A Foodie's first trip to France - PART I

the outside of Marc's Kitchen

Marc Heracle's estate

I had been waiting to go to France all year since I arrived in Europe back in August. Actually, I had been waiting to go to France since I read Madeline when I was 4 or 5 years old, but that was for a different reason. I no longer wanted to go to France to be one of the 12 little girls in two straight lines, I wanted to go to France to eat.

I was a little intimidated about my trip to France. I took Latin for six years and now Danish, so the extent of my French is limited to about 10 words. I thought that I would be seen as the ignorant American, and I was ready to whip out my Danish health care card if anyone was to question me about my nationality! However, in traveling around Paris, Provence, and Nice, I was surprised and filled with the utmost respect for the gracious people I met who taught me so much about their culture and food.

I think that there is a spectrum when it comes to French food. I found that while ingredients are fairly similar around the country, their application in cooking changes vastly. On one end of this spectrum is the rustic peasant food - coq au vin, ratatouille, hearty cheeses and breads, etc. On the other end is the refined French technique food, with complex, deeply flavored sauces, expert knife skills, and plating compositions that make food become works of art. In between lies the brassieres and cafes serving a mix of refined and rustic classics. In my trip, I got to experience both sides first-hand, giving me a real inside look of what French food is all about.

I am purposefully skipping over Paris for two reasons. One is that Paris is a well documented place in terms of food, so anything I write I feel as though it would be a regurgitation of another person's experience. Second, I found that I learned so much more outside of the bustling city, where the menus ceased to be written in both French and English and I was able to get my hands on the food in the kitchens. So while I did eat well in the city of lights, the real heart of my trip was in the south.

Outside of Aix, I had the most amazing opportunity to cook with Chef Marc Heracle at his large 16th century estate. As my mom and I pulled into the property in our rented Peugeot, I was captivated by the sheer beauty of this large house, surrounded by neighbors of olive trees, grape vines, and a pair of talkative donkeys! I never imagined myself ever being able to experience France in this way. But the view was just the beginning.

Marc Heracle prides himself on cooking traditional Provencal style food while emphasizing the health benefits of cooking with local and organic ingredients. While we were expecting this to be a cooking class with at least 12 other individuals, it turned out that no one else had signed up that day, so our class turned into a private lesson. I got to cook and chat with a professional chef for over 4 hours, allowing me to pick his brain on rustic Provencal food, and learn a lot about life as well.

The menu we prepared consisted of a greens tart on an olive and olive oil crust, topped with a mild cow's milk cheese, coq au vin, and an apple and pear tatin. Everything we prepared was so simple, but the quality of ingredients, as well as the clever tricks of the Provence region, made everything absolutely delicious. For example, Marc told us that every family in Provence regularly makes their own herbed salt. With the mild weather, herbs such as rosemary, savory, and oregano grow all year round, making them a essential part of Provencal cooking, and in this salt. While I'm not willing to give away Marc's recipe, (you'll have to take the class yourself!) the mixture included fleur de sel and a myriad of fresh herbs from Marc's garden, ground together and left out to absorb any moisture. The herbed salt is used whenever salt is called for in a savory recipe. Just the smell of the salt mixture gave the impression that it would make shoe leather taste good.

Also, when we started cooking the coq au vin, Marc simply lay a few large sprigs of rosemary, some garlic cloves "with their shirts (skins) still on", and whole peppercorns in a saute pan as a base of flavor for the dish. Simple, rustic, and downright gorgeous, it made me want to go home and cook this one dish every night of the week. Using simple tricks such as the salt mixture, along with the best quality ingredients, I saw that you did not have to do much to make something phenomenal. The food did the work for you.

What I like most about working with Marc was the way he treated me. I was intimidated going into the kitchen with a professional, especially one who is French! However, I believe that he immediately noticed my love of food and good ingredients, and a mutual respect was formed. While we walked around Marc's beautiful property, he commented on some of the tourists he teaches. He told us how many Americans (several of them extremely obese) would come in on busloads, constantly take pictures while he did all the cooking, and would not recognize over half the ingredients he was using. This really saddened me, because it is not a question of blatant indifference or ignorance, it is just that so many people do not have the access or money to buy good quality food. I think it is brilliant that Marc is sharing a centuries old food culture to travelers that is relative and accessible today. I mean really, who can't throw some rosemary and a few cloves of garlic into a pan?