Epogne, a mountain dish brought up to date

In Giez (Haute-Savoie), enthusiasts cook épogne, a sweet or savory dish designed to finish off leftover bread dough. Mashed potatoes, onions, leeks, tomes, wild garlic can garnish this mountain dish, a forgotten culinary specialty. “We are in the middle of wild garlic season, so here it is to personalize the épogne”explains Christine Belleville, from “La cuisine vagabonde”, who likes to revisit the cuisine of her ancestors.

The épogne bakes between five and ten minutes in the village bread oven, which has been renovated and restarted for the first time in 20 years. “It’s our identity card, on top of that, it was a dish for the poor, not a dish for the rich. So it was a country thing, a peasant thing”, recalls Paul Rocher, a retired baker. Some wish to protect this regional heritage by sending an application to UNESCO for recognition.