Lucy Vanel: Give us this day… a bread making workshop w/Emmanuel Hadjiandreou
When Lucy Vanel came to visit and meet Baker Emmanuel Hadjiandreou, I asked her to write a post about the special weekend workshop at Camont. In her own beautiful words and photographs…
“The first day of our vacation this year found us on the road to Kate’s. Our goal was to attend a weekend bread baking seminar with Emmanuel Hadjiandreou. I have his book, called How to Bake Bread, geared to the beginner bread baker, with plenty of photos and interesting recipes. I have a lot of books about bread. After pastry, bread has been one of those subjects that I am attracted to because of how little I understand about how it works…
What’s red & white all over? Butcher Shops in Gascony.
In the tiny Market town of Lavardac, where I go to the Wednesday Market and park down the a little road by the river, I pass this small, tidy as a pin, one-window-wide butcher shop.
I call it the Meat Museum.
The old scale in window on the ice box,
the red and white striped awning,
the yellow posters rallying the troops for bingo and angainst the new LGV- Ligne Grande Vitesse,
the bottles of very good, very local wine to go with a cote de boeuf; all point to the quality of an artisan butcher.
A man, a knife and his meat.
Welcome to my world.
Projet Cochon- the Butcher & the Kids
The white blackboard read: Project- “dans le cochon tout est bon” . And so it was.
This week, twenty-four French lycée students between 16-20 years old and their professors M. Franck LAPIERRE and M. Jean Marc BOUILLY allowed three American kitchen-crashers to look over their shoulders as Dominique Chapolard, artisan butcher and pork producer, demonstrated in the expansive school kitchen that “in the pig, all is good!”
The attentive white-clad chefs-in-training crowded around as M. Chapolard reconstructed the whole pig carcass, piece by piece, organ by organ. Silence reigned as Dominique, our master butcher mentor here at Camont, explained what goes into making good pork from field to table.
Only when he split the skull to reveal the tiny brain did squeamish teenage yelps erupt. Quickly silenced by Chef Lapierre, he teased them that they see more blood on the horror films they watch. After the initial hour of dissection, as the muscle groups began to resemble familiar meat cuts, this next generation of France’s good cooks began to chop and grind, season and taste, while the scent of Gascony’s prized pork filled the kitchen. A hind leg became a Jambon, a shoulder a Roti de Porc. The large rib cage transformed into ventreche, poitrine and travers. Legs broke down into jarret and pied de porc while the caul fat was washed and leaf lard rendered out before grattons were drained and pressed into a terrine.
This fine piggy day was a part of “Cooking at the Source-Gascony“, a collaboration between Robert Reynold’s Chef’s Studio in Portland, Oregon and my own Kitchen-at-Camont. We spent the morning with our good friend and farmer/butcher Dominique Chapolard as he did a day long demonstration for the students of the Lycee Jacques-de-Romas in neraby Nerac. For upcoming Duck workshops in the U.S. and France consult our program pages.
Day two… this Gascony, this terroir.
Driving to the Chateau St. Loup en Albret this morning was like flying between cloud and earth- rows of golden vines turning in sunshine alternated with blankets of fog concealing house and farm. Montagnac’s church spire floated above the mist.
First stop after gathering Melissa, Robert, Tag, Porter and Nick was the morning market at Lavardac- a good beginner’s guide to local good food.
What we bought and then cooked and ate this day:
- pâté de grand-mere- a black pepper-studded liver pâté from Patricia
- 2 magrets de Canard. 1 1/2 pintade
- pâté de langue- pork tongues en gelée
- 3 cheese from Bruno-a Pyrennes sheep cheese, a creamy goat cheese from the Perigord, a slice of perfectly ripe Brie de Meaux
- from the Chapolard’s charcuterie stall- saucisse de toulouse, boudin noir, an aire-cured noix de jambon, saucisse sèche
- black radishes, mustard greens, radicchio, spinach and sunchokes form Francoise’s organic garden
- mushrooms- cèpe and girolles from Paul
- bread
- wine, armagnac and little shot glasses with a pruneaux drowning in Armagnac in each one
We ate lunch, a picnic near the river at Vianne before driving to Camont.
Camont in sunshine on a November day- the kitchen warming to the fragrance of a richly perfumed Gateau Basque, a pintade braising in a short wine broth enriched with pruneaux, la cruchade cooked and steamed, and several bottles of Domaine la Galine.
Dinner was the rich and savoury terroir of Gascony on a plate. Fotos to follow.
Camont’s New Beekeeper- Narcisse the Sweet
When shopping the Le Passage d’Agen market on a Wednesday, I whisper to students and guests that “This man sells the best honey in Gascony!”. I get little patronizing nods, the cameras click away; they love his trim mustaches, the flowing gray locks, his black Stetson hat. He flirts and poses and sells a few more kilos of leeks, garlic, potatoes, persimmons, nefliers and pomegranates. But I wait. I wait patiently for the French ‘central casting’ call to diminish and then announce again.
“THIS MAN SELLS THE BEST HONEY IN GASCONY.”
Now that I have your attention, let me explain. I love honey. I use honey in many of my traditional recipes like pain d’épice, chevre, miel & armagnac tartine or a pan-seared foie gras aux 4-épice. Best of all, I love honey straight from the pot, drizzled over warm toasted bread that has been smeared with fresh salted butter. But I have never, ever had such delicious honey as that Miel de Ronces (bramble honey) from local beekeeper Narcisse Ferranoto.
This year I wished for a bee swarm and got one (see archives here), followed the #Tweehive happening on Twitter and have been planning to integrate more beekeeping in Camont’s resident programs. Only problem was WHO would be our King Bee?
While working on a chapter for my book of French food producers- “Butcher, Baker, Armagnac-maker’, I have long ‘stalked’ this honey man, this beekeeper, this sweet pillar of the market. This week Photographer Xtraordinaire Tim Clinch, fall intern Julia Leach, and I went across the Garonne River and through the woods to discover the sweet secret way of the beekeeper Narcisse Ferranoto at his Ferme de la Chateau Madaillan. After coffee with his smiling new bride, (they have lived together 30 years and just married 5 months ago!), Narcisse told me a few sweet secrets and, at last, I know the answer of just how he makes THE BEST HONEY IN GASCONY.
Want to know how? Then join us this spring in France for the inaugural Apiculture Internship at
La Ruche… outside the Kitchen-at-Camont.
April-June 2010.
Narcisse the Sweet by Tim Clinch
Narcisse Ferranoto by Tim Clinch
French Beekeeper Teacher at Camont
