France_Magazine_Decembre_2012

Transcription

the best of culture, tr avel & art de vivre
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W int e r 2 01 2 -13
The
Tastings
Issue
A Delicious Celebration of Food & Wine!
TH E
Tastings
I S SU E
E
A DELICIOUS CELEBRATION OF FOOD & WINE!
E
The Moveable Feast that is France seems to be moving very fast these
days—even the old is new with venerable wine brotherhoods reinventing
themselves and ancient spices taking star turns in contemporary cuisine.
The following pages offer a few intriguing snapshots of the myriad traditions
and trends that are shaping France’s wonderfully diverse culinary landscape.
Contents
26
BACCHUS
BROTHERHOODS
The ultimate clubs for
Burgundy, Bordeaux and
Champagne lovers
38
FOOD
F RAT ER N I T I ES
Not-so-secret societies
for top chefs and
devoted foodies
44
F R É D É R IC RO UZ AU D
The owner and CEO of
Champagne Louis Roederer
shares his views on art,
wine and philanthropy.
50
TR E N D IN G N OW
Reports from the
front lines of Paris’s
culinary scene
56
KITC H EN CO O L
The latest accessories
for the well-appointed
kitchen
FRANC E • WI N T E R 2 0 1 2 -1 3
25
E Bacchus Brotherhoods
THE
TA ST I N G S
ISSUE
THE ULTIMATE
CLUBS FOR BURGUNDY,
BORDEAUX AND
CHAMPAGNE LOVERS
Wine
Advocates
The Commanderie
de Bordeaux
by JANE ANSON
T
he casual visitor is rarely aware
This past June, heads of Commanderie
chapters around the world gathered at the
18th-century Château Lagrange for the
gala dinner wrapping up their Convention
Mondiale, held every four years.
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F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
of them, but France is home to more than
1,500 food and beverage confréries, the colorful trade brotherhoods whose history dates
back to the Middle Ages. Although royal
guilds were abolished during the French
Revolution, many were revived
in the 20th century as informal
marketing and promotional
bodies. Today there are associations for producers of everything
from cheese and cassoulet to garlic, snails, pâté, artichokes, sardines, truffles…. And of course,
this being France, wine.
Bordeaux alone has 15 wine
confréries, each composed of châteaux from
different areas within the region. In 1952,
Henri Martin, a legendary figure in the
local wine industry and president of the Bordeaux Wine Bureau, had the idea of gathering them together under a new entity called
F R A NCE • W I NTE R 2012- 13
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Bacchus Brotherhoods
Commanderie
members may
attend many of the
glittering events
on the Bordeaux
social calendar.
Here, GCVB president Emmanuel
Cruse (center)
escorts film stars
Sophie Marceau
and Christophe
Lambert during the
Bontemps’s Fête de
la Fleur.
the Grand Conseil du Vin de Bordeaux
(GCVB), a nonprofit organization devoted
to promoting the region’s wine around the
world.
Today, the GCVB oversees not only
Bordeaux’s wine brotherhoods but also an
international network of 85 Commanderie
de Bordeaux clubs; the first was founded
THE BORDEAUX
CONFRÉRIES
All 15 Bordeaux
confréries are
part of the Grand
Conseil du Vin de Bordeaux (GCVB),
which also oversees the 85 Commanderie de Bordeaux chapters.
Emmanuel Cruse is the current
president of the GCVB; he also
serves as the Grand Maître of the
Commanderie de Bordeaux worldwide. grandconseilvinsbordeaux.com
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F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
in New York in 1957 to revive the slumping market for Bordeaux. These “chapters”
operate independently, although members
pay nominal fees to the umbrella organization. In return, winemakers belonging
to the Bordeaux confréries frequently visit
chapters and host wine tastings, and the
GCVB supports the Commanderie’s various
• Jurade de Saint-Emilion
• Commanderie du Bontemps
de Médoc, des Graves, de
Sauternes et de Barsac
• Commanderie du Bontemps
de Sainte-Croix-du-Mont
• Les Compagnons du Bordeaux
• Les Hospitaliers de Pomerol
• Les Gentilshommes du Duché
de Fronsac
• Les Compagnons du Loupiac
• Les Baillis de Lalande
de Pomerol
• Connétablie de Guyenne en
educational activities and promotional
events. Learning about this vast winemaking
region—which includes 10,000 producers
and 38 appellations—is a hobby that can last
a lifetime, and frequently does.
Angus Smith, Grand Maître of the Commanderie’s 31 U.S. chapters, grew up in the
north of England before leaving for a career
in finance that took him around the
world and eventually to Philadelphia,
Premières Côtes de Bordeaux
where he now lives. “My background
et Cadillac
led
to my first Commanderie office,
• Connétablie de Guyenne
which was treasurer. Most members
Blaye-Côtes de Bordeaux
are professionals from various fields,
des Côtes de Bourg and they join simply to share good
Bordeaux with friends who have
de l’Entre-Deux-Mers
similar interests. The Commanderie
des Graves de Vayres
is primarily educational but it’s also
• Ordre des Chevaliers des
great fun. For me it was simple—my
Vins de Castillon father always loved wine, and Bor• Ordre des Vignerons des
deaux was the gold standard for him,
Bordeaux-Bordeaux Supérieur
“This organization offers a great opportunity
to get closer to Bordeaux wines and to get a behind-the-scenes
understanding of the region.”
Students from business schools in Europe, the United States, Hong Kong, China and Singapore compete each year in the Left Bank Cup;
the 2012 finals were held in the mythic cellars of Château Lafite Rothschild.
as it is now for me. This organization offers
a great opportunity to get closer to the wines
and to get a behind-the-scenes understanding of the region.”
Perhaps the biggest perk: Members are on
the invite list for some of the leading social
events of the Bordeaux winemaking calendar.
In January 2011, Smith was one of nine national Grands Maîtres invited to participate
in the Fête de Saint-Vincent. Hosted by the
region’s largest confrérie, the Commanderie
du Bontemps de Médoc, des Graves, de Sauternes et]]] de Barsac (Bontemps for short),
the festival celebrates the patron saint of winegrowers. Smith and his fellow Grands Maîtres
joined the Commandeurs du Bontemps, attired in full ceremonial regalia, and marched,
accompanied by drums and trumpets, to the
ornate Saint-André Cathedral in the heart of
Bordeaux. After mass and an induction ceremony, some 800 people gathered for a festive
lunch (“complete with a fine oompah band,”
remembers Smith) at a renovated wine warehouse along the Garonne River.
W
orldwide, there are now
3,500 Commanderie members in 29 countries. To
join, one must be nominated by a current member
and vetted by the chapter. And although
initiation fees are not high, membership
involves expenses that can add up, such as
buying into the wine cellar and attending
the tasting dinners, which members are
expected to support. A recent dinner at
Restaurant Daniel in New York featuring
a vertical of Château Branaire-Ducru, for
example, cost $500 a head, although participants had the rare treat of tasting bottles
dating back to 1928.
While it can be argued that such events
in fact offer good value, they are simply out
of reach for most young people. “And clubs
like ours need young blood to survive,” says
Smith. Accordingly, efforts are being made
to make membership more accessible. “Château Margaux, for example, has offered to
provide wine for dinners if more than half
the attendees are under 40. And people in
that age group can make much smaller contributions to the club wine cellar. New York
and Atlanta have been particularly successful
in attracting younger members.”
Educational opportunities are another
way for the Commanderie to connect with
younger generations of wine lovers. For the
past 12 years, the U.S. chapters have offered
three annual scholarships, partnering with
the Masters of Wine, Cornell University and
the Culinary Institute of America. These institutions select the winners of the awards,
and the Commanderie, with the GCVB, sets
up a series of visits with Bordeaux châteaux
and wine brokers, and organizes housing on
various estates.
The Commanderie also supports the
Bontemps’s Left Bank Cup, a competition
held since 1992 to promote wines from the
Médoc, Graves and Sauternes regions (all
are on the Left Bank of the Garonne River).
Originally a wine-tasting competition for
students enrolled in business schools in
France, it was broadened in 1994 to include
Oxford and Cambridge universities, then
again in 2011 to business schools throughout Europe, the United States, Hong Kong,
China and Singapore.
Local chapters play an active role in helping the university tasting clubs prepare for
the competitions. Nicole Pereira, part of the
winning team from Harvard in 2011, fondly
remembers the generosity of the Boston
chapter, which helped hone her palate during training sessions. Eight teams are selected
to compete in the finals, which are held
in the candle-lit cellars of Château Lafite
Rothschild. Contestants are tested on their
knowledge of the history of Bordeaux and
their skills in blind tastings, then the winning
team is announced, dinner is served, and the
nerve-wracking tension gives way to toasts
and celebration.
During the 2012 event, Baron Eric de
Rothschild, owner of Lafite Rothschild,
spoke briefly (before launching into song
and opening the dancing among the fine oak
barrels): “I can think of no better way to get
young people excited about wine. I want the
students to realize that wine doesn’t have to
be taken too seriously, and that it should be
fun. They arrive at Lafite a little nervous and
intimidated by the surroundings. They go
home with a great understanding of how
f
wine can bring people together.”
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A New Sparkle
The Ordre des Coteaux
de Champagne
I
by KA REN TA YL O R
STANDING:
Hristo Zisovski,
Justin Lorenz,
Raj Vaidya,
Jean-Baptiste Cristini,
Michael Nelson,
Shannon Coursey,
Michael Martin.
SEATED:
Kristie Petrullo,
Didier Dupond,
Daniel Johnnes,
Bernie Sun,
Christopher Desor.
t’s 10 A.M. on a Saturday, and Pierre Cheval is chatting with a
visitor in the reception room at Champagne Gatinois, which
has been in his family for 12 generations. He is in the midst of
discussing his 2007-09 stint as Commandeur of the Ordre des
Coteaux de Champagne, a wine fraternity whose origins date back to the 17th century, when
he suddenly looks at his watch.“C’est l’heure du Champagne!” he beams, and runs off to fetch
a bottle of his Brut Tradition.
As he pours, he explains that the wine’s power and finesse are emblematic of Champagnes
from Aÿ, where his family has owned vineyards since 1696. “It’s 90 percent pinot noir,” he
notes, “which provides strength and body. But 100 percent would be too Jansenistic. So we
add 10 percent chardonnay for freshness.”
Reflexively, he studies its pale amber color, then swirls, sniffs, tastes and nods approvingly.
“We own seven hectares of grand cru vineyards that produce all the grapes used in our wines,”
he says proudly. “Champagne is an amazing business. You can be involved in everything from
planting and growing to vinification, blending, marketing, tasting and sharing the final product. Then there’s the financial aspect. You borrow money for a crop, make a wine from expensive grapes, then put it in the cellar and forget about it for years, paying interest on that loan all
along. Almost no other businesses do that—it’s the opposite of today’s ‘just in time’ practices.”
Noting that he exports 70 percent of his production, he is pleased to have contributed to
the Ordre des Coteaux’s international expansion during his tenure. “Once, we had a very
important induction dinner in Germany,” he says. “After we arrived in Dresden, director
30
T
During a Chapitre
at the Pierre Hotel
last October, Didier
Dupond, President
of Salon-Delamotte,
is surrounded by a
Who’s Who of New
York’s top sommeliers
and wine experts,
many of them newly
minted Chevaliers.
F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
Monique McColl discovered that the airline
had lost the bags with our ceremonial robes
and other items. But she was determined
that the show would go on. So she looked
around, requisitioned some hotel curtains
and had them made into capes resembling
the ones we typically wear for these affairs.
She even managed to locate a sword. Oddly
enough, when we made former German
president Walter Scheel a knight of our order that evening, no one asked why we were
using a samurai katana!” Chuckling at the
memory, he recalls another occasion when
the entire room burst into laughter as the
tip of his ceremonial weapon approached
the Dolly Partonesque bosom of a new
inductee.
Cheval’s charming ability to balance
a lighthearted joie de vivre with serious
business seems to be a trait common to
winemakers here. Perhaps it is the natural
consequence of the centuries of hard work
needed to turn disadvantages into assets—it
is a marvelous tribute to human ingenuity
that the world’s most festive and elegant
wine is the product of a capricious northern
climate, poor soil and an annoying spontaneous second fermentation in the spring.
The Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne
reflects this heritage, alternating solemnity,
ritual and rigor with humor and pleasure—
an appealing combination that is winning
over wine pros around the world.
he original Ordre des Coteaux
de Champagne was a wine academy
founded by a group of hedonistic
young aristocrats who frequented
the court of Louis XIV. The coteaux in question were the hillsides in Aÿ, Avenay and
Hautvillers, where the best Champagne
grapes were grown. The order did not survive the French Revolution but was revived
in 1956 when several Champagne makers
decided to launch a wine fraternity. Unlike
other such groups, this one was conceived to
be inclusive, its mission being to promote all
of the region’s wines. Several large houses—
Taittinger, Laurent-Perrier, Mumm—were
among the founding members.
As today, the nascent OCC’s leading activity was hosting induction dinners, or Chapitres, several times a year, the most impressive
being the “Chapitre de la Fleur de Vigne.” That
lavish celebration of the flowering of the vines
is still held every June in the majestic Palais du
Tau, the former Bishop’s Residence adjacent
to the Reims Cathedral.
For decades, the OCC remained a rather staid group.
The board, or Conseil Chapitral, tended to be composed of
retirees, and inductees, most
of them French or European,
were typically individuals who
simply enjoyed food and wine.
“That began to change about
15 years ago,” explains Michel
Drappier, the current Commandeur. “There
was a general consensus that it would be more
effective to have a Council composed of working professionals and to induct people who
were involved in the Champagne business
worldwide.”
Drappier’s appointment was in keeping with this evolution, but even he was
surprised at his election. “I’m not a VIP, I
don’t travel in high-society circles, and I’m
the youngest person to ever occupy this position,” he says. And unlike his predecessors,
he’s not based in the storied Champagne
cities of Reims or Epernay but in Urville,
a tiny village two hours to the south in the
Côte des Bars (visitors are often surprised
to discover that Champagne is a sort of
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“archipelago,” with islands of vineyards
scattered over a vast area).
All of which, in fact, makes him the
perfect new face of the OCC: young, dynamic, international (he is fluent in several
languages) and emblematic of the growing
diversity within the Champagne industry.
While most of the world is familiar with the
famous Champagne houses that produce
two-thirds of the region’s wines, fewer people are aware that 15,000 growers supply 90
percent of the grapes used by those houses.
Or that an increasing number of them are
also making Champagne under their own labels or within cooperatives. Now, the OCC
is reaching out to them as well.
Drappier, for example, is a family business founded in 1808 that originally grew
grapes for sale to the large brands, then began
making its own wines in the 1950s. It now
buys grapes from other growers as well and is
considered one of the finest boutique Champagne producers. Unlike the large houses,
whose legendary blending expertise allows
them to reproduce a distinctive taste year after year, Drappier is all about expressing the
local terroir and, when possible, the unique
characteristics of a particular vintage. “We
make the best wine we can in the style that
we prefer, using sustainable agriculture and
adding a minimum of sulphites and sugar,”
says Michel Drappier. “We are delighted to
have found clients around the world who appreciate our work and share our taste.”
While deeply honored to be Commandeur, Drappier acknowledges that it isn’t
easy for smaller producers to assume OCC
responsibilities in addition to running a
business—this past year, he presided over
14 Chapitres, 11 of them abroad. At harvest
time, dark circles under his eyes attested to
the difficulty of overseeing winemaking between jaunts to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Montreal, São Paulo…. “But meeting people
around the world who care about Champagne is such a wonderful experience, it
makes it all worthwhile,” he says brightly.
“There is so much sincerity. Yes, we dress
up like Christmas trees and have our rituals, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously,
and people respond well to that.” Today, he
32
F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
The Council of the Ordre
des Coteaux de Champagne
presides over an induction
ceremony at the majestic
Palais du Tau, the former
Bishop’s residence next to the
Reims Cathedral. LEFT: The
famous coteaux, or hillside
vineyards, of Hautvilliers, where
Dom Pérignon carried out his
research on Champagne.
“Yes, we dress up like Christmas trees and
have our rituals, but we don’t take ourselves
too seriously, and people respond well to that.”
says, the OCC counts about 3,000 members
worldwide. “We are a small order, but membership is of very high quality.”
Since becoming Commandeur, he has
also realized that there are many ways that
the OCC could play a bigger role—through
a more ambitious Web site, venturing into
social media, additional activities and so
on. For the time being, however, director
Monique McColl has her hands full with
administrative tasks and organizing the
various Chapitres around the world. “She
is wonderful and very devoted, but she is
a staff of one. Perhaps that will change at
some point,” he says.
A
merican members saw
their ranks swell considerably this past October,
when 51 new Chevaliers
were inducted to the order, expanding their total
to 200. The U.S. Chapitre (there is typically
one every two years or so) took place at New
York’s Pierre Hotel, a nod to the dinner held
there a decade before, when Champagne
houses rallied to lend their support to the
victims of September 11. This time, participants included Billecart-Salmon, Bollinger,
Delamotte, Deutz, Drappier, Gosset, LouisRoederer and Paul Goerg. Each donated
Champagne, and most hosted guests and
sponsored inductees.
As always, the evening followed a strict
protocol, with an induction ceremony followed by a reception, then dinner. The
pomp and circumstance was largely relegated
to the first part of the evening, when a trumpet blast announced the arrival of members
of the Council. Dressed in capes worn over
white tuxedo jackets and sporting large medals on red or yellow ribbons, they filed into
the room, taking their places at a long table
in the front. Leading the procession was
Michel Drappier, carrying the ceremonial
pomponne, a sort of stylized take on antique
Champagne glasses that were cone-shaped
and had no foot. (The pomponne recently
replaced the sword, which the Council
deemed a bit warlike and, probably more
to the point, difficult to get through airline
security.)
One by one, the new inductees were
called to the front of the room, and their professional accomplishments were read aloud.
Pledges were sworn, medals were bestowed
and Champagne was sipped—but only by
the Council, which seemed to enjoy teasing
the crowd by occasionally remarking how
very thirsty all this induction business was
making them. It was amusing yet also subtly
conveyed the idea that “cela se mérite”—that
RANKS AND SYMBOLS
There are three ranks in the OCC: Chevalier, Officier and Chambellan. There is only
one living American Chambellan, wine collector Tom Black of Nashville, Tennessee.
The colors of the medals vary according to rank but the insignia is the same on all:
a stylized pomponne with three dots on either side symbolizing the three original
coteaux and, some say, the three grapes used in making Champagne: chardonnay,
pinot noir and pinot meunier.
new members earn their place in this order
through their efforts to learn about and promote Champagne. Bubble Lounge founder
Emmanuelle Chiche, who was promoted to
Dame Officier that evening, summed it up
when she said, “This honor is the icing on
all our work.”
Solemnity soon gave way to celebration
as everyone gathered for a Champagne reception, toasting one another before sitting
down to dinner. With each course, extraordinary cuvées in magnums or larger formats
were ceremoniously presented by a small
army of white-gloved waiters. At one table,
Jean-Pierre Cointreau, owner of Gosset, the
oldest wine house in Champagne, chatted
with new inductees—sommeliers, importers, a chef and a journalist (full disclosure:
that was me). Freshly minted Chevalier
Phil Pratt, the wine director at New York’s
21 Club, surveyed the gilded ballroom and
remarked that this was probably the worst
evening of the year to dine out in New York
City. “All the best soms are here!”
Indeed. At a nearby table, Didier Dupond, President of Salon-Delamotte, posed
for a photo with his protégés, some of the
brightest stars on the restaurant scene: Daniel Johnnes, wine buyer for Daniel Boulud’s
restaurants; Raj Vaidya, head sommelier at
Restaurant Daniel; Kristie Petrullo, wine
director for Jean-Georges; Justin Lorenz,
wine director at Aureole…. “This is not the
same kind of crowd you would have seen
15 years ago,” said a delighted Dupond.
“These are young professionals who are
very interested in Champagne, who have a
lot of fun with us and who are extremely
honored to be part of the order.”
Dupond and his fellow winemakers
seemed to be enjoying themselves every bit as
much as their guests. “These dinners give us
a chance to forget that we are competitors,”
he said. “They are wonderful opportunities
to celebrate together, to enjoy one another
f
and to simply represent Champagne.”
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ABOVE: A wine glass engraved with the Confrérie’s emblem; the silver
tastevin that members wear around their neck. LEFT: Burgundy’s Château
du Clos de Vougeot is the spiritual home of the Chevaliers du Tastevin,
who frequently stage elaborate induction ceremonies here.
Burgundy’s Best
I
The Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin
b y JA N E A N SON
“
hadn’t heard of the Confrérie du Tastevin
before applying for my scholarship, but the chance to make wine in Burgundy was incredible. Now here I am, and I can’t thank them enough.
Plus, I’ve discovered they throw great parties!” Adrienne Ballou, a twentysomething grad student from California’s UC Davis Department of
Viticulture & Enology, is living proof that France’s wine brotherhoods—
many with origins dating back centuries and more commonly associated with weird drinking rituals and men in oversized robes—can
34
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still appeal to today’s young wine lovers.
Funded by U.S. members through their
Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin Foundation, the decade-old partnership between
UC Davis and the University of Dijon offers winemaking internships for two students, allowing them to study production in
Burgundy for three to four months. Among
the châteaux that have hosted students are
Domaine Dujac, Louis Jadot and Domaine
de la Romanée-Conti.
This year, Ballou is at Domaine Antonin
Guyon and her fellow intern is at Domaine
de la Pousse d’Or. After two months, both
will begin work at an oenology laboratory in Beaune. The day I caught up with
them, they were welcoming a large group of
Confrères du Tastevin from the New York
chapter, visiting to celebrate the end of the
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harvest and to attend a dinner at the famous lovers worldwide. Their idea was to induct
Clos du Vougeot. They were among 585 people with outstanding achievements in
Burgundy lovers who had gathered to eat, their respective fields, from politicians and
drink and make merry, with presiding of- film stars to Nobel Prize-winning scientists.
ficers of the confrérie dressed in crimson and
The inaugural dinner was held on Nogold robes symbolizing the red and white vember 16, 1934, conceived as part of a
“Trois Glorieuses” weekend. The concept
wines of Burgundy.
“These sorts of evenings typically involve caught on immediately and is still going
strong today, taking place every
a lot of singing, most notably
third weekend of November,
‘La Chanson du Bourguignon’ THE INDUCTION
from Saturday to Monday. On
and ‘Les Chevaliers de la Table CEREMONY
Saturday evening, the ConfréRonde,’” said Arnaud Orsel of During this ritual,
rie des Chevaliers du Tastevin
Clos du Vougeot. “There are aspiring members
holds a Chapitre (an induction
also initiations, poetry recit- don ornate robes
ceremony followed by a blackals, speeches and jokes, and fashioned after those
worn by doctors of
tie dinner) for members and
of course toasts. This year we theology in 16ththeir guests; on Sunday afterhave quite an international century France. They
noon, wines are auctioned at
group—50 guests are from the first swear on the
New York chapter, several oth- silver cup of Burgundy
the Hospices de Beaune; and
to have impeccable
ers are from Toronto, Japan, wine-drinking manon Monday afternoon, there
Mexico and Thailand.”
is the Paulée de Meursault.
ners and to serve the
Clos du Vougeot is the so- great wines of France
Originally a celebration for
ciety’s headquarters as well as (in particular those
winemakers and cellar workers,
of Burgundy). Then
its social epicenter. Each year they are knighted by
this popular event now also inthis 12th-century estate set be- a tap on the shoulder
cludes the awarding of a prize
tween Vougeot and Chambolle- with a vine stock while for works of art or activities
Musigny welcomes some 50,000 the presiding officer
honoring Burgundy.
says, “By Noah, father
visitors and hosts countless re- of the vine; Bacchus,
Today there are 12,000
members worldwide organized
ceptions and charity dinners as the god of wine; and
into 75 chapters. In the U.S.,
well as Tastevin events. The lat- Saint Vincent, patron
where the first chapters opened
ter invariably feature large plates saint of winemakers,
we name you Chevain New York (1939) and New
groaning with side-splitting lier du Tastevin.” The
Orleans (1940), there are now
quantities of Bœuf Bourgui- new Chevalier then
44 chapters and 2,400 memgnon, Bresse chickens and cream receives his tastevin
bers. “One of the key features
sauces that you can stand your (the flat-bottomed
silver tasting cup
of this confrérie is our charity
spoon in, washed down with traditionally used to
work,” says Orsel. The pathe best local wines. Burgundy sample wine in celtrons of the 2012 Hospices de
is known for its gastronomy lars) and a gold and
Beaune auction were Gérard
and hospitality, and you’re un- crimson ribbon. Chevaliers may eventually
Depardieu and Carla Bruni,
likely to leave a Tastevin evening be promoted to the
doubting their motto: “jamais ranks of Commandeur, ensuring the celebrity magic
that helps open wallets. The
en vain, toujours en vin” (never Officier-Commandeur
and Grand Officier.
society also supports important
in vain, always in wine).
local initiatives such as the apThe Confrérie du Tastevin
dates back to 1934, when the world was plication for UNESCO World Heritage stastill reeling from the Depression. Wine tus for the Vignobles des côtes de Nuits et
sales were plummeting, and a group of de Beaune. According to Pascal Durand of
Burgundy growers led by Georges Faiveley the University of Dijon, a Tastevin member
and Camille Rodier, who the year before who helps organize the partnership with UC
had founded the tourist office, created the Davis, “obtaining UNESCO recognition
group to promote regional bottlings to wine is essential if we are to continue achieving
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F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
ABOVE: The 16th-century Château du Clos de Vougeot
now belongs to the Chevaliers du Tastevin and is the
site of its most lavish festivities. INSETS, LEFT AND
CENTER: Singing is a big part of Tastevin gatherings; a cork from wine made on nearby vineyards.
RIGHT: Tastevin member Pascal Durand; scholarship
recipients Adrienne Ballou and Meredith Bell; and
Andrew Waterhouse, President of the Confrérie des
Chevaliers du Tastevin Foundation.
our original aim of attracting visitors to the
Burgundy region.”
So you think you want to join? This is,
despite all its welcoming aspects, a private
club, and membership is limited. It helps
to be male, although female members are
now trickling in, at least in the States. But
either way, you have to be nominated and
seconded by current members and are expected to know a lot about Burgundies,
even before joining. Most of all, members
try to suss out whether you share their
interests and would make a good dinner
companion. You also have to be prepared to
spend the money that it takes to enjoy these
often highly priced wines—each chapter
has a communal cellar boasting some serious bottles. You’ll be especially welcome if
your own cellar houses significant amounts
of hard-to-find names from the best vintages.
And it won’t hurt to drop in a few choice
quotes during the vetting process. A favorite, I’ve been told, is: “The shortest way to
f
Paradise is the stairway to the cellar.”
37
E Food Fraternities
THE
TA ST I N G S
ISSUE
NOT-SO-SECRET
SOCIETIES
FOR TOP CHEFS AND
DEVOTED FOODIES
Cooking with the Masters
The Maîtres Cuisiniers de France
P
b y A M Y SE R A FIN
resident Reagan’s favorite food may have been jellybeans, but he
brought immeasurable pride to a group of French chefs when his advisory committee called
their association, the Maîtres Cuisiniers de France, the “Banner with the Most Stars in the
World.” More than two decades later, the group still trumpets the phrase in their marketing
materials. With or without the presidential imprimatur, they consider themselves to be the
world’s most important international union of great French chefs.
Among the 350 active members are Michelin-starred cooks and Meilleurs Ouvriers de
France, such heavy hitters as Paul Bocuse, Eric Frechon, Guy Martin, Jacques and Laurent
Pourcel, Michel Roth and Georges Blanc. The North American branch, the only one outside France, includes Daniel Boulud, Michel Richard, Eric Ripert, Christian Delouvrier
and Didier Elena. You will also find Master Chefs working in kitchens from Dubai to
Casablanca, China and Vietnam. All have pledged to preserve and spread French culinary
arts, encourage training and foster professional development.
Four French chefs created the association
in 1951, naming it the Amicale des Maîtres
The Maîtres Cuisiniers de France includes some of
the world’s most celebrated chefs, shown here with
Queux—queux from the Latin word coquus,
their masterful creations. LEFT TO RIGHT: Michel
cook. They drew up a charter with 12 decrees.
Richard, Michel Roth and Jean-Louis Gerin; Guy
Martin, Georges Blanc and Daniel Boulud; Eric Ripert, The first one states: “The Master Chef of
France must be aware that he belongs to a reChristian Têtedoie and Christian Delouvrier; Jean
Joho, Jean-Michel Bergougnoux and Eric Frechon.
nowned cultural tradition.” The ninth decree
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F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
is more unexpected: “The Master Chef of
France must manage his guests as potential
friends, whatever their position, standing or
amount of their bill.”
Within a decade, the association had 115
members, and in 1967 changed its name to
Maîtres Cuisiniers de France. Soon, companies such as Grand Marnier, Taittinger and
Evian began lending their support, helping
to subsidize trips and meetings. The association continued to develop, and in the ’80s
installed a selection committee to review
potential candidates. This was the period
when Guy Martin, now chef-owner of the
Michelin two-star Le Grand Véfour, was
inducted. As he recalls, “I was a young chef,
and I considered it an honor. The Maîtres Cuisiniers are guarantors of a certain
tradition. Being selected confers a certain
legitimacy.”
Indeed, a chef must be a virtuoso of classic French cooking techniques before becoming a Maître Cuisinier de France. He (or she,
though the shes are admittedly rare) should
be recognized as an outstanding talent. And
must be French. Once a year, the selection
committee studies the candidates’ dossiers
and decides who will be accepted.
In 2012, 30 new recruits were inducted at
the annual congress, a three-day event in Perpignan filled with meetings, eating, drinking and partying. The ceremony took place
during a gala dinner; most members were
in black tie, but the new inductees gathered
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Food Fraternities
Their newest goal: To teach inner-city
youth from Camden and Philadelphia how to
grow, harvest and prepare fresh produce.
Maîtres queues, the medieval term for head chefs
(such as the one in this manuscript), inspired the
organization’s original name, which was later
changed to Maîtres Cuisiniers.
on the stage wore their chefs’ whites. One of
them was Gérard Bertholon, corporate chef
of Cuisine Solutions, based in Alexandria,
Virginia. “You look out at the audience, at
all of those chefs, many of them with two or
three Michelin stars,” he recalls, “and you realize you’re part of a pretty impressive family.
It’s a big step to be recognized by people you
admire and respect. They think you are worthy, they are admitting you to their ranks.
Journalists can write good things about you
and that’s great, but this means more because
it’s coming from other chefs.”
And yet when Guy Martin is asked why
some of his better-known peers aren’t in the
organization—say, for example, Alain Ducasse, Pierre Gagnaire or Alain Senderens—
he muses that “if you don’t become a member
when you’re young, you might never make
the effort to join. Perhaps because you don’t
understand the association very well, or because chefs are individualists, or because after
age 60 you might ask, ‘Why would I enter
now?’ It’s not a distinction you necessarily go
after when you are already recognized.”
The implication is that the association
could use some better PR and a higher profile,
at least in France. At the same time, it’s not
an easy thing to manage when the members
40
F R A NCE • W I N T ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
of the executive committee also labor overtime as cooks, often in their own restaurants.
And, as Martin points out, “Chefs are lone
wolves. You have to really work to bring
them together.”
Since 2011, Lyon-based chef Christian
Têtedoie has served as the association’s
president. He has been working to update
its image and increase visibility, with plans
to redesign the annual guide and Web site,
create more events and stir up the interest of
French media. “It’s so important to continue
attracting young chefs to this association,” he
says. “We have everything to gain.”
One way they connect with younger chefs
and encourage them to perfect their skills is
through two annual awards: the “Meilleur
Apprenti Cuisinier de France” (created at
around the same time the organization was
formed) and “Meilleur Apprenti Cuisinier
d’Europe” (established in 1990). A jury of
established chefs selects the best up-andcoming French talents following competitions during which each contestant has four
hours to prepare three dishes.
The association also participates in various
galas and charity events. For the past five
years, its adherents have collaborated with the
French Red Cross, volunteering their talents
at dinners that have raised some €650,000.
And yet, Têtedoie admits, the most enthusiastic members of the Maîtres Cuisiniers de
France are definitely those in North America.
“I think being far away gives them a greater
motivation to come together,” he says.
The U.S. delegation has 60 members in
the U.S. and Canada, and celebrates its 50th
birthday in 2014, when the annual congress
will take place in Las Vegas rather than France.
Jean-Louis Dumonet, Executive Chef of The
Union Club in New York City, has been head
of the U.S. chapter since 2006 and a member for 19 years. “I don’t know if we make a
difference, but we try,” he says. “I think it’s
the American mentality of entrepreneurship
that pushes us,” adds Bertholon.
They are certainly busy. Last September the association took part in Le Taste of
France, a high-profile two-day event in New
York City showcasing French cuisine and
lifestyle (and a fundraiser for Action Against
Hunger). They prepared dishes from Breton
crêpes to Provençal bouillabaisse, demonstrating the variety of regional French cuisines. As Bertholon recalls, one hour before
the event began, the generator still hadn’t
been fired up and there was no electricity.
“You had all these master chefs—and nobody was stressing out. They were finding
solutions like heating water on gas burners.
They’re used to working under pressure.”
Fortunately, the power came back on in
time. Among the 5,000 visitors was France’s
Foreign Affairs Minister, Laurent Fabius,
who happened to be in town on official business. Bertholon says the politician seemed
surprised at the chefs’ efforts and pledged
government support for the event in 2013.
In October, the chefs were cooking at New
York’s Pierre hotel for the Marie Curie Charity Gala, doing their part to raise funds for
a new experimental radiobiology center. In
mid-November, they cooked at the sold-out
Friends of IHES Charity Gala at the French
consulate in New York, raising money to send
American scientists to the Institut des Hautes
Etudes Scientifiques research center. And
last winter they collected $15,000 for Action
Against Hunger by auctioning off a private
dinner during the annual gala.
Soon they will be involved in an entirely
new kind of venture: a farm in Moorestown,
New Jersey. In partnership with a group
called Shared Ground, their goal is to teach
inner-city youth from nearby Camden and
Philadelphia how to grow, harvest and prepare fresh produce. A 19th-century timberframe barn has been converted into a culinary
center, complete with a commercial kitchen.
The Maîtres Cuisiniers will be in charge of
the kitchen, teaching children of all ages
how to make nutritious meals. Thanks to
them, kids from some of America’s poorest
areas will learn to cook from the proud flagf
bearers of Carême and Escoffier.
Freemasons
of Fine Dining
The Confrérie
de la Chaîne des
Rôtisseurs
b y R OLA N D FLA M IN I
O
The Chaîne des Rôtisseurs’ 2012
General Assembly included a
lavish dinner at Hôtel Le Meurice
prepared by Michelin three-star
chef Yannick Alléno, himself a
member of the confrérie.
ne evening this past November, 60 men and women gathered
in the Washington, DC, restaurant Rogue 24, a converted garage located in an obscure
alley. The décor was minimalist, with exposed brick walls and long communal tables,
but the food—ah, well, the food was another story. Working out of a kitchen located in
the center of the dining room, chef R.J. Cooper and his team produced a stream of highquality, inventive courses in a style that a leading local food writer described as “Nouveau
American.” Typical was the dish combining (to quote the menu) “swordfish, ink, sea bean,
blood orange and olive.”
41
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Food Fraternities
One staff member surveyed the diners—
many of whom wore distinctive colored
ribbons festooned with gold chains and
badges—and remarked that the evening
would be a big challenge. “Tonight, we have
a roomful of experts,” he said.
He wasn’t far wrong, either. The occasion was a night out for members of the
Washington branch of the Confrérie de la
Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, an international food
and wine society dedicated to preserving the
traditions of fine dining—traditions that
have been traced back to the 13th-century
Burgundian court. With professional chefs
as well as other members of the hotel, food
and wine businesses making up more than
a third of the Chaîne’s membership, R.J.
Cooper knew he was cooking for his peers.
It was less than a week before the U.S.
presidential elections, and talk at the tables
predictably centered on ... how well the red
Burgundy (2006 Louis Jadot, Clos des Ursules) went with the swordfish, and how
beautifully the Margaux (2000 Château
d’Issan) paired with the heavenly chocolate dessert. At the close, the seven-course
tasting meal got a round of applause and
praise from Paul S. Haar, Bailli (head) of the
Washington Bailliage (chapter).
And to think it was a roast leg of Normandy mutton that started it all.
Or rather, the man who roasted that leg
of mutton. That was Jean Valby, a French
journalist born in the Burgundy region but
living in Paris in the immediate post-war
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Greystone’s historic Barrel
Room in the Napa Valley
provided an intimate
backdrop for the Chaîne’s
national wine society
convention this past spring.
LEFT: The Chaîne des Rôtisseurs takes its name from
the guild of goose roasters
founded in 1248; pictured
here, a culinary scene from
the Bayeux Tapestry.
The society is dedicated to preserving
a tradition of fine dining that dates back
to the 13th-century Burgundian court.
period, when food was scarce and strict rationing was still in force.
According to Chaîne history, Valby
one day managed to get his hands on a leg
of mutton, which he roasted on a skewer
and invited two friends to share. One was
Dr. Auguste Bécart, the other Maurice Edmond Sailland, the illustrious food writer
who used the pseudonym Curnonsky. The
three men expressed their concern that food
shortages—meat in particular—were causing
an entire generation to grow up with very
limited first-hand knowledge of the finer
points of cooking and roasting, and even less
appreciation of quality.
That evening, as Valby remembered it
later, he and his friends decided “to create
an association of people devoted to bringing
gastronomy back into everyday life.” They
based the new group on the traditions and
practices of the old royal guild of master
goose roasters that flourished from 1248
to 1789, when the French Revolution
dissolved all such organizations.
The resulting Confrérie de la Chaîne des
Rôtisseurs débuted during Easter week 1950.
Valby was named president, and the first
120 members were inducted at Paris’s Hôtel
Lutetia on January 25, 1951. They were presented with silk rubans—now color-coded
to distinguish the various ranks—and gold
chains with engraved medallions. Since then,
the Chaîne has expanded to include more
than 80 national Bailliages, some in such far- declare that nouvelle cuisine “is not new cuiflung places as China, Saudi Arabia and sine, it’s disgusting cuisine.”)
Russia; total membership stands at 23,000.
Washington Bailli Paul Haar, who pracSome 6,000 of that number are in the tices law in both DC and France, mainUnited States, which has 130 chapters tains that regardless of this evolution, the
(the first was founded in New
Chaîne’s French influence is
York in 1960). The organizaalive and well. “Our dinners
tion boasts a thicket of ranks CHAîNE OUTREACH
are all about fine food and
and offices, each with a French In 2008, the Chaîne
wine and creativity, about the
title, and admission is by invi- founded the Association
grounding in precise technical
tation only. Members may at- Caritative de la Chaîne
cooking, all of which are very
tend any of hundreds of local, des Rôtisseurs (ACCR),
French.” Equally important,
a nonprofit with the
regional, national and interna- mission of helping the
he says, is the continued emtional events; there are also spe- needy around the world.
phasis on good company and
cial travel opportunities, such To date, many of their
conversation, a Gallic tradition
as cruises and tours organized efforts have focused
that he calls the “spiritual” part
on feeding the hungry;
around Chaîne events abroad.
of the dining experience.
in addition, they have
From the start, the Chaîne started culinary schools
Every year, members have
attracted a large number of in Portugal and South
the opportunity to reconnect
food and wine professionals. Africa to give the underwith the organization’s roots
privileged a chance to
Julia Child, California vintner acquire career skills.
during the International GenRobert Mondavi and hotelier
eral Assembly, which is always
Each year, the Chaîne
Barron Hilton were members, des Rôtisseurs also orheld in France. This past May,
as was—surprisingly—Ronald ganizes competitions for some 500 members spent three
young chefs and sommedays in Paris, meeting, sightReagan, inducted while gover- liers, with local chapters
seeing, going on excursions
nor of California. Says Ariane coaching candidates
and of course dining. “There
Daguin, owner of D’Artagnan, as they participate on
is always a great ambiance at
the U.S.-based purveyor of regional and national
levels before going on
these events; friendship is a
fowl and game, “My Chaîne to the ultimate interbig part of our organization,”
membership provides me the national competition.
says Secretary General Philippe
opportunity to learn what the In 2011, Reilly Meehan,
Desgeorges. “As our name indiscriminating consumer is a recent graduate of
Oregon Coast Culinary
dicates, we are all links in a
looking for in our products; Institute (OCCI), became
it’s a window onto the world of the first American to win chain of fraternity that extends
the title of “Best Young
around the world.”
knowledgeable gourmets.”
Every evening was a
Valby clearly envisioned Chef in the World.” And
in 2012, Christopher P.
Michelin-star-studded affair,
the Chaîne as a quintessen- Bates, 31, general manwith dinners prepared by Yantially French society rooted in ager and executive chef
the gastronomy of France, but at Hotel Fauchère in Mil- nick Alléno (a Chaîne member
himself) at the Hôtel Meuglobal reach and cultural diver- ford, Pennsylvania, won
“Best Young Sommelier
rice, Eric Frechon at the Hôtel
sity has broadened its scope. in the World.” The U.S.
Bristol and Guy Krenzer at
The Washington chapter, for Chaîne has also estabthe Pré Catalan. Once again,
example, has held Chinese lished a foundation that
the Chaîne had rallied around
dinners. And the Australian offers scholarships for
culinary and oenological
Antonin Carême’s famous decChaîne’s Web site proclaims students.
laration, posted prominently
its dedication “to preserving
on its Web site: “When we no
and raising the standards of
culinary arts not just in French cuisine but longer have good cooking in the world, we
in all the great cuisines of the world.” (All will have no literature, nor high and sharp
of which may not have sat well with Valby, intelligence, nor amicable gathering, nor
f
whose conservative leanings once led him to social harmony.”
43
E Frédéric Rouzaud
THE
TA ST I N G S
ISSUE
THE OWNER AND CEO OF CHAMPAGNE LOUIS
ROEDERER TALKS ABOUT HIS COMPANY’S NEW CULTURAL
FOUNDATION, SHARING HIS THOUGHTS ON PHILANTHROPY,
CONTEMPORARY ART AND CONTEMPORARY WINE.
BY ELIZABETH THRUSH
W
ith polished graciousness
Frédéric Rouzaud in
Roederer’s cellars in
Reims, surrounded
by bottles of Cristal
aging on the lees.
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F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
and a serenity that seems
beyond his years, Frédéric
Rouzaud is confidently steering Louis Roederer, one of a handful of family-owned
estates in Champagne, through its third
century. Doing so is visibly a pleasure, certainly a challenge and, acknowledges Rouzaud, a rare privilege—one that implies an
obligation to give back. Earlier this year,
he solidified his company’s commitment
to philanthropy when he launched the
Louis Roederer Foundation for Contemporary Art, which has pledged €3 million
in donations during its first five years.
It was perhaps the most high-profile move
yet by the 45-year-old CEO, who took the
reins from his father in 2006, becoming the
sixth generation to run the company.
Rouzaud claims that his only ambition is to
leave the estate “a little more beautiful, more
magical” than he found it. That’s a deceptively daunting task, given its illustrious past.
Founded the same year that the ink was drying
on America’s Declaration of Independence,
Roederer was already exporting bubbly
around the world by the mid-19th century,
notably to the U.S. and Russia, where it
became the favorite of Czar Alexander II.
Cristal, perhaps the first prestige cuvée, was
blended especially for the czar’s table and
packaged in a clear crystal bottle—a fabulous marketing ploy that set it off from other, green-bottled Champagnes, all of which
looked identical to guests when wrapped in
the sommelier’s white linen napkin. Cristal’s flat bottom had the added advantage
of reassuring the wary Russian leader that
poison could not be hidden in the punt.
By 1872, the house was producing 2.5 million bottles—one tenth of total Champagne
production.
Life was harder for Louis Roederer’s descendants, who had to cope with the Russian Revolution, the Depression and two
World Wars. Frédéric’s father, Jean-Claude
Rouzaud, took over in 1976, renewing the
estate’s commitment to excellence. He vowed
that two-thirds—more if possible—of its
wine would come from grapes grown on its
own vineyards (most large houses grow less
than 10 percent of the grapes they use). Production would therefore be limited, given
that land rarely goes on the market in Champagne, but the highest standards would prevail. It is a vision that Frédéric has embraced
wholeheartedly.
It was also Rouzaud père who started the
Roederer portfolio, launching Roederer Estates in California’s Anderson Valley in 1982,
then purchasing estates in Champagne,
Portugal, Bordeaux and Provence. Frédéric
himself added the storied Château Pichon
Longueville Comtesse de Lalande shortly after moving into the CEO slot.
Rouzaud now oversees properties with
a combined turnover of €200 million, 60
percent of that amount derived from Champagne Roederer. When asked about his
plans for the future, he is fond of citing The
Leopard’s Prince of Salina: “Everything must
change so that everything can stay the same.”
45
E
Q
THE
TA ST I N G S
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Frédéric Rouzaud
&A
With Frédéric Rouzaud
Over the past two decades,
Champagne Louis Roederer
has sponsored dozens of
cultural events and exhibits.
In 2012, it launched a
foundation to centralize its
philanthropic activities.
You launched the Louis Roederer Foundation this past February. Please tell us briefly about
your family’s history of support for the arts.
Our family has a long tradition of appreciating literature and culture in general. Louis
Roederer, son of the company’s founder, amassed a remarkable collection of antique
books, manuscripts, engravings and drawings, many dating from the 18th century. In fact,
it was the second-largest collection in France after the one at the Château de Chantilly.
Unfortunately, much of it was sold after World War I and during the Depression—part
of it ended up in the United States. My father too loved literature, and in the 1980s created an association to try and find the place where writer Antoine de St-Exupéry’s plane
crashed in the Mediterranean. His objective wasn’t so much to actually find the plane but
to rekindle interest in the writer and his books.
Other philanthropic projects followed, se- Of all the arts, why did photography hold
lected on a case-by-case basis. Then one day, such a great appeal for you?
we met some people from the Bibliothèque We wanted to do something in contemponationale de France, and they told us about rary art, and for me, photography seemed
their collection of photographs, which is to be the most modern, the most accessible
absolutely unique in the world. There were to the largest number of people. Some conmore than five million stashed away—they temporary art is very hard to grasp; photogsimply didn’t have the funds needed to raphy has an understandable message, it is
exhibit them. Almost immediately, we de- reality, people, landscapes.... It is also visucided to help, and for the past decade have ally and aesthetically beautiful.
sponsored an average of three traveling BnF
photo exhibits a year, each with themes And why did you choose to support art and
that they chose and that we wanted to sup- not medical research or some other area?
port: well-known talents such as Doisneau, For us there was a natural connection with
Atget, Cartier-Bresson and Capa but also contemporary art, it resonated with the work
Sophie Calle, Bettina Rheims, Raymond we do. As winemakers, we don’t think of ourDepardon, Richard Prince…. This experi- selves as artists but we do think of ourselves
ence crystalized for us the realization that as artisans, contemporary artisans. Every
you can’t support everything, that it’s im- year, we endeavor to craft a new wine, one
portant to choose a specific area. We chose that respects tradition but that is a wine of
tomorrow, that corresponds to the tastes of
photography.
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F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
tomorrow. Artists inspire us in that work.
Of course they have much more freedom
than we do—our work is very rigorous and
methodical, even scientific, with analyses of
sugar and acid levels and so on. You could
perhaps say that the work of blending our
wines has an artistic aspect, much like the
work of noses at perfume houses, but I always tell our winemakers to be careful, not to
lose sight of the fact that they are artisans, not
artists. Yet we are deeply inspired by artists.
Does Roederer do anything differently now
because of the influence and inspiration of
the artists you have supported?
What I have noticed most is that our involvement with artists has infused the entire company with a new spirit; everyone seems to
have been affected, whether they work in the
vineyard or the vat room. Even something
as simple as trimming the vines can be done
sloppily or with precision—you can trim
like a butcher … or like an artist. And the
grapes will be different depending on how
“Everything in our business can be done
badly or done well. Our support of the
arts sends a message that we appreciate
beauty and the search for beauty.”
that work is done, and thus the wine will be
different too. Everything in our business can
be done badly or done well. Our support of
the arts sends a message that we appreciate
beauty and the search for beauty, that we
seek to surpass ourselves rather than simply
repeat ourselves. And all of that filters down
through our entire operation.
Philanthropy too can be done well or done
badly. What for you are examples of exemplary philanthropy?
I would have to say Cartier and Hermès.
Of course, they have much greater
means than we do—we are very small in
comparison—but what I like about their
approach to philanthropy is that it is what
I would call “neutral” with respect to their
brand. After all, why do companies engage
in cultural philanthropy? To be inspired
by beauty, by culture but also to give back
to society. At Roederer, we have received
a magnificent heritage, we are very lucky
to be in this business, to be winemakers,
to work close to nature. So helping artists
and supporting culture is our way of giving back to society. Some companies, like
Cartier, do this very discreetly, others more
visibly with the obvious objective of also
promoting their brand.
The distinction between marketing and
philanthropy can be rather vague....
Yes, and that’s precisely why we created our
foundation, to make that distinction more
clear. Basically, we had three objectives: First,
to put the philanthropic activities that we’ve
been engaged in these past years in a longterm context; second, to give these activities
more structure. We now have a committee
composed of designer Philippe Starck, writer
Michèle Fitoussi and others from outside of
our company; they help us come up with
ideas for interesting projects to support. That
ensures a greater neutrality than if the foundation were run only by people from Roederer. Third, we wanted to create an entity
that is legally independent of the company,
one that has its own identity and existence.
If along the way the foundation also contributes to the renown of our brand, that’s
fine, but that is not a consideration when
planning its activities. I don’t think that you
should mix marketing and philanthropy; for
me, they are very different activities.
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Frédéric Rouzaud
Of the dozens of projects that Roederer has
supported, can you cite one that you found
especially moving?
There have been many, but the “Controverses”
exhibit at the BnF immediately comes to
mind. It was a show of photographs from
the ’60s and ’70s that incited controversy, because they were either surprising, troubling
or provocative. It was incredible to see how
even several decades later, they still had the
same powerful impact. I spent a lot of time
looking at those images; they were riveting.
I believe that it was largely your support
for the BnF that led the Ministry of Culture
to award Roederer the distinction of Grand
Mécène de la Culture.
Yes, that was in 2010; it was presented to
us by Frédéric Mitterrand, then-minister of
culture. We are the only Champagne house
to have ever received this honor, so we are
very proud!
Can you tell us a little about Roederer's art
collection?
Oh, it is still very small! But yes, over the
years, we have met many artists in the course
of sponsoring various exhibits at the BnF,
and sometimes we have gone on to support
other projects that they have been involved
in. Among them are Sophie Calle, JeanMichel Alberola, JR, Bettina Rheims.... So
we wanted to acquire one work from every
exhibit in order to have a souvenir of sorts of
these events. Within a year or two, we hope
to have a renovated space in our building in
Reims where we can host dinners, receptions
and other events, and that will also serve as
an exhibition space for these works.
Have shrinking government budgets meant
more requests for sponsorship?
To tell you the truth, we have never had as
many requests for support as we have since
launching the foundation in early 2012. We
have had to learn to say no. We’re a relatively
small business, we don’t have the kind of
budgets that LVMH has, so we have to remain selective in our choices of which activities to sponsor.
Our focus remains essentially photography
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F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
when making white wines as you do when
making reds. But because we have implemented these procedures, we are now very
advanced in terms of giving full expression to
our Champenois terroir.
The Roederer
Foundation focuses
largely on photography. Sponsored
events include
JR’s outsized Paris
exhibit, “Regards
de Femmes” (2009),
and (left) “Rose C’est
Paris,” a Bettina
Rheims and Serge
Bramly show at the
BnF (2010).
What are the advantages and disadvantages
of family ownership?
“For me, a contemporary wine
is one that is pure, natural and perfectly
balanced, like a great painting.”
and literature—our partnership with the
BnF, commissioning and acquiring works
by contemporary artists, sponsoring openings and literary awards and so on. We also
support a number of festivals—the New
Yorker Festival, the opera festival in Aix-enProvence, the Shakespeare & Co. festival in
Paris…. What’s new is our partnership with
Paris’s Palais de Tokyo, which reopened this
past April and is entirely devoted to contemporary art.
Roederer Foundation supporting the events,
we are systematically recognized in print for
our donations. For journalists, there is no
possibility of a conflict of interest if an event
is sponsored by a foundation.
In the U.S., winemakers are extraordinarily
generous, supporting many charities.
Let’s talk a little about the thriving wine
business that makes your philanthropic efforts possible. Roederer now owns 10 estates
in three countries. Are you planning further
acquisitions?
Yes, but I think that corporate philanthropy is a bit easier in the U.S. In France, it
is frequently viewed with suspicion. As we
discussed earlier, where is the line between
marketing and philanthropy? Some French
journalists are purists when it comes to this
question, and they don’t think that businesses should support culture. When a company
does sponsor cultural activities, it is immediately suspected of engaging in marketing.
In the U.S., I think it is perceived as more of
a win-win. Before we launched the foundation, Roederer was almost never mentioned
in articles written about various events
that we sponsored. But now that it is the
Even if the foundation is financed by a
business?
Yes, I know it sounds odd, but it’s almost as
if we had laundered the money. That’s just
the way it is.
Our acquisitions have nearly all resulted
from personal encounters, they really weren’t
part of a business strategy per se, and that
hasn't changed. To give you a little background, we still grow about two-thirds of
the grapes that we use on land that we own,
which is very rare here—most Champagne
houses grow at most 10 percent and buy the
rest. My father dreamed of growing all the
grapes that we use, just like a Bordeaux château, but land in Champagne is rarely available for purchase, so that wasn’t possible. He
therefore looked around to see where else he
could invest his profits, bought some land
in California’s Anderson Valley and planted
vineyards there—that was the beginning of
Roederer Estates.
Next he bought Ramos Pinto, an estate
in Portugal that has been making port since
1880. It is a magnificent place, classified by
UNESCO. That purchase resulted from a
chance meeting with the family that owned
it. The same was true of Domaines Ott in
Provence and Champagne Deutz; in all
three cases, their family members still work
on the estates, which is wonderful.
Isn’t that highly unusual?
Yes, but you have to understand, we were
able to buy these properties only because the
owners wanted to sell them to us, because
they knew that we would honor their vision
and values. Wine is something very carnal
because it comes from the land. In France,
land is very important, you don’t sell it lightly, and selling a vineyard is not like selling
any other business. We knew that in all of
these cases, the owners were heartsick at having to sell, but they took some comfort in the
fact that we were the buyers.
By the way, one of our foundation’s projects is to invite artists to set up studios on our
various properties. Many are extraordinarily
beautiful places.
Is there a synergy between your estates?
Our head winemaker, Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon,
says that our many vineyards make it possible
for him to do five harvests a year and thus to
learn five times as quickly. But the exchanges
among our winemakers are valuable to all of
them. We also work with Denis Dubourdieu,
the great Bordeaux oenologist, and he brings
us information from his experiences in vineyards around the world. When we all get together, it’s like a think tank of sorts, and our
properties have all benefited.
For example, Jean-Baptiste initially worked
at our properties in Bordeaux, then took over
at Roederer. Since his arrival, there’s been a
huge improvement in our Champagne because he introduced winegrowing techniques
that were typical of the top Bordeaux estates
but more rigorous than those usually practiced in Champagne. People have tended
to think that you don’t have to be as precise
First and foremost, it allows you to have a
long-term vision, one that guarantees a certain level of quality. In a family business,
the owners are much more concerned about
where the house will be in 20 years than they
are about quarterly results.
For example, we have the freedom to decide how much Cristal we will make—or
even not to make any at all in years when
we don’t think the quality is high enough.
Family ownership also allows us to invest in
organic winegrowing, even if it costs 20 percent more, because we know it will improve
the quality and enhance the soul, the taste of
our wines. We are one of the largest organic
producers in Champagne—40 of our 240
hectares are organic. As for disadvantages,
the only one I can see is that after several
generations, ownership of the vineyard is divided among many family members, some of
whom may eventually want to sell.
As someone who supports contemporary art,
how do you define what it means to be a contemporary winemaker?
For me, it means calling into question everything that you do, never assuming that methods that are 20 years old or 100 years old are
necessarily the best. It means always being
on the cutting edge of the best winegrowing
practices—most consumers have no idea how
far winegrowing techniques have evolved,
and that the sophistication of a grape’s flavor is the sum of so very many things.
Vinification should be as minimalist as possible; its purpose is solely to help the grapes
express their flavor, their terroir, their energy.
So for me, a contemporary wine is one that
is pure, natural; that means Champagnes
with a minimum of added sugar, Bordeaux
wines with a minimum of oak. Wines that have
finesse and fruit, that are pure, natural and
perfectly balanced, like a great painting. f
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THE
TA ST I N G S
ISSUE
CAFÉ
SOCIETY
The coffee craze has
hit Paris. Hipsters who
roast their own beans
all seem to know one
another and share the
same philosophy: Coffee, like wine, is a living thing. They serve
single-origin specialty
brews, expertly
blended espressos and
artful cappuccinos
adorned with leaves
and hearts—all accompanied by yummy
sweets or savory
breakfast snacks.
Among our favorites: Télescope 5 rue
Villedo, 1er / Ten Belles
10 rue de la Grange aux
Belles, 10e / Café Lomi
3 ter rue Marcadet,
18e / Kooka Boora
62 rue des Martyrs, 9e
/ Coutume 7 rue de
Babylone, 7e. –JS
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BY HEATHER STIMMLER-HALL, TINA ISAAC & JULIA SAMMUT
Top Chef contender
Pierre-Sang Boyer.
TV TOQUES
Boasting approximately 5
million viewers each, the
French versions of reality TV competitions “Top
Chef” and “MasterChef”
offer six-figure prizes and
enviable exposure even for competitors who don’t make it through the
season. To date, show veterans have opened a dozen or so Paris restaurants; one standout is the popular Le Galopin, run by Top Chef-winner
Romain Tischenko. Another is the polished but good-humored eponymous eatery launched by French-Korean chef Pierre-Sang Boyer, a Top
Chef finalist. During the week, it turns out streamlined, often surprising
prix-fixe menus for packed tables; on the weekend, there's a vide-bouteille
brunch (so-named because it’s the ideal occasion to finish up all those
bottles of wine opened during the week). Perhaps the savviest move
comes from very central Alcazar, which struck gold this year by honing
its identity as a Top Chef “clubhouse,” hiring contestants to take turns at
the stove. / LE GALOPIN 34 rue Sainte-Marthe, 10e; Tel. 33/1-42-06-05-03; legalopin.com. / PIERRE-SANG BOYER 55 rue Oberkampf, 11e; pierresangboyer.
com. / ALCAZAR 62 rue Mazarine, 6e; Tel. 33/1-53-10-19-99; alcazar.fr. –TI
Télescope, serving
gourmet coffee in
pretty glasses.
LE CHIC SANDWICH
There’s a new kind of sandwich in town. Christened bistronomique, these creations boast the best ingredients, with
top-quality bread and gourmet fillings. Abri’s young Japanese-born proprietors, who trained at Robuchon and
L’Agapé Substance, reinterpret the traditional dish tonkatsu as a luxury club sandwich, combining pork cutlet, melted
cheese, vegetable-stuffed omelet, stewed sweet and sour cabbage, and a secret sauce, served between slices of
French toast. At L’Epicerie du Verre Volé, the butcher-paper-wrapped demi-baguette tradition is filled with tarama,
radishes, Ligurian olives, piquillo peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, Basque chili pepper, grilled artichoke, red onion and
fresh parsley. CheZ aline features a schnitzel sandwich garnished with mustard leaves and lemon. And L’Epicerie
Breizh Café offers a Breton take on the sandwich bistronomique with its buckwheat galette packed with farm-fresh
sausage. / CAFÉ-BISTROT ABRI 92 rue du Faubourg Poissonnière, 10e; Tel. 33/1-83-97-00-00. / L’EPICERIE DU VERRE VOLÉ 54
rue de la Folie-Méricourt, 11e; Tel. 33/1-48-05-36-55; leverrevole.fr. / CHEZ ALINE 85 rue de la Roquette, 11e; Tel. 33/1-43-7190-75. / L’EPICERIE BREIZH CAFÉ 111 rue Vieille du Temple, 3e; Tel. 33/1-42-72-13-77; breizhcafe.com. –JS
REPORTS FROM THE FRONT LINES
OF THE PARIS CULINARY SCENE.
Jambon beurre bistronomique at L’Epicerie
du Verre Volé.
CAPITAL BUZZ
“Miel de Paris” has been causing quite the buzz since the first jars produced
from the Palais Garnier’s rooftop hives in 1982 began flying off the shelves
of high-end food markets such as Fauchon. Beekeeping is nothing new in
the French capital—the apiary in the Luxembourg Gardens dates back to
1856—but the practice has gained traction since scientists discovered that
the honey is extremely pure, given that the bees feed on the city’s pesticidefree flowering trees and plants. Today there are more than 300 hives
in Paris, some on the prestigious
rooftops of the Grand Palais, Louis
Vuitton and the Palais Bourbon. The
historic Crédit Mutuel sells its “Miel
de ma Tante” during the Journées
du Patrimoine, and the chefs at the
legendary Tour d’Argent use their
honey in the restaurant’s signature
desserts. For a great souvenir, pick
up a jar at their boutique. – HSH
Amandine Chaignot,
bringing a feminine
touch to Le Raphael.
WOMEN IN
WHITES
In Paris, it’s looking like a woman’s
place truly is in the kitchen—as the
chef. This past year, a new generation of female culinary stars has
made headlines, and headway, in
one of France’s most traditionally
male-dominated fields. With food
that draws on feminine sensitivity
and intuition, they’re showing they
have what it takes to make it big
on their own terms.
Most of the ink has gone to
Anne-Sophie Pic, a self-taught chef
who is the only woman in France
to hold three Michelin stars. She
opened her first Paris restaurant,
La Dame de Pic, last fall, and
although its perfume-inspired
menu has both fans and detractors, it’s unquestionably a hit. Just
around the corner is Yam’tcha, the
pocket-sized restaurant where the
much-admired one-star chef Adeline Grattard serves poetic, delicate
Asian-inflected French fare in a minuscule kitchen; her husband, Chi
Wan, acts as tea sommelier (they
closed the restaurant for several
months when their second child
arrived, then opened again).
Mexican-born Béatriz Gonzales,
a protégée of Alain Senderens,
went off the beaten path to a
street behind the Gare SaintLazare for her restaurant Néva;
her limpid, cheerful and modern
approach to French cuisine has
quickly attracted a steady stream
of epicureans and businesspeople.
Meanwhile, two young women
have taken the helm at palacecaliber hotels: Amandine Chaignot,
who until only recently was the
sous-chef for Christopher Hache
at Le Crillon (her CV also includes
stints with Eric Frechon, Yannick
Alléno and Jean-François Piège),
is working a quiet revolution at
the discreetly elegant Le Raphael
hotel. And Stéphanie Le Quellec,
the barely 30-year-old winner of
the 2011 edition of “Top Chef,” has
left her post at the Four Seasons
Resort Provence at Terre Blanche
to take charge of the kitchens at
the newly refurbished Prince de
Galles hotel.
And you can expect more
women in whites. The Ecole Ferrandi reports that during the past
three years, the number of female
students has increased dramatically: The current freshman class
has 55 men—and 84 women. Just
as intriguing: Many are professionals with advanced degrees
looking to start a new career.
LA DAME DE PIC 20 rue du Louvre, 1er;
Tel. 33/1-42-60-40-40; ladamedepic.
fr. / YAM’TCHA 4 rue Sauval, 1er; Tel.
33/1-40-26-08-07; yamtcha.com. /
NÉVA 2 rue de Berne, 8e; Tel. 33/1-4522-18-91. / LE RAPHAEL 17 av Kléber,
16e; Tel. 33/1-53-64-32-00; raphaelhotel.com. / PRINCE DE GALLES 33 av
George V, 8e; Tel. 33/1-53-23-77-77;
princedegallesparis.com. –TI
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Trending Now
GLUTEN-FREE GOURMANDISE
With more and more food lovers suffering from gluten intolerance, Nadia
Sammut (full disclosure: my sister) saw a niche for a new movement. She
created With love-allergenfree (withlove-allergenfree.com) to promote the
pleasures of eating and cooking for all, including those with food allergies.
The group advances its cause through events, tastings and specially labeled
restaurants, all subject to rigorous controls. Already several Parisian tables
d’hôtes are on board as well as one certified restaurant, Noglu (16 passage
des Panoramas, 2e), whose unforgettable club sandwich is 100-percent
gluten-free. Next on the menu: a food truck slated to crisscross France. –JS
FOREIGN ACCENTS
In food as in fashion, the hottest
news in Paris is the explosion of
international talent. Frequently
small and off the beaten track,
these new ventures are catching
major word of mouth, thanks to
awards by young, edgy guides such
as Le Fooding. Japanese chefs lead
the way in terms of sheer numbers,
among them the freshly anointed
one-star chef Kei Kobayashi, a
former Ducasse staffer whose
quietly elegant Restaurant Kei (1st)
underscores his exquisite approach
to contemporary French cuisine. In
a more relaxed but no less rigorous
vein is Bocuse protégé Eiji Doihara,
whose recent takeover of the neighborhood bistro Sot L’y Laisse (11th)
has garnered glowing reviews. This
season’s other darling, Robuchon/
Taillevent alum Katsuaki Okiyama
(winner of the Fooding d’Amour
2013 prize), turns out incredibly
delicate and flavorful dishes at unbelievably affordable prices in his
tiny restaurant, Abri (10th).
Equally talented but perhaps more
freewheeling is the Anglophone
brigade. Taking a cue from the
smiling service and winning ways
of Daniel Rose’s fabulously successful Spring (1st), the BritishItalian duo Michael Greenwold and
Simone Tondo have opened the
charming, cottage-like Roseval (Le
Fooding’s Meilleure Table 2013) in
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F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
the 20th. The laid-back and popular
Albion (9th), which charmed critics when it opened a year ago, is
helmed by English chef Matt Ong
and his bartender partner from
New Zealand, Hayden Clout. And
over near République, the beguiling, typically working-class-style
French wine/tapas bar Au Passage owes its success to Australian
chef James Henry, who will soon
be opening another restaurant
in the 11th. Called Bones, it will
take the term “homemade” to new
extremes: Henry plans not only
to bake his own bread but churn
his own butter and make vinegar
too. / RESTAURANT KEI, 5 rue Coq
Héron, 1; Tel. 33/1-42-33-14-74 / SOT
L’Y LAISSE 70 rue Alexandre Dumas,
11e; Tel. 33/1-40-09-79-20. / ABRI 92
rue du Faubourg Poissonnière, 10e;
Tel. 33/1-83-97-00-00. / SPRING 6
rue Bailleul, 1er; Tel. 33/1-45-96-0572; springparis.fr. / ROSEVAL 1 rue
d'Eupatoria, 20e; Tel. 33/9-53-5624-14; roseval.fr. / AU PASSAGE 1 bis
passage de Saint-Sebastien, 11e; Tel.
33/1-43-55-07-52. / BONES 42 rue
Godefroy Caviagnac, 11e. –TI
TRUCKIN’
The “mobile restaurant”—a concept that originated in (where
else?) L.A.—is taking hold in Paris.
The first food truck to make a
name for itself was Le Camion qui
fume, run by super-chef Kristin
Frederick. Originally in marketing,
this American foodie who worked
at Spago L.A. and Apicius Paris
brought the concept to the French
capital, where its fab burgers and
prime locations guaranteed instant
trendiness. The result: neverending lines; copycats turning out
organic free-range burgers, empanadas and affordable gourmet
specialties; and addicts who follow
them compulsively. Today’s top
trucks: LE CAMION QUI FUME,
lecamionquifume.com / CANTINE
CALIFORNIA, cantinecalifornia.com /
CLASICO ARGENTINO, clasicoargentino.com / LE RÉFECTOIRE, lerefectoire.com / 2F1C (2FILLES1CAMION),
facebook.com/deuxfillesuncamion. –JS
A stunning Iced Tomato
Sundae with Whipped
Celery Cream, confirming
the George V’s reputation
for extraordinary cuisine.
PALACE
INTRIGUE
LEFT TO RIGHT, scenes from
Restaurant Kei: Chef Kei
Kobayashi; an exquisitely
arranged salad; the elegant dining room.
Paris’s palace hotels are known
for their deeply chic tours through
traditional French gastronomy, and
none more so than the George V,
whose Le Cinq has been hailed as
the world’s best hotel restaurant.
Chef Eric Briffard’s new book, Le
Cinq (Glénat), lifts the veil on the extraordinary alchemy of impeccable
cuisine, exquisite service and stunning décor that makes dining here
so totally of-the-moment yet so
delightfully timeless. An oversized
tome with 352 gorgeous pages, it is
nothing short of palatial.
Elsewhere in the French capital,
palace chefs are exploring new
territory, with everything from
Cantonese to comfort food. In one
of the newest twists, Le Meurice’s
three-star chef Yannick Alléno has
dreamed up La Table d’Yquem, the
ultimate in exclusive dining. Designed by hot young interior decorator Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance,
the private eight-seat salon, slated
to open in 2013, offers an unobstructed view of the action in the
hotel’s gastronomic kitchens. While
not the first of its kind (the Plaza
Athénée already has a small dining
room adjacent to its kitchens), La
Table d’Yquem intends to raise the
bar in terms of both décor and its
positioning as a “gastronomic laboratory,” offering menus created
around Château d’Yquem, perhaps
the world’s most famous wine.
For the Royal Monceau-Raffles
Paris, joint ventures are the key
to keeping things fresh. Since it
reopened in 2010, the hotel has had
an ongoing relationship with pastry
icon Pierre Hermé, and this past
November, Michelin-starred Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa joined
chef Laurent André in the kitchens
of La Cuisine for a four-month,
dinner-only appearance that is
slated to run through the first two
months of 2013. The hotel’s awardwinning Il Carpaccio restaurant
mixes things up by inviting in top
culinary talents from Italy. “Our
focus is ‘emotional luxury,’” says
general manager Omer Acar.
“Every day we work to create a
‘wow’ experience that will make
guests’ visits surprising and unforgettable, time after time. Collaborating with leading chefs fits
perfectly with this philosophy.”
Exotic cuisine has swiftly become
a signature at Shangri-La Hotel,
Paris, where chef Frank Xu won
a Michelin star last year for the
capital’s first Cantonese-inspired
gastronomic restaurant, Shang
Palace. Imaginative takes on Asian
influences at L’Abeille have also
garnered the hotel’s executive
chef, Philippe Labbé, two stars; this
past fall, Gault & Millau named him
“Cuisinier de l’Année 2013.” Later
this year, the hotel will add even
more spice to the mix: Indian and
Burmese guest chefs are slated to
headline at the hotel’s “everyday”
restaurant, La Bauhinia.
Perhaps no Paris chef is more
renowned for his appreciation of
Asian cultures than Thierry Marx,
executive chef at the Mandarin
Oriental. Now, in a counterpoint
to the minimalist, zen-inspired
creations at his restaurant gastronomique, Sur Mesure, Marx
has introduced the culinary
equivalent of a favorite cashmere
turtleneck: a Sunday Roast lunch
menu, served at the hotel’s less
formal Camélia restaurant.
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL GEORGE V,
PARIS 31 av George V, 8e; Tel. 33/1-49-
52-70-00; fourseasons.com/paris. /
LE MEURICE 228 rue de Rivoli, 1er; Tel.
33/1-44-58-10-10; lemeurice.com. /
ROYAL MONCEAU-RAFFLES PARIS 37
av Hoche, 8e; Tel. 33/1-42-99-88-00;
leroyalmonceau.com. / SHANGRI-LA
HOTEL , Paris 10 av d’Iéna, 16e; Tel.
33/1-53-67-19-98; shangri-la.com. /
MANDARIN ORIENTAL PARIS 251 rue
Saint-Honoré, 1er; Tel. 33/1-70-98-7888; mandarinoriental.com/paris. – TI
SPECIAL DELIVERIES
The biggest attention-grabber at Paris’s Salon International de l’Alimentation or SIAL (sialparis.com) last October
was WikiCell, a company producing food packaging that is either edible or biodegradable, mimicking the skin of a
grape or orange or the shell of a coconut. Imagine a tapioca “box” filled with ice-cream balls whose edible outer
coating eliminates the need for paper wrapping. You can try them yourself at the newly opened WikiBar, located in
the Lab Store (4 rue Bouloi, 1e; labstoreparis.com), a concept store near the Louvre selling futuristic inventions such as
Aeroshot: powder shots of inhalable caffeine or chocolate … calorie free! – HSH
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Petit homard aux saveurs de l’île aux Epices,
delicious inspiration from the new Epices &
Roellinger, with photos by Vincent Lejalé.
SPICE ROUTE
Given the huge sums of money spent
and quantities of blood spilled to
obtain spices over the millennia, it
is surprising that they have become
so, well, bland—rows of little jars on
kitchen shelves waiting for recipes
yet rarely inspiring them. But for
Olivier Roellinger, the chef from
Cancale, Brittany, spices have been a
lifelong passion, and he has spent 30
years retracing the route des épices
taken by sailors who set out from
nearby Saint-Malo. Along the way he
has discovered the best suppliers for
the 120 spices he masterfully weaves
into his cuisine, which garnered three
Michelin stars before health problems obliged him to scale back to a
less demanding rhythm.
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“That was in 2008, and at first I
was devastated,” he admits. “But
then I realized that I could reach
a much larger audience than the
patrons of my restaurants; now I
have no regrets.” He is doing just
that through his Epices-Roellinger
shops in Cancale, Saint-Malo and
Paris (more are in the works), each
stocked with a heady array of spices,
including some 20 varieties of peppercorns and nine different salts, as
well as grand cru vanilla beans, chili
peppers, flavored oils, teas… .
“Nowadays, people want to reduce their intake of sugar, salt and
fat, but they don’t want to sacrifice
taste,” explains the chef, who frequently works with cardiologists
and diabetes specialists. “Spices offer a delicious alternative, but most
of us don’t know how to make the
best use of them. They’re sort of
like perfume—people tend to use
too much or not enough.” Which
is where the magic of his poudres
d’épices comes in. These mixtures—
some 27 have been concocted to
date—are each composed of seven
to 25 spices. He approaches them
very much the way a nose comes
up with a new perfume, starting
with ideas, feelings, memories and
impressions, then searching for the
precise combination of elements
that will evoke them.
Originally trained as a pharmacist,
Roellinger looks every bit the part
as he sits at his desk working on a
new poudre, surrounded by dozens
of jars, mortar and pestle, scales and
weights. Exhibiting the excruciating
perfection of the three-star chef he
is, he often spends several years going from idea to final product. Yet
while the components may have
been imported from around the
world, the end result is very much
anchored in his native Brittany, conceived with local produce, seafood
and meat in mind. “I would never,
for example, make a blend of Cajun
spices. I have no authority in that
area,” he explains. “France’s culinary
strength has always been its ability
to adopt influences from around
the world, using them to create
something entirely new and different.” And wonderful. His poudre des
Bulgares sprinkled on plain yogurt is
positively addictive.
Roellinger prides himself on taking
an educational approach to his business, staffing his shops with knowledgeable salespeople who enjoy
coaching customers in how products
are made and their limitless possibilities. In addition, his Web site provides
consumers with extensive background information on all items as
well as suggested uses, recipes and,
frequently, accompanying videos.
And this past October, the chef and
Christian Lejalé published Epices &
Roellinger (Imagine & Co), an attempt
to share his extraordinary passion,
knowledge and expertise. The result
is a collection of glorious voyages
back in time and around the world
that lead, as always, to inspired and
inspiring culinary creations. / EPICES
ROELLINGER 51 bis rue Sainte Anne,
2e; Tel. 33/1-42-60-46-88; maisons-debricourt.com; epices-roellinger.com.
LEFT: Jean-Luc Poujauran with
his artisanal pain de campagne.
ABOVE: Jean-Yves Bordier’s hand-
churned butter with seaweed.
GARDEN VARIETY
It can be argued that no one
knows vegetables like Alain Passard, the three-star chef who
famously declared in 2001 that
légumes—and not fish or meat—
would henceforth be the focus of
the menu at his Paris restaurant
Arpège. He then went one better
and planted potagers to supply
his restaurants—a decade before
U.S. chefs began doing the same.
So what trends does this visionary
chef see in the world of veggies?
“People—not just restaurants—
are finally rediscovering and
respecting the seasons,” he says.
“They start buying tomatoes,
cukes and zucchini in the middle
of July, then move on to root vegetables in mid-October. What’s
incredible is that even children
are beginning to think this way.”
Soon, he predicts, anyone trying
to sell tomatoes in the dead of
winter is going to end up with a
lot of unsold stock on his hands.
FOOD
WITH A
PASSPORT
Were Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
alive today, he might be tempted
to amend his most famous line to
read: “Tell me what you eat and who
made or grew it, and I’ll tell you who
you are.” Indeed, consumers’ insistence on knowing where their food
comes from is behind some of the
biggest changes in restaurants and
grocery stores. Organic products
are the fastest-growing sector in
French supermarkets, reasonably
priced organic stands and épiceries
are cropping up all over town, and
professionals such as butchers Hugo
Desnoyer and Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec have become media stars in
their own right. As three-star chef
Alain Passard put it, “People want
food that has a passport, an identity
indicating that it was produced by
a farmer who has savoir-faire and
who plays fair.”
For restaurants, citing provenance
confers a stamp of integrity. A prime
example is the recently revamped
Grand Bistro de Breteuil in the 7th
arrondissement. Its new €42 prix
fixe menu reads like a Who’s Who
of France’s top purveyors, from
Jean-Luc Poujauran’s bread and
Jean-Yves Bordier’s butter to olive
oil from Château d’Estoublon,
vegetables grown by Joël Thiébault
and cheese by Marie-Anne Cantin.
The cost of these star-studded creds?
Prices have gone up 25 percent.
Thereby hangs the double-edged
sword of provenance, observes food
critic Alexander Lobrano, author of
Hungry for Paris (Random House).
But there is no denying, he says, that
there’s a huge difference between
industrial chicken and free-range
fowl. What’s more, the excellence of
these products has even transformed
people’s perceptions. “Bordier’s butter is so delicious that it has caused
people to actually notice a product
they previously took for granted.”
The same is true for olive oil, thanks
to the resounding success of purveyors specializing in small suppliers,
such as Cédric Casanova’s La Tête
dans Les Olives (10th) and Première
Pression Provence, launched by
L’Occitane founder Olivier Baussan.
At PPP, there is no doubt who makes
the oils you are buying: Large blackand-white photos of the producers
are part of the décor.
If the flip side is food snobbery,
so be it, says Frédéric Hubig-Schall,
owner of Astier, Café Moderne and
Sassotondo restaurants as well as
Jeanne A, his successful locavoredriven épicerie à manger (a grocery
store with a few tables). “In any business, there are those who are more
sensitive to marketing, image and
bling,” he notes. “But there are also
those who appreciate that the delicate flavor of true Jambon de Paris
is a universe away from industrially
produced ham. What interests me
is finding and offering affordable
quality products made according to
traditional methods by people who
have real passion and integrity. Is it
pricier than supermarket fare? Of
course. But it’s less expensive than
most people think.” In the 18 months
since it opened, Jeanne A has been
so successful that Hubig-Schall will
soon open Jeanne B, a similarly
themed épicerie in Montmartre.
Another sign of the times is Terroirs d’Avenir, a locavore sourcing
initiative founded a few years back
by twentysomething duo Samuel
Nahon and Alexandre Drouard. It
quickly became the purveyor of
choice for Paris’s palace hotels as
well as the capital’s top bistros, wine
bars and caves à manger. By rounding up quality seasonal produce
and drawing chefs’ attention to
otherwise forgotten foods such as
Pardailhan turnips and the Coucou
de Rennes (a Breton chicken), they
have managed to rescue a number
of struggling small producers. This
past October, they expanded their
clientele to include the general
public when they opened three
boutiques—one for hard-to-find
vegetables, a butcher shop and a
fishmonger—all on the rue du Nil in
the up-and-coming Sentier neighborhood (2nd).
Caveat emptor: Paris food blogger Adrian Moore cautions that
great provenance does not a great
restaurant make: “Good ingredients
aren’t enough—good cooking has
to follow.” / HUGO DESNOYER 54 rue
Boulard, 14e; facebook.com/ParisBoucherie. / YVES-MARIE DE BOURDONNEC La Boucherie Lamartine, 172
av Victor Hugo, 16e. / LA TÊTE DANS
LES OLIVES 2 rue Sainte-Marthe, 10e;
latetedanslesolives.com. / PPP 8 Cour
du Commerce Saint-André, 6e (among
other Paris addresses); ppp-olive.com.
/ JEANNE A 42 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 11e; restaurant-astier.com. /
TERROIRS D’AVENIR 7 rue du Nil, 2e. –TI
55
E Kitchen Cool
THE
TA ST I N G S
ISSUE
THE LATEST
ACCESSORIES FOR THE
WELL-APPOINTED KITCHEN
BY MELISSA OMERBERG
CRISTEL ROCKS
Cristel—a French leader
in high-end stainless-steel
cookware and proud
holder of a prestigious
Living Heritage label—
recently made its U.S.
début. Its innovative
new “L” line features
removable handles that
transform pots and pans
into sophisticated serving dishes—and minimize
storage space in the dishwasher or cupboard.
$38-$518; cristelusa.com.
COFFEE COUP Le Creuset’s
Café Collection features
everything you need for that
perfect cup of java, including
storage jars, French presses
and mugs. Items are made of
sturdy enameled stoneware
and are available in red, blue,
orange and brown. $12 to $60;
cookware.lecreuset.com.
PERFECT
SCORE
Co-designed
with international wine
critic James
Suckling,
Lalique’s 100
Points Wine
Glass gets top
marks for combining beauty
and functionality.
Hand-crafted in
crystal, it’s worthy of the best
vintages. $140;
lalique.com.
TEA TIME With their graceful fluted spouts,
perfectly shaped bodies and exuberant handles,
Mariage Frères’ hand-blown glass teapots make every
day a tea party. Each model features a choice of colorful cast-iron openwork lids. $195; mariagefreres.com.
SOME LIKE IT HOT For the first time in 30 years, luxury range manufacturer La Cornue has
released an entirely new design—and it’s gorgeous. Freestanding pieces by Jean-Michel Wilmotte
for his La Cornue W collection include a super-sleek cooktop that looks more like an elegant piece
of furniture than something you’d actually boil water on. lacornue.com
MAD ABOUT SAFFRON Famous for its enameled cast-iron cookware, the Strasbourg-
based Staub has just released a new color, Saffron. This mellow yellow is particularly
striking against the cookware’s matte black interior. From $54.99; staubusa.com.
BOX SETS Paper-bagging it is so passé.
Particularly when Monbento’s Frenchdesigned bento boxes offer a stylish and
sustainable way to transport your lunch.
$36.50; en.bentoandco.com.
COTTON CLUB These aren’t your
grandma’s tea towels. Atelier LZC’s
charming designs for Tissage Moutet—
a Basque table-linen manufacturer
established in 1913—wed traditional
craftsmanship with modern patterns and
palettes. €13; atelierlzc.com.
BULLE IN A CHINA SHOP With its pure white
glaze and soft curves, Bernardaud’s 21-piece
Bulle dinnerware set dresses up even the most
casual meals. $20 to $160; bernardaud.fr.
CLEAN LIVING Presented in elegant 16-ounce
bottles, Astier de Villatte’s luxury liquid dishwashing soap comes in pepper, cypress and sage. Who
knew your sink could smell as appetizing as your
oven? €12; astierdevillatte.com.
56
F R A N CE • W I NT ER 2 0 1 2 - 1 3
NEW HUES Lacanche, the Burgundy-based purveyor of high-end, handcrafted gas ranges, has just
added three new colors to its line: Olive, Faience (a pale bluish-gray) and Griotte Red. If these don’t
inspire you to expand your range in the kitchen, nothing will. €5,900; frenchranges.com.
57
This article originally appeared
in the Winter 2012-13 issue of France Magazine.
FRANCE MAGAZINE
W int e r 2 01 2 -13
WINTER 2012-13
$5.95 U.S. / $6.95 Canada / francemagazine.org
THE TASTINGS ISSUE: A DELICIOUS CELEBRATION OF FOOD & WINE! • PARIS & CONTEMPORARY ART • EUROPE, EUROPE, EUROPE
104
the best of culture, tr avel & art de vivre
COVER-03.indd 1
The
Tastings
Issue
A Delicious Celebration of Food & Wine!
12/19/12 4:05 PM
Founded in 1985, France Magazine is published
by the nonprofit French-American Cultural Foundation.
Subscriptions and gift subscriptions
are available online at www.francemagazine.org

France_Magazine_Decembre_2012

Transcription

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