#11 - Fascinating history of French food

In this episode we'll be talking about a topic that's on everyone's lips in France - great classic French food! And especially food that has a fascinating history, cheese that has a 6000 year old past, stew that helped save a town from a siege by their dastardly enemy hundreds of years ago, mouth-watering cakes that were made by accident but passed into legend.

Some dishes are just a bit more special because of their heritage, it makes them taste even more delicious. Plus we'll share some of the places where we've eaten these dishes so that you can enjoy them at their best too. And if you're feeling peckish at the end of the podcast, there are hundreds of great recipes on the website!

And in the Q&A section a listener asks "Do the French really take a two hour lunch break?" Find out as Janine Marsh, author and editor of The Good Life France Magazine, and Olivier Jauffrit of radio ParisChanson.fr titillate your tastebuds with talk of all things tasty and tempting in this flavoursome French food episode!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 3:05 Classic French food!
• 21:11 Q&A Section
• 24:49 Conclusion

Transcript

Podcast 11: Historic French food 

Transcript

Janine: Bonjour! I’m Janine Marsh, publisher and editor of The Good Life France magazine and website. I was born in London but I now live in a beautiful part of northern France, the Seven Valleys, Pas de Calais, where I’m also an author, and maid to dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, and a rescue dove called Doris – she lives on a windowsill in our house at the moment as she has an injured wing, we’re hoping it will heal over time and we can get her back outside where she belongs. Doris has a neighbour on the windowsill, Charlie the rescue hedgehog who was too skinny to survive winter outdoors, so he’s been staying with us for four months to get through winter and put on some weight before we release him in the spring. When I’m not writing, travelling around France or being maid to around 60 animals, I love to chat to you on this podcast where I tell you everything you want to know about France and more alongside my podcast partner Olivier Jauffrit.

Olivier: Bonjour – I’m Olivier, I was born in Vendée, west of France but I live in England now. I just came back from France actually. I was there for a week, for several Family celebrations. My niece got her first baby (he’s so cute), my dad just reached a milestone. He turned eighty. Same for my father-in-law. We also celebrated my mum’s birthday and my sister’s birthday. All that in less than a week. And how we did it? Well, as it should be: with champagne, wine, good food, at home and in bars and restaurants, altogether. That was in Brittany. In a small historical town called Pontivy (a popular tourist destination in the centre of Brittany) and in Nantes, where my parents live. It was great.

But back to normal life now and to our podcast! So Janine what are we going to share with our listeners today? 

Janine: Well, I wish we could really share because today’s episode will cover a topic that is on everyone’s lips! French food! And in particular, historic French food. If you tuned in to the last episode, you may know I said we’d be talking about fashion – but we’re saving that for later as we hope to have a special guest join us. 

Instead, we’re going gaga for Gallic gastronomy! 

We’ll be talking about some very special dishes and fascinating histories of French food. At the end of this podcast, I guarantee you’ll be wanting to nip off and make something delicious – a tarte tatin, a flammekueche, pain perdu, cassoulet… in which case I have a real treat for you – there are hundreds of recipes on the Good Life France website – some are from my French friends and neighbours like 90 year old Claudette, the wisest woman in the village and the best cake maker! Some are from the man who delivers my bread. Some are from superb chefs of auberges, estaminets, bistros, brasseries, cafés and restaurants and some are from Michelin starred chefs – the crème de la crème. So, if you’re feeling peckish at the end of this podcast, pop to www.thegoodlifefrance.com and peruse the menu of recipes there. 

To start with – Oli – do you know what the most popular dish in France is? 

Olivier: Well, I think so yes. If we talk about kind of traditional food, I believe it’s boeuf bourguignon – which is considered to be the national dish of France… it’s delicious – beef cooked slowly in fruity red wine, and when it’s ready its tender and soft, sticky and savoury and you soak up the juices with a piece of baguette (and that’s the best part to me) … miam miam… 

Janine: Beef boogignon my dad used to call it! Yes, you are right! In France this is if not the, then one of the most favourite dishes for home cooks to prepare and for restaurant chefs to put on the menu. The best boeuf bourguignon I’ve ever had was in Dijon, in Burgundy or Bourgogne in France, the birthplace of this dish, the name is a bit of a giveaway. Anyway, I’ll share some of the places where I’ve eaten these dishes, they’re not adverts, we’re not being sponsored but just tips from a friend. So, in Dijon I had this at Le Pre aux Clercs Brasserie par Georges Blanc in the grand main square Place de la Liberation. Seriously memorable.  

Olivier: No one knows how old the recipe is, probably hundreds of years, but the first mention of it in a cookbook was in 1867.  French people argue about the best way to cook it (of course we do) – do you marinade the beef in red wine the day before or not, which type of beef is best, which part of the beef is best… everyone has their own way to cook it and everyone does it a little different. Anne-Sophie Pic, the French chef-owner of three-Michelin-star Maison Pic, adds tandoori spices, Yves Camdeborde of the Avant Comptoir du Marché restaurant in Paris adds chocolate and orange zest… That’s probably how you recognise a proper traditional recipe: everybody can improvise from it.

Janine: Oh, that sounds so good…  I’m hungry already and we’ve only just started! And another famous stew of France that we have to talk about is Cassoulet. 

Olivier: Ah le cassoulet… it’s a famous dish… and in parts of the south and southwest France, people are crazy about Cassoulet. People can fall out over the recipe you know… Some say goose, some say mutton, and some say duck… some say breadcrumbs for the topping – others say no breadcrumbs. Again, everyone has their own way of making it and recipes are passed down through the generations. And it’s really good!

Janine: I like it the way my neighbour cooks it with duck! Cassoulet is a rustic and robust French country stew that typically includes white beans, pork and poultry. It’s been a favourite for hundreds of years in France and legend has it that the origins go back to the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). During a siege at Castelnaudry, Languedoc, the inhabitants pooled their resources and came up with a casserole. The soldiers ate it and found the strength to fight off the English invaders. The legend of cassoulet was born! Or was it born in Toulouse? Or Carcassonne? Much like the ingredients, stories vary wildly from one area to another, and families hold dear to recipes that have passed down the generations. Restaurants can make their name on the back of a delicious cassoulet… Oli can you recall where you had your best cassoulet? 

Olivier: Well, I have to say my mum’s is best as she might be listening (although she’ll be struggling a bit to understand what I am talking about if I talk fast… so, I’ll do just that! In a restaurant, hmmm, I think it would have to be in Carcassonne, at the market there is a stall where they sell cassoulet in big stone dishes to take home… it’s so good. Do you know that one Janine?

Janine: I know the one you mean – and yes, I agree, it’s totally delicious. Okay let’s talk about Tarte Tatin which translates as apple tart but to call it that, apple tart, feels almost insulting – it’s seriously special. Imagine soft, caramel-coated apples kissed with the merest touch of cinnamon and blanketed by flaky, buttery puff pastry! Heaven on the lips (maybe not on the hips). It’s fabulous served warm, with a nice blob of crème fraîche — or even better, a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. The best I’ve ever had was at a restaurant called Au Trotthus in Riquewihr Alsace, run by a chef called Philippe Aubron. Honestly, I have never before or since had tarte tatin or home-made cinnamon ice cream like this. 

Legend has it that this delicious dish was created by a happy accident in the 1880’s at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France, about 100 miles (160 km) south of Paris. Two Tatin sisters were the owners and managers. Stéphanie Tatin did most of the cooking, and one day when she was totally overworked, she started to make a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. It was too late to start again so she tried to rescue the dish by putting the puff pastry base on top of the pan of apples, quickly finishing the cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven. She turned the tart upside down and served it. Her dish was a huge success with guests that it was put on the menu, word spread and the tarte tatin is loved to this day. 

Olivier: What about Poulet Gaston Gerard? Another Burgundy special and another happy accident?! The recipe was created in 1930 by the wife of the Mayor of Dijon, Gaston Gerard. She was cooking for a very special guest, a famous gourmand of the time called Maurice Edmond Sailland, who everybody called Curnonsky, a celebrated writer of Gastronomy in France and dubbed The Prince of Gastronomy. Nothing less! Madame Gerard accidentally put too much paprika in a chicken dish she was cooking and to rectify it she added crème fraiche and white wine and called it Poulet Gaston Gerard. Curnonsky loved it, and it’s now a Dijon classic. That’s how the best recipes are created if you ask me!

Janine: I’m a big fan of that dish, partly because it is so easy to make! 

I think we must talk crepe now… specifically crepes suzettes! They are very thin pancakes serviced with an orange sauce, and you often see them being made in restaurants in a very theatrical way because they are served after they are set on fire! 

This is one of those cases where no one really agrees on who invented the recipe, and there are several different legends. A firm favourite is that n 1896 of a young pastry chef called Henri Charpentier, working at the Café de Paris in Monte Carlo, dropped alcohol on hot pancakes he was preparing for the Prince of Wales, future King Edward VII. Unable to salvage them, he served them anyway. Luckily for him, the dish was a great success. When the prince asked him the name of this dessert, the wily Chef said he had invented it especially for the Prince and would call the pancake after him. The Prince however, asked that the name of the young woman who was dining with him be given the honour. And you guessed it: her name was Suzette.

Olivier: Oh, I love almost all the types of crepes. And crepes Suzettes are amongst the most delicious! But you know we are doing desserts before the cheese course – careful there Janine, that’s not good… that’s a no-no in France. Remember: always the cheese first, so let’s talk about cheese! 

Janine: We need to do a whole podcast episode on cheese stories. If you ever see the cheese aisles in French supermarkets, or better, go to a fromagerie a cheese shop which are often run by affineurs, people who are expert at maturing cheese. It’s cheese heaven! 

Olivier: Yes, there are so many cheese stories – we’ll be back with an episode I’m sure! But still, let’s touch the subject and first, let’s talk Roquefort. 

Janine: I love this stinky, creamy, crumbly ewe’s milk cheese, but I can’t eat it, I’m allergic to it, it makes my tongue swell, not a good look! I’ll tell you why in a minute! 

Olivier: Oh no, that’s real bad luck Janine because it’s one of the most delicious and one of the oldest cheeses of France. You need to slather it on buttered bread, you can add a little bit of quince jelly too – so good. Or melt it with some cream and pour it over a frilled steak… ok, now I’m hungry too. Shame you can’t eat it… really…

Janine: You are so mean to me Olivier! Yes, you are right it’s one of the oldest cheeses of France. More than 1000 years ago Roquefort, or something very similar, was offered to the Emperor Charlemagne by the bishop of Albi. The emperor thought the cheese had gone off, so he picked out the blue-green veins with his knife, until the bishop explained that these were the tastiest bits. After that, Charlemagne enjoyed it so much, he asked the bishop to send him two cartloads a year! In 1925, Roquefort cheese became the first French foodstuff to enjoy the protection of an appellation, a qualification that indicates the geographical origin and quality of a product. 

Olivier: Roquefort comes from Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in Aveyron. Obviously. You’ll find it on the map east of Albi and north-west of Montpellier in a region where sheep-farming have been around for about three thousand years.  And there’s evidence that cheese has been made here for at least 6000 years! It can only be called Roquefort cheese if it comes from this place, it’s very protected.

Janine: And you know I said that I’m allergic to it… do you know how it gets the green blue bits on it? 

Olivier: Well, it’s mould right. 

Janine: Yes, but it doesn’t just develop the mould, the cheese makers add penicillium roqueforti spores to the cheese, basically that comes from mouldy bread, and I’m allergic to penicillin – so no Roquefort for me! Makes you wonder how someone ever worked out in the first place to add bit of mouldy bread to cheese doesn’t it?

Olivier: Well… I can tell you if you want… There is a legend that a young shepherd was looking after his flock, and he spied a pretty shepherdess and fell in love, so he left his sheep to woo her and being a Frenchman, he made sure his lunch was going to be safe so put it in a cave. As we do. Or at least, as we did back in the day, I guess. And what he had prepared was curd on a piece of bread. But the shepherdess had wandered off, so he spent days looking for her - for nothing and went back to the cave. And you guessed it, the cheese had gone all mouldy in the damp cave… Roquefort was born. 

Janine: And to this day – Roquefort is still made in chilly damp caves!

So, let’s end with a deliciously sweet classic and quite a modern history but that’s the thing with great French food – the history doesn’t have to be old, history is being made all the time by chefs and home cooks creating wonderful food. Opera cake.

Olivier: Oh, this is such a classic cake, you see it in every boulangerie and every baker has his own way to present this chocolate delicacy… 

Janine: It’s one of my favourites. But it’s actually quite a modern cake. It was invented only in 1955 when great French pastry chef Cyriaque Gavillon worked at the legendary Dalloyau shop in Paris. Dalloyau have been trading since 1682 and were suppliers to the court of Versailles. It was the perfect match when Gavillon, a genius with patisserie and an artist who created the most amazing cakes and sugar decorations, and Dalloyau got together. When inventing the Opera cake Gavillon wanted to make something that in taking one bite, would give a taste of the whole cake. He worked on layers of chocolate ganache and golden almond flavoured sponge soaked in coffee syrup and topped with coffee butter cream and chocolate. That’s it, I’m going to a boulangerie after we finish this podcast…

Anyway, he came up came up with a wonderfully sophisticated cake. His wife told him it reminded her of the Paris Opera House, Palais Garnier, because the of the rich dark colour and gold layers are like the balconies which are covered in gold – very Versailles. It was a name that stuck, the Opera cake was born.

You know talking about this makes me think how many cakes have a fascinating history – Paris-Brest’s, Tropezienne, le digit de Charles V (that’s a good one it involves the gouty finger of an Emperor – it tastes better than it sounds) … you know what we need to do a cake podcast too!  

Olivier: Oh yes – the yummiest podcast ever. That will be irresistible… But now it’s time for the Q&A section… 

JINGLE

Olivier: So, Janine what is today’s question? 

Janine: Well before I tell you the question, I just want to say thank you to everyone who’s been listening to the podcast and sharing us and writing such lovely comments like Suze Ola who posted on The Good Life France Facebook page that she binged on all 10 episodes in one day! Thank you so much!

And now to the question. Well, it’s a food related question!  Stan Charter of Manchester, UK asks “When I take a lunch break at work, it’s usually ten minutes to wolf down a sandwich, then I just get back to work again. Do French people really take a two-hour lunch break like I keep reading about?”

Olivier: Thank you Stan – it’s a great question! So, me, I am a Frenchie but I live in England now, so maybe I have changed my habits a bit. But, still, to me lunch means break. And a proper one. Having a sandwich on my desk while working is not an option. When I work from home for example, that means, I would leave my office, and go to the kitchen to prepare some food and then have it in the dining room. So, I am not sure it is a 2 hour lunch but it is certainly something of a ceremony around food, stopping what I do to really enjoy the moment.

Janine: Well, I can tell you that as a Brit living in France, I have not quite mastered art de vivre – the art of living well which includes taking a two-hour lunch break. But all of my neighbours absolutely take a two hour break, you can set your watch by the farmers coming back from the fields – I live in a very rural area. Most of the shops shut from 12-2 where I live, and the banks and the municipal offices. I think Jean-Claude, my neighbour and mentor would be horrified if he knew that after 19 years of having a home in France, I still don’t take two hours for lunch! It’s actually changed a bit over the last ten years though, my local supermarket used to close for two hours from 12 – 2 but they now stay open which I think is a shame really, we all knew that they would be closed, and we were used to it. I like that people can take their time to enjoy a good long lunch, it’s healthy and very civilised. Stan – break out from the mould, make your lunch last longer at least once in a while! 

END

Janine: We hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast – don’t forget to check out the recipes on www.thegoodlifefrance.com and sign up for the podcast, for our free magazine, the weekly newsletter and find me on social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as The Good Life France. And while you’re cooking those dishes, have a listen to the great music that Olivier plays on www.parischanson.fr

Olivier: and don’t forget, Food (with a capital F), is one of the things you need to know about if you want to be closer to France and to the French people. But no pressure there. Yes, we love our food but we equally love when people show interest in it. “Bon appetit”. 

Janine: It’s time for me to say au revoir 

Oli: And goodbye from me

Janine: speak to you soon.