ABSTRACT
When they hear the word Burgundy, many people think of wine and food. To say that Burgundian gastronomy is a recent invention would perhaps be exaggerated but it came into the limelight only after World War I. One of the reasons given for Burgundy’s gastronomic reputation is the excellence of its products. The rich land of the region enabled farmers to produce quality products: notable areas include Charolais (beef), the Yonne plains (fruit and especially cherries), Nivernais (dairy products), the Morvan range (pork meat), the Bresse plains (poultry), and the Cote d’Or (wheat and of course wine). Louis Daubenton (1716-1800) is credited with the introduction and improvement of the merino sheep breed in the Chatil- lonnais (Northern Burgundy) in 1776. But farmers, though they produced quality, if not luxury products, remained poor.
