poulet Gaston Gérard

Chicken breasts, ideally poulet de Bresse, browned and topped with mustard, Burgundy white wine, crème fraîche and grated Comté.

The dish dates from 1930, when Reine Geneviève Bourgogne, a reputed cook and wife of the Mayor of Dijon, Gaston Gérard, was preparing a meal for food critic Curnonsky, the ‘Prince of gastronomes’. The pressure was on...and when she accidently tipped a jar of mustard (some say paprika) into the pan with the chicken, it seemed all was lost until she diluted the mustard with wine, crème fraîche and grated Comté.

The dish was a huge success with Curnonsky, who named it after his host.

It’s also known as poulet Dijon.