The Burgundy Starters From “Home in Burgundy – the Papillon Recipes”

Good food and wine are passions that have run deep for Dennis and Ellie for a long time. These passions are brought together in the cookbook she wrote, which charts some of her best recipes learned over her lifetime. Their story is a fascinating one; before owning the Domaine de Cromey in Burgundy, Dennis and Ellie ran a luxury hotel-barge called Le Papillon. They later expanded into land-based vacations, offering tours to regions known for their food and wine culture. During their years of travel, they spent a significant amount of time in Italy, immersing themselves in the culture and cuisine, and developing a deep appreciation for Italian produce.

Their love for Italian ingredients is reflected in the cuisine they serve at Domaine de Cromey. For example, they use excellent olive oil from Lucca, sell it in the US, and incorporate Italian-inspired greens from their garden into their dishes. Ellie's cookbook, "At Home in Burgundy – the Papillon Recipes," is a tribute to this period in her life.

You’ll find many great recipes for every course of a dinner party, from amazing appetizers to magnificent meat dishes, seafood or vegetarian mains, delicious desserts – and of course, lots about which are the best Burgundy wines to drink with them.

This article takes a look at the range of Burgundy starters and appetizers that Ellie has to offer in her book. You’ll notice her Italian heritage and passion for Italian cuisine in many of them. But they also include ingredients grown at home in Cromey, and on the nearby land in Burgundy. That doesn’t mean you can’t recreate them at home yourself (although sometimes you may have to be a little bit creative if you can’t find an exact match for ingredients where you live). You’ll also find many of the most famous cheeses in France listed as ingredients, which come from this part of the world.

So spread those napkins and prepare to have your palate tantalised with some of the finest appetizers Burgundy has to offer. Let’s explore them, arranged by category:

The Best Burgundy Meat Starters from Ellie’s Cookbook

The Burgundy starters in this category are the perfect vehicles to allow Ellie to demonstrate why Burgundy is known as the ‘stomach of France’ – the sheer range of meats and ways of cooking them has to be seen to be believed. Starting with poultry, there are two interesting dishes you might consider, one with duck and one with quail. The duck dish - Citrus Cured Duck Breast with a Grapefruit, Fennel and Hazelnut Salad – is cured for 24 hours before being combined with a diverse array of salad ingredients to make the perfect light starter for any meal. The other recipe - Roasted Quail with Cromey Garden Vegetables – uses quail roasted on the bone to retain maximum flavor, with all the other ingredients coming from Cromey’s extensive grounds and gardens. As well as wine, Ellie also uses sloe berries when creating the delicious jus. There’s even a YouTube video showing this dish and the accompanying wine recommendation – in this case, something from Saint-Romain.

Moving on to the other meat starters, she begins with Bresaola with Fresh Goat Cheese and Marinated Vegetables. Bresaola is a wonderful dried, salted and cured beef which is eaten right across Italy (and is brought back to Burgundy whenever Ellie makes a trip there). Many like to eat it with their fingers on its own, but this dish sees it paired with marinated vegetables (from the Cromey potager, of course) and fresh goat’s cheese. Continuing the beef theme is her Warm Beef Carpaccio with Gorgonzola – another great way to showcase how well meat and cheese can go together. Both are meltingly tender – the beef is warm but not so hot that it cooks, and the cheese is placed on the beef slices and warmed in the oven. Agnes Paquet makes some great wines to go with this dish as does Domaine Germaine Pere et Fils, from that food-friendly appellation of Saint-Romain.

If ham is your thing then you’ll want to try out the Spring Salad with Garlic Cream, Poached Egg and Ham Powder (or Assiette de Printemps a la crème d’Ail et a L’oeuf Poché if you prefer in French). This is a perfect Sunday brunch dish and uses the intriguing idea of pureeing prosciutto ham to a powder. There’s also Garden Vegetable Ragoût with Garlic & Crispy Ham for which Ellie uses prosciutto-type cured ham and the freshest vegetables from her garden and the local market stalls.

The humble lamb is put to good use in her Phyllo Wrapped Lamb Noisettes with Goat Cheese recipe – small morsels of lamb tenderloin topped with goats cheese (Crottin de Chavignol, from the Loire valley near Sancerre if you can get it!) and wrapped in pastry.

And finally, there are those extra-special dishes which use those most quintessentially-French of ingredients – snails, and foie gras. Her Snail Ravioli in a White Wine, Garlic and Herb Bouillon, Snails with a Parsley Puree and Tomato Coulis, and Turnip Soup with a Mirepoix of Snails are sure to be firm favourites with the more adventurous of eaters, and the Foie Gras with Cassis and Dill is likewise something to savor for a very special occasion.

The Top Burgundy Vegetarian and Cheese-Based Starters

Ellie begins with Cantal Cheese and Tomato Tart, which uses a fruity cow's milk cheese coming from the Auvergne region that you may not have come across before. Dijon mustard gives it a tangy flavor and is a real Burgundian signature.

There is also a truly unique recipe which promises to delight any dinner party guests: Oeufs en Meurette (Poached Eggs in a Red Wine Sauce). This very unusual combination of poached eggs in a red wine sauce is great with Pinot Noir or Beaujolais, and it doesn’t have to be expensive either.

Her Warm Citeaux Salad with a Walnut and Verjus Vinaigrette uses one of the most beloved of Burgundy cheeses – Citeaux, named after the Abbey whose monks created it. If you can’t get it where you are, use good farm-made Reblochon. And the verjus is the juice of unripe grapes, in case you’re wondering, which makes a brilliant vinaigrette. To complete this category of staters there’s also Pickled Red Cabbage and Cherry Salad, Shallot, Leek & Époisses Cheese Tart, and Warm Fava Beans and Peas with Goat Cheese

Favorite Burgundy Fish & Seafood Starters

Let’s start this section with Crab Salad with Chili Mint Vinaigrette. It’s a refreshing summer salad that always brings a tear to our eyes; even after all these years, we still get emotional whenever someone mentions crab. When we lived in Annapolis, we were accustomed to using lump meat from Maryland blue crabs. Here in France, we use the large Atlantic 'tourteau' crab. While it's good, it's not nearly as succulent as the blue crab. If salmon is your thing then try Cured Salmon with Trio of Fennel which gives a great variety of textures as its prepared in three different ways. Finally, Ellie’s Scallops with Nori and Ginger-Soy Beurre Blanc is a mouthwatering selection of scallops fried in the pan, with blanched sprout leaves and a Nori seaweed crumb – refreshing, healthy and very memorable, especially if you pair it with a Champagne from Pierre Brigandat, or one of Monsieur Cruchandeau’s Bouzeron Massale wines.

Try These Burgundy Starters At Domaine de Cromey – As Our Guests

But don’t just take our word for it… Why not come and join us, and book your Burgundy vacation of a lifetime at Domaine de Cromey? Our baronial mansion and former chateau is nestled among the vines in the best wine country on earth. There is plenty to see, do, and learn! Click here to read our other Cromey blog articles, or visit this page to make your booking enquiry today.