Lyonnaise cuisine refers to cooking traditions and practices centering on the area around the French city of Lyon and historical Lyonnais culinary traditions.
In the 16th century, Catherine de Medici brought cooks from Florence to her court and they prepared dishes from agricultural products from many regions of France. This was revolutionary, as it combined the fresh, diverse and indigenous nature of regional produce with the know-how of Florentine cooks.
The result was that regional specialities were elevated in status among royalty and nobility. Lyonnaise cuisine became a crossroads of many regional culinary traditions. A surprising variety of ingredients from many nearby places emerged: summer vegetables from farms in Bresse and Charolais, game from the Dombes, lake fish from Savoy, spring fruits and vegetables from Drôme and Ardèche, and wines from Beaujolais and the Rhône Valley.
In the 19th century, middle-class women, nicknamed the "Lyonnaise mothers", left their homes to work as cooks and created brand new culinary traditions incorporating their regional roots.
In 1935, the famed food critic Curnonsky did not hesitate to describe the city of Lyon as the "world capital of gastronomy".
In the 21st century, Lyon's cuisine is defined by simplicity and quality, and is exported to other parts of France and abroad. With more than a thousand eateries, the city of Lyon has one of the highest concentrations of restaurants per capita in France.