Gourmand'ici — Festival of Cuisine

A festival born from the Territorial Food Project

Ouest Aveyron Communauté organizes Gourmand'ici as part of its Territorial Food Project, in collaboration with the Bastides et Gorges de l'Aveyron Tourist Office. Held annually in September, the festival is free to attend and travels to a new location each year: Villefranche-de-Rouergue in 2024, Villeneuve-d'Aveyron in 2025, and La Fouillade in 2026.

Cook, knead, and taste

"At Gourmand'ici, you won't just be a spectator: you'll be cooking, kneading, and tasting!" says the tourist office. Workshops focus on bread-making, plating techniques, and recipes using local ingredients. These are complemented by cooking demonstrations, tastings, exhibitions, and botanical walks.

The Sustainable Food Forum

The tourist office highlights the Sustainable Food Forum as the festival's centerpiece. Market gardeners, chefs, and producers host interactive stalls featuring exhibitions, tastings, and workshops "to understand where our food comes from and how to consume more sustainably."

Previous editions

The 2024 edition took place from September 25th to 28th in Villefranche-de-Rouergue across several city locations, featuring family cooking workshops, local produce discovery, tastings, culinary demonstrations, botanical tours, performances, screenings, and exhibitions. The Sustainable Food Forum brought together over 25 stalls at Place Notre-Dame on Saturday, September 28th, with tastings of honey, spit cake, Aveyron veal, and edible flowers, a "smoothie bike" workshop, lacto-fermentation, stalls on seeds, water, agriculture, composting, and food security, as well as a local wood-fired lunch from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM (€10 for adults, €6 for children) and a grand afternoon snack at 5:00 PM.

The 2025 edition was held on Saturday, September 27th, at Place des Conques in Villeneuve-d'Aveyron, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, focusing on bread. It featured over 30 activities related to sustainable food, bread-making workshops, educational games about farming and livestock, cooking classes, a grand afternoon snack, exhibitions, a botanical walk, tastings, and local meals served in the village restaurants.