Based out of France and Italy, American author David Downie just completed his chef d’oeuvre Terroir about food and wine in Burgundy. In the past, Downie’s repertoire includes a wide variety of books ranging from a history of the American Academy of Rome to his latest project, a thriller, called Paris City of Night. In the recently published Terroir, Downie details the best restaurants, vineyards and hotels as well as his favorite food and wine recommendations in each region of Burgundy. After fifteen years of research, his guide offers us mouth-watering insight into the culture of French gastronomy at its very best. Here, Downie tells us about his passion for Burgundy and why he would favor the experience of a local restaurant there to any Michelin starred restaurant in the world.

When did you first travel to Burgundy and what made you fall in love with the region?

My first trip to Burgundy was in 1987. We stayed with friends who had bought a house and were rebuilding it. What struck me immediately was the natural beauty—nothing dramatic, but rather a gentle, soothing, always-green place (even in summer’s heat). The lack of clutter and junk was also seductive. Burgundy is depopulated, vast, varied in its terrain, largely uncontaminated, and as authentically French and rural as any of the country’s regions. The stone-built villages and the Romanesque churches of Burgundy alone would be a wonderful draw. Burgundy also happens to have some of the country’s best wines, cheeses, beef, poultry and honey (not to mention other culinary delights).

How did you research your book Terroir?

The research took about 15 years, and was conducted in the same way we researched our Food Wine Rome and Food Wine Italian Riviera & Genoa guides. All three are the fruit of two decades of work. I researched in part on foot—we’ve hiked all the way across Burgundy, on pilgrimage routes and the medieval roads used by Cluny’s monks—and in part by driving thousands and thousands of miles on one-lane or two-lane back roads. I talked to hundreds of locals and learned how they lived and worked. When it came to the wine and food, I tasted what they produced. To report on the Charolais beef of the region, for instance, I spent weeks with local ranchers, farmers, butchers, chefs and home-cooks, following the process from the pasture to the plate. The thrust of the book is authentic, regional, terroir food.

What is your personal favorite region of Burgundy and why?

I love the region from top to bottom. I am particularly fond of the remote, mountainous, forested, or geologically stunning areas that relatively few tourists see—the Morvan of Central Burgundy, where the Gauls battled and lost to Caesar; the Roche de Solutré in Southern Burgundy, where prehistoric tribes hunted horses (and where now some of the best, most affordable but underrated white wines are produced, in gorgeous scenery); and the region around Cluny, dotted with Romanesque churches. The Côte d’Or, including Beaune, is also splendid, with most of the great wines being grown and made there, and there is some beautiful scenery. But Beaune and its surroundings are almost too well known for their own good.

What are some of your favorite restaurants in Burgundy for a blow-out meal?

For terroir cooking the food is not wildly expensive by and large. You can spend hundreds of dollars on wine, however, and that’s where the blow-out will come. With wine in mind, I would recommend Ma Cuisine (Passage St. Hélène; 03 80 22 30 22) in Beaune, for lusciously rustic food and an absolutely amazing wine list; Aux Terrasses (18 Avenue du 23 Janvier; 03 85 51 01 74) in Tournus (a single Michelin star, updated cuisine but with solid terroir roots); and of course La Côte d’Or—Bernard Loiseau (2 rue d’Argentine, 03 80 90 53 53), in Saulieu, with simply fabulous wines (three stars in the Michelin guide, disconcertingly luxurious, but stick to the late, great Loiseau’s traditional recipes and you will be happy if impoverished). One-star Stéphane Derbord (10 Place Wilson, 03 80 67 74 64) in Dijon is also tops and has an impressive wine list. Ditto l’Hostellerie Bourguignonne (2 avenue Président Borgeot; 03 85 91 51 45) in Verdun-sur-le-Doubs—the home of pocheuse fish stew.

For authentic French meal?

Authentic terroir is what the guide is all about. I don’t list anything but authentic French—Burgundian. There are many, including B&Bs where you must stay the night to be able to eat dinner, and farmhouse restaurants that serve to-die-for home-cooked meals, usually only at lunch. You would really need to have the guide in hand to find them. For classic Burgundian bourgeois cooking, La Borne Imperiale (16 rue d’Argentine, 03 80 64 19 76) in Saulieu is wonderful and warm. For updated terroir cuisine made with the best local ingredients, l’Hostellerie Bressane (56 Route de Tournus; 03 85 32 30 66) in Cuisery.

And how about a family lunch/dinner with kids?

Le Bistrot des Halles (10 rue Bannelier, 03 80 49 94 15) in Dijon, plus the farmhouse places I’ve mentioned above, especially Ferme-Auberge de Lavaux (03 85 28 08 48; ferme-auberge-lavaux@wanadoo.fr), where the kids can play on the grounds and see the farm animals.

What advice would you give travelers planning a trip to Burgundy?

Budget more time than you might: so many visitors rush through the region in under a week and miss most of its best features. Sleep in B&Bs that serve home-cooked meals, and visit and eat at farmhouse restaurants. Eat lunch at a winery that does a food/wine tasting menu, such as La Table de Olivier Leflaive (Place du Monument; 03 80 21 37 65) , and do a wine/cheese tasting at Le Cellier de l’Abbaye (13 rue Municipale and Rue du 11 Aôut; 03 85 59 04 00) in Cluny. Stay off the main roads: drive slowly and down the back roads. Stop in the villages, visit the churches or the archeological sites, go to the markets, go into the shops, stretch your legs on the incredible network of hiking trails. If you go in summer, expect to be among tourists (many Parisians and Lyonnais have country houses in Burgundy); if you want to see the region at its best and most authentically local, go in spring or fall. Winter is long, cold and wet, and many food- or wine-related businesses are shut or operate at reduced hours.

What are some of your favorite wine/food pairings?

Freshwater fish with red wine, and cheese with white: that’s the unexpected but lovely pair of pairings you’ll often find the locals enjoying in Burgundy. I share their passion. Starting from the appetizers: Gougères (the original cheese puff-pastries) with tangy Aligoté. Buttery, garlicky snails with Aligoté or even a spunky vintage Macon Rouge (yes, there are some surprising Gamays from the Maconnais district). Sandre (pike-perch) braised in Pinot Noir and accompanied by a light, soft Santenay, for instance, or a Mercurey from the Côte Chalonnaise. Pocheuse fish stew cooked in Aligoté but drunk with a light red, as per the pike-perch. Coq au vin or beef bourguignon or a slab of Charolais beef with marrow, paired with a bigger red from the northern Côte d’Or—take your pick (a Gevrey Chambertin or Morey St Denis perhaps). A ripe Epoisses or Langres cow’s milk cheese with a muscular white Burgundy from the Côte d’Or—a vintage Meursault for instance. A sprightly Macon white—from one of the lovely village appellations—with a fresh or aged round of goat’s-milk cheese—a chèvre AOC Mâconnais, for example. And a creamy-yet-tangy Délice de Pommard chèvre cheese with a glass of Pommard.

Do you feel as though the Burgundy food scene has changed or evolved since you began traveling there and if so, how?

Terroir is in danger here and elsewhere. The struggle to preserve the authentic, local, healthful, sustainable foods and wines of Burgundy, and the region’s classic restaurants serving terroir cuisine, is on going, and it’s not clear who will prevail. Twenty years ago you could toss out a coin and it would land on something wonderful. That is no longer the case. It is increasingly difficult to find authentic terroir anything, which is one reason we undertook the massive job of producing this guidebook. We want to highlight and reward the people doing the hard work, the people with the long view. As the food scene becomes international, globalized and corporate, it becomes increasingly imperative to preserve the great practitioners of the culinary arts, everywhere.

Has there been any recent culinary news in Burgundy that you wish you could have still included in your book?

I think it’s pretty much up-to-date—I even mentioned the celebration of Cluny Abbey’s 1,100 anniversary (but as we went to press, I may have missed mentioning the recently created wine/cheese tastings held at the Cellier de l’Abbaye, facing the abbey). The most useful thing I can say about developments in wine in Burgundy is that if you love Pinot Noir, as millions do, then you’re better off drinking an authentic terroir red Burgundy and staying clear of pseudo or fraudulently represented Pinot Noirs (whatever they are made from) sold under a variety of catchy labels worldwide. Anyone who has followed the Red Bicyclette scandal, in which 18 million bottles of fraudulently labeled “Pinot Noir” was produced in Southern France and distributed in the USA by E&J Gallo, will appreciate what I mean. Burgundy is the cradle of both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and both are still at their best in Burgundy (though some very pleasant versions come from elsewhere, including the New World).