Cat et le Chocolate Factory

Standing behind a counter for four days selling chocolates may not sound like everyone’s idea of fun, but I was in heaven! Ever since my friend Claire Jeantet hooked me up with a sweet job at the salon gastronomique mer et vigne (a gastronomic food exhibition in Lyon), I’ve fallen in love with the idea of creating my own French gastronomical extraganza in my home country, good ol’ Angleterre! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I’ll tell you all about it…

Pere max- Ardeche et Terroirs

Firstly this was an excellent salon, with a fantastic range of exposants (exhibitors) from all over France. Created and organised by the charismatic Eric Chollat-Namy, who wanders around the salon with a microphone and a glass of wine announcing little discoveries such as the reunion of the champagne maker and his old army service buddy, after thirty years of separation.  There was ewes milk cheese from Corsica, buttery gateaux from Brittany, beautiful crayfish bisque and the most delicious, melt in your mouth fois gras you could possibly imagine (so good that Claire couldn’t stop herself from munching an entire fois gras baguette every day).

Not only were the products of an extremely high quality, the exposants were only too happy to serve you a cold glass of bubbly and tell you all about how it was made, what to eat it with and why England is pretty crap compared to France. We started the day with some artisanal macarons by Chambouvet. one of my favourite stands was Alain Jousseaume’s Medaille d’or (gold medal) winning goats cheese which was outstanding (also he’d bring us over a platter of cheese and a cold glass of Pineau at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and make naughty, flirtatious jokes, ooo la la). Marc and Magalie’s delicious Savennieres white wines went down very well when the chocolate flogging started to drag on. And no day would be complete without Laurent from “bienvenue chez les chtis” ripping open his overalls in the smoking area to display his enormous belly complete with scars from his recent gastric bypass operation (-a slightly worrying reminder of what a life of scoffing cheese and sausage can do to you.)

Alain rocking the goats cheese stand

Delights from Corsica

I was working for Claire’s cousin the artisan chocolatier of “le comptoir de cacao”. We sold delicious caramel beurre salé pralines and crunchy croustines of orange and dark chocolate. It was a joy to sell as it’s a great product, people know it, love it and come back every year for more.

Me and Claire at the Comptoir

The great thing about this salon for me was that it represented the living, breathing soul of French gastronomy, there to be discovered, shared, enjoyed, protected and prolonged. French people are proud to have such a diverse and high quality gastronomic heritage and they’re not worried about putting up a few extra bob to keep these dedicated artisans in business. This is one thing I adore about France, the question is… would England feel the same?

Links

http://www.mer-et-vigne.fr/

http://www.comptoircacao.fr/

Marc and Magalie’s white wines : Domaine Taillandier: erictaillandier@hotmail.fr

Alain’s award winning dirty jokes, hem hem, I mean goats cheese: http://www.goat-and-cheese.com/accueil/index.html