Gastonomy of Savoy
The Savoyard people ate to live and didn't live to eat... This saying was also true for the people of Sixt. Cooking was extremely basic and made to be 'filling'. It was not the cooking of the wealthy since before the Savoie region became tourist orientated and industrial, the duchy was a very poor region and the men had to leave the region during the winter months in order to provide for their families. How does one live in a poor region?
By buying the least possible in from outside, by eating self grown produce and by using up every last scrap and throwing nothing away. Local food was based on salted pork (cattle was kept to sell at the autumn cattle markets), cheese and dairy produce. This explains the importance of 'gratins' (dishes topped with grilled cheese) in traditional regional cooking. Potatoes appeared in the Savoie region almost a century before they became known in the rest of France. A normal daily meal often consisted of vegetable soup made from homegrown vegetables and to which a piece of bacon or a little milk was added. The peasant people ate the soup with a piece of cheese, preferably 'tomme'.
Vines do not grow at this altitude so the everyday drink was cider. In the summer the shepherds ate 'sérac' a low fat cheese made from the whey, keeping the full fat cheese for the winter. Speciality dishes came much later, often inspired from the economical, ancestral dishes prepared long ago: cheese fondue and raclette for example were made in the olden days to use up the left over cheese.