glass of Calvados swallowed whole in the middle of a (generally long) meal, to stimulate digestion.

Finally, one of the Normans’ most prized meat is l’agneau de pré-salé (saltmeadow lamb), which grazes on the saline pastures of the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel and Cotentin, giving its meat a subtle and unmatched iodized flavor.