Nougatine de Nevers: The Sweet an Empress Couldn't Stop Eating | Food Tour de France
About this episode
This episode explores the history and significance of Nougatine de Nevers, a confection adored by Empress Eugénie.
Nougatine de Nevers — the small artisan sweet of chopped almonds caramelised in copper, double-coated in orange royal icing and presented in a round tin decorated with portraits of Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie — is one of the most historically romantic confections in France. Today's Food Tour de France episode starts in Magny-Cours — home of the famous Formula One circuit, just south of Nevers — and tells the full story of a sweet created by a confectioner called Bourumeau in the mid-nineteenth century and launched into French high society at a dinner at the Préfecture of Nevers in 1862, when Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie paid an official visit to the city. The Empress was presented with a box. She ate one. Then another. Then several more. And by the time she returned to Paris she was placing orders. Within weeks the nougatine de Nevers was being eaten in the grand salons of the capital. The orange colour of the royal icing — as tradition has it — was chosen to match the complexion of the Empress herself. The episode covers the full story of the nougatine de Nevers — from the disputed date of its creation, somewhere between 1840 and 1862 depending on the source…
More episodes of Fabulously Delicious: The French Food Podcast
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- Pastille de Vichy: The Sweet That Started as a Medicine
- La Pachade: The Forgotten Potato Pancake of the Auvergne
- Cantal AOP: The Oldest Cheese in France
- Eau de Treignac: The Purest Water in France Nobody Has Heard Of
- The Liqueurs of Brive-la-Gaillarde: The Secret Drinks Capital of the Corrèze
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