French Country Cooking on 34th Street

The directions say, “Walk straight ahead through the swimsuit department and take the first left.” I am at Macy’s Herald Square in New York City to experience the best of French country cooking at the De Gustibus Cooking School. But, it is also a sentimental reunion of sorts for me. The legendary author and culinary instructor Anne Willan is the host for the evening. She is the author of the recently published “The Country Cooking of France,” a stunningly beautiful volume that takes one on a tour of the ingredients and classic recipes of the key regions of France. Upon arrival, we are told that the book has just been recognized with a prestigious James Beard Award. Anne was also the instructor of the master classes during my time at La Varenne at Chateau du Fey in Burgundy, France in September 2006. That period was of those perfect moments in life, for the food, the wine, the new friends and the beautiful countryside.

I am excited to once again see Anne at work. Akin to culinary royalty, she is characteristically proper, enormously entertaining and very precise. Above the work area is a long mirror which reflects all the actions taking place on the counter below. It is said that Anne first came up with the mirror concept to allow classroom students to better view the work of the culinary instructor.

She is dressed in a crisp, gold-striped blouse and a neat red bib apron. Behind her is an historic map of France that illustrates the important food regions of the country, immortalized by the food writer Curnonsky. I saw the same map at Chateau du Fey. As she speaks in her correct British accent, her deep respect and love of superior local ingredients that evoke a sense of place is clearly evident.

For an appetizer, we are served a sparkling wine and a green olive tapenade served on a toasted baguette. While we imbibe, Anne begins the preparation of a Gateau Breton aux Herbes du Pays (Butter Cake with Fresh Herbs) from Brittany. Chopped peppermint is incorporated into rich buttery dough that when baked, has the texture of shortbread or pound cake. She notes that most dough needs to be worked carefully, so as not to become tough, but Gateau Breton is very resilient. “I’m going to work the hell out of it,” she proclaims. Someone asks about the unusual addition of herbs to the sweet dough. “That’s new style,” replies Anne, “but it goes back at least 300 years.” She creates a lattice pattern ont the gateau with the tines of a fork. This distinctive pattern “says Gateau Breton.”

As her hands work methodically she talks about her life experiences. She was one of 200 women accepted to Cambridge in her day, and earned her masters degree in economics. She always loved working with her hands and quickly turned to cooking, training at the London Cordon Bleu. Later, in the United States, she became an associate editor of Gourmet Magazine and she founded the prestigious Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris in 1975. In between she penned dozens of books on cooking and food history. She and her family lived for many years at the gracious Chateau du Fey in Burgundy, but recently in a life transition, she and her husband have moved to California. “The Country Cooking of France” is a tribute to their years in France.

Someone asks how she went about researching the book.

“We ate!” is her spontaneous reply.

Anne moves on to prepare plump tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese, a favorite dish at Chateau du Fey. Meaty tomatoes are filled with soft goat cheese combined with fresh snipped herbs. The tomatoes are baked, “just until the skins begin to split.”

She moves to the entrée, a Magret de Carnard, Sauce Aillade (Duck Breast with Garlic and Walnut Sauce) a product of southwestern France. Aillade is a sauce of raw garlic, walnuts and walnut oil. The duck fat sizzles in the pan tempting our senses, and the sauce is nutty and pungent. Anne reminds us that the new garlic at the farmers market should be particularly sweet.

Next, she prepares a lovely gratin of bell peppers with rice. The rice sticks a bit in the casserole. “There’s nothing like a sprinkling of herbs for covering a disaster,” she advises.

La Traffade is a savory Potato cake with Cheese and Bacon. This is an Alpine dish that is sometimes served to skiers. Ironically, New York City is currently in the grip of a vicious heat wave. “After braving the streets in 100 degree temperatures, we deserve this,” says Anne. It is served rustic-style on parchment paper.

Finally, the finished Gateau Breton is served with a pureed sauce of strawberries and raspberries. The dense, golden, buttery tart and the sweet fruit is exquisite.

Anne is asked how long she took to write the book. “It took three years to write, but it’s really a lifetime,” she replies.

She invites the culinary team at De Gustibus to join her for a bow to the appreciative audience. She and I have a moment alone when I share photos of my visit to La Varenne. Anne gives me a warm hug and inscribes my copy of “The Country Cooking of France.”

Leaving the class, I am again more mindful of what Anne Willan calls food “with a sense of place, a sense of terroir.”

Settling in on the train destined for home, I open the book. The inscription reads: A small taste of France, Bon Appetite! Anne

I know that in the future when I cook from this book - no matter where I might be - that sense of place, or terroir, attached to the country cooking of France will also evoke fond memories of Anne Willan.

©2008 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

The Food of La Varenne

Thursday, September 15, 2006: We are assembled in the kitchen at La Varenne for our final master class with Anne Willan. We watch transfixed as Chef Randall simmers half-cut apples in butter and sugar until they are the color of mahogany for Tart Tartin, the French upside down apple cake. With elegant, precise motions, Ann demonstrates the preparation of the classic French pastry dough to top, or “bottom” the Tart Tartin – pate brise.

We divide into teams to prepare the lunch menu and several of us take on the individual spinach soufflés. We chopped spinach and onion extremely fine and whip egg whites into snowy, stiff peaks in enormous copper bowls using whisks with handles as long as flag polls. We fold the eggs whites into the spinach mixture, creating a billowy light-emerald froth. We watch the individual soufflés puff high in the oven, developing that distinctive stovepipe shape.

Over lunch, Anne mentions that the soufflés taste “just the way they’re supposed to.” It is high praise, indeed, for a group of aspiring gourmands. As we linger over lunch, she tells us stories of the classic French chefs – La Varenne, who created the great French cookbook, the famous Escoffier, who named his signature dishes after celebrities and Julia Child’s misadventures on live TV.

In the evening, we meet in the salon at 7:00 for our final toast and are each given a diploma – the Certificat Culinaire. Shortly thereafter we depart for nearby Joigny for dinner at the three-star restaurant La Cote St. Jacques. The meal is a supreme theatrical production, with exquisite crystal, one-of-a-kind china, more service staff than I can count, and about a dozen different food masterpieces from the tiny to the decadent. The standouts include a dark black pudding – sliced in medallions over mashed potatoes and apples – that is as delicate as a mousse, escargot with woody chanterelle mushrooms, tiny gnocchi and parsley cream, and a Burgundy chicken, cooked in a crock wrapped in pastry dough to seal in the moisture and flavor. Once cooked, the chicken is dressed with petite zucchini, potatoes and carrots cut the size of small pearls and a light champagne cream sauce. It is exquisite in its simplicity.

It has been an extraordinary week in Burgundy, learning from a culinary legend, eating fine food and cooking and dining with a memorable cast of characters. It is hard to leave the French countryside, but Florence beckons.

© 2006 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Market Day In Sens

Monday Morning, September 11, 2006: Following a breakfast of pains au chocolate and baguettes with butter and honey gathered on the estate of Chateau du Fey, we set out for the nearby town of Sens, passing plowed fields, neatly manicured gardens and shuttered cottages with lace curtains. Sens sits on the river L’yonne and was once a major ecclesiastical center. The primary structure is La Cathedrale Saint Etienne de Sens, a soaring house of worship with bright red doors and formidable hinges, ornate stained glass and flocks of pigeons. Construction began around the year 1130. While there is hardly a soul within the cathedral, there is great activity across the plaza.

Our first stop is the covered market where local fruits, vegetables, meat and fish are sold on Monday and Friday. We are told that market day is, in fact, a social event in the village and women even dress up to meet and chat with friends as they select fresh produce for the week. We step into the domed marketplace and people are everywhere, carefully examining fresh produce, many engaged in lively and intense conversations. It is clear to see that agriculture, food and produce is a communal event in the Burgundy valley.

The produce is perfection – ropes of garlic roasted the color of caramel, white and red radishes neatly stacked, earthy mushrooms, tiny lentils and piles and piles of curly bright green lettuce. There are neat stalls labeled with numbers and proprietor names, and I am fascinated by the selection of meats and poultry offered by the butchers. There is rabbit, duck, chickens from the Burgundy valley, sausage, terrines of many varieties and chicken aspic, a traditional French dish which is a rectangular loaf of golden gelatin surrounding fleshy chunks of chicken.

Lunch at a nearby bistro is reminiscent of my classes at the French Culinary Institute. It is classic traditional French country food served in the authentic setting and emphasizing local ingredients. There is a composed salad of marinated vegetables, tender duck confit with mushrooms and a magnificent Frasier Cake adorned with a ring of strawberries and raspberries and topped with pretty pink marzipan.

© 2006 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Dinner at Chateau du Fey

Sunday, September 10, 2006: I have arrived in the Burgundy Valley of France. Our minibus crawls up the driveway, and we are greeted at the door of Chateau du Fey by Anne Willan, noted cookbook author, food historian and founder of the prestigious professional school, Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne.

I’ve seen Anne on television numerous times, and I look forward to a week of learning from someone of her distinction. We only have a few minutes to drop our bags, and we are led off on an historic tour of the 17th century chateau. This is a working estate, and all the trees and plants are chosen to be edible. There is a chef on staff, several country dogs, and a number of students from La Varenne who are there to gain “the French experience.” We learn about the history of the estate, and stroll past age-old trees and hunting grounds where wild boars still wander. Along the way, we examine what is reported to be one of the deepest wells in the country, view a brick oven bakery and the ancient wine press that was once used by the estate.
Even the gardens are rich in history. In the herb garden, I take note of a pot of greenery labeled, “Julia Child’s Mint.” Anne takes us through the sprawling vegetable garden where we pluck raspberries and sample fresh peaches from the trees. She tells us the fruits taste better when they are “warmed by the sun.”

After completing the tour we are led to the subterranean stone wine cellar where we are given a talk on French cheeses by a local fromager. He teaches us about the origin of classic French cheeses, the different styles of cheese, and I learn that Roquefort is actually a combination of bread mold and cheese, and is described by the French as “parsley cheese” because the green flecks in the cheese resemble the herb. He serves us Roquefort that is buttery and sharply salty and seems to last forever on the tongue.

Back in the Chateau, the staff lays out a buffet magnifique on the rustic table in the entry hall, created with produce from the region or the garden of the estate. There is a vegetable tarte and a mushroom tarte, fresh pork from the local area, and cherry tomatoes from the garden adorned with sweet tarragon. We drink the local red wine from the Burgundy region, which is soft and full and converse over candlelight in the dining room as darkness falls outside. Finally, Anne leads us back to the parlor where we sample what she calls “sticky drinks” to conclude the evening.

© 2006 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved