Tarte flambée: where to taste it at Christmas markets

Tarte flambée, or flammekueche, is a thin sheet of Alsatian bread dough topped with cream, onions and bacon lardons, baked in a wood-fired oven. At the Christmas markets of Alsace, it is the hot savoury dish eaten standing up, to share, between two chalets, and it also turns up at a few markets outside Alsace.

Where to eat tarte flambée at a Christmas market

Alsace first. In Strasbourg and Eguisheim, it is sold under its Alsatian name of flammekueche. At the medieval market in Ribeauvillé and in Barr, tartes flambées come out of the ovens. Saverne offers it in a baguette version.

Across the Rhine, Baden-Baden serves it under the name Flammkuchen. Far from Alsace, Bordeaux sells it at its Christmas market. All the places to try it are in the list further down, and our guide to Alsatian Christmas specialities places it among the other savoury dishes of Alsace’s markets.

Tarte flambée or flammekueche: one dish, two names

The dish has peasant origins, and the name tells the story. The dough was baked in the village bread oven, and the flames blackened the edges: the tart was flamed rather than flambéed. Its creation is attributed to the farmers of the Kochersberg, who tested the heat of the oven with a thin flatbread before putting in the bread. It entered town restaurants in the 1960s.

The basic topping remains crème fraîche or fromage blanc, onions and lardons. Two variants exist: the gratinée and the one with Munster.

Tarte flambée in pictures