Provence from Fayence: Provence Guide

Hotel Le France in Fayence

We do enjoy dinner at the Hotel Le France. It's an atmospheric setting, with quirky pieces of art and paint effects. The food is modern, good combinations and well executed and presented.

A tiny pea soup with cream and parmesan shavings provided the amuse geule. We went with friends Ray and Jill. Starters included foie gras, with an assortment of fresh, seasoned vegetables; seared tuna on garlic toasts; deep-fried Provencale vegetables with Japanese-style dipping sauce. All perfectly cooked and laid out, with ample portions.

Mains included rabbit wrapped in prosciutto with seasonal vegebatables, magret de canard with cherries and sea bream. All well prepared and presented with good sauces. The pudding highlight was a delicately roast dish of strawberries.

The Hotel le France is a friendly family run restaurant in an ideal location in the midst of Fayence. In the summer, it's great to sit on the balcony, eat and drink and watch the world go by. The food is always well-cooked and presented, with interesting dishes which combine modern and classical French styles.

We are fans!

Chez Barbaroux in Mons, Provence

It's the last few days of May so we ambled up to Mons for a local dinner. We tried the Auberge Provencal, with the spectacular views across Saint-Cezaire towards Cannes, bu that doesn't open in the evening until June. Le Petit Bonheur didn't have tables outside. So Chez Barbaroux got the business. The restaurant has a great setting, nestled in Mons' rambling alley way streets, unchanged for hundreds of years. We sat outside at small tables looking up at old residences and a still blue sky.

Last time we went to Chez Barbaroux, we felt it was inventive, but messy. The chef, we believe, used to work in Seillans at the Michelin-starred Castelleras. This time, the menu was simpler. We opted for the 28 Euro 3 course meal with a bottle of Chateau Rasque rose (superb).

We were presented with a delicious tapenade, added fig and almond contributing sweetness. Next, a mushroom sabayon in a little tumbler, infused with truffle (a highlight). I chose the Socca (a Provencal chickpea pastry thing) which was a trifle stodgy, but Sarah's truffle scrambled eggs with asparagus, prosciutto and pesto was very pleasant. We both enjoyed our mains: rabbit and fig ballotine, veal and fennel compote. Puddings were flawed but interesting.

We like Chez Barbaroux. The chef tries really hard to design original courses and flavours, but the execution fails a little (the tatin-ed apples were over-caramelised) in a sweet way, like a gifted child just missing the mark. The service is friendly and engaging, and if anything, the portions are on the large side (coming from someone over 6 foot tall). It's a pleasant place to be, enjoy a good evening with food that will get you talking.

Provence vineyards and the expat dream

I am always troubled by articles about Provence that read like "the gentle stream of expats settling in Provence has, over the past decade, become a steady river." I imagine hordes of Brits descending and eating chips, sorry, frites.

But this interesting piece in the Telegraph is more about folk who've bought up vineyards in Provence and actually make quiet decent wine: "So, if you feel an incredible tug for Provence, a heart-achingly beautiful restored bastide, with eight hectares of vines and 1,200 olive trees, is for sale not very far away."

I had no idea that Chateau de Berne was owned by a man who started with a Fulham vegetable shop, and after 20 years of success in a variety of pharmaceutical-based businesses, from his then base in Monaco decided to buy his own vineyard. It's now owned by the man from Regus, who has extended the facilities and is now marketing Berne Viognier wine in square bottles (weird, huh?) . I have tasted the wine and it's good (to quote Hemingway).

Better get saving then...

Provence receives Anthony Bourdain

The famous NY chef Anthony Bourdain hires a villa with a big kitchen and bones up on Provencal food. Sadly, I am in the UK, so this show doesnt make it to the UK.

I think Bourdain gets life in Provence - mind you, who doesn't? "It's the place that dreams and magazine spreads are made of. Where everything is beautiful, and soft, and smells good. Like a movie, only better", says Tony. This episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations made me long for a life of simplicity, good food, and great wine. As Tony puts it, "It seems to be the dream of every reasonable person to want to live here."

Here's the trailer:

 

Salade Nicoise

The classic Provencal salad - Salade Nicoise) is paid homage by the Chicago Tribune. I like the sound of these olives "Nicoise olives are small, dark and oval-shaped. Their briny meatiness adds a unique and defining signature to this zesty vegetable and tuna mixture."

For those of you who wondered about the nutritional value of Salade Nicoise, here it is: 390 calories, 46% of calories from fat, 20 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 25 g carbohydrates, 28 g protein, 309 mg sodium, 5 g fiber.

Best Baguette

I am truly encouraged to discover that there is in fact an official best baguette. Apparently there's an annual competition: "Best Baguette in Paris Award 2008". 14 of the entrants 143 14 were automatically eliminated for not complying with the criteria of size and weight peculiar to the “baguette tradition” (70 cm long, between 250 and 300 g) - only in France. Or maybe that's the EU?

Well - the baguette tournament was a cliffhanger, coming down to a nerve-wracking run-in between "two baguettes – numbers 132 and 97 – which were tied. The jury therefore carefully re-examined them, still tasting “blind”, in order to decide between them. Number 132 was unanimously found to be richer in aroma and taste, whilst number 97 appealed perhaps more for its attractively browned appearance and voluptuous, gourmet aspect."

Here's the winner brandishing the victorious baguette: Anis Bouabsa,28. Apart from the glory, he will be supplying the Élysée palace for a year so will have to hire someone to deliver the President’s baguettes every morning.

Truffles make the FT

Truffles have become such an important global commodity, up there with oil, gold and pork bellies, that the FT is covering them.

The writer negotiates Richerenches with michelin-starred chef Michel Rostang. His advice about picking them: it's about the dealer (so they don't mix the smart stuff with fakes), the smell and the appearance. And cooking them: "I don't mix truffles with other flavours, it's all about the truffle." He recommends starchy foods that absorb flavour, such as potatoes, pasta or Jerusalem artichokes.

Truffle shortage

Truffles in France might be dying out. Or rather, after a very dry summer, there's a huge shortage that has got everyone talking.

Prices for the best quality large truffles in the bulk market have reached an eye-popping €900 a kilo. And climate change could benefit the Brits: "If it carries on like this, we are all dead," said one truffle producer. "You may find you have truffles in England in 10 years' time...Truffles need moisture in the summer or they die or never develop."

Unfortunately, it's a black art. trufficulteurs may meet, but no one really understands why and how truffles grow. A series of dry summers, and dry winters, especially the blazing summer of 2003, has had a devastating effect on even the cultivated truffles. The legally recorded harvest in France will struggle to reach 15 tonnes this year, compared to 50 tonnes a few years ago (and 1,200 tonnes in the 19th century).

For more, here's a nice piece in the Independent.

Lobsters and prawns feel pain

Well, it's official. Lobsters ("homard") and prawns ("crevette) feel pain. Scientists poured vinegar on their antennae and they tried to rub it off anxiously. No surprises there, then. If somebody poured vinegar on my tender extremities, I am not sure I would like it.

Funny how we chastise ourselves horribly for cooking these gorgeous creatures, especially when they are known to practise cannibalism. Bet that doesn't trouble them as much as it does us. Boil them, I say.

Nothing quite like a "plat de fruits de mer", washed down by an exceptionally dry Sancerre.

French Riviera in Milwaukee - yeah, right.

So here we are in the west side of Milwaukee (beer country). And two cooks start a restaurant which combines a New York deli with French Riviera nuances. What a bizarre concept, especially when it's based on romaine lettuce which one rarely sees in Provence.

"The French Rivera influence comes from the time Schultz spent traveling in France and is primarily represented at Laissez Faire in salad form....the goat cheese with bacon is spring mix with bacon, sunflower seeds and goat cheese with a sherry vinaigrette. The lunch salad starts with romaine and adds blue cheese, cucumber, scallions and hard-boiled egg with a cobb dressing. The Duck Confit tops them all with duck, romaine, spring mix, walnuts and dried apricots with a balsamic reduction."

Food marketing!