At Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, acorn-fed Iberian ham reveals itself slice after slice, like a great vintage of the peninsula carved by hand.
At Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, there is a ritual one never tires of watching: the carving of Iberian ham. Under the master cortador's blade, the knife glides horizontally and releases slices of an almost unreal thinness, marbled with pearly fat. Fanned out, sometimes on a slightly domed plate that warms the fat and unlocks the aromas, they melt in the mouth, leaving that long, nutty taste that marks out the world's finest hams.
This spectacle is no small thing. True acorn-fed Iberian ham comes from Iberian-breed pigs raised in complete freedom in the dehesa, those vast pastures of Extremadura, the province of Salamanca and Andalusia, dotted with holm oaks and cork oaks. During the montanera, the animals feed almost exclusively on acorns, whose fats give the meat its incomparable tenderness. Craftsmanship does the rest: a patient natural curing, often of thirty-six months, sometimes pushed to forty-eight.
Behind each piece stand the great protected designations of origin. Guijuelo, on the foothills of the sierra de Bejar; Jabugo, in the heart of the sierra de Aracena natural park; Dehesa de Extremadura, in the meadows of Caceres and Badajoz. So many terroirs, so many signatures, which connoisseurs learn to tell apart as one recognises a great vineyard.
At Les Halles, the house of Bellota-Bellota has kept this excellence alive for years, offering ham aged four years and sliced before the customer. To compare, taste and understand the traceability of each piece: in the belly of Lyon, the world's third-best market, the best of the peninsula is savoured in the present moment.