Though world-famous actor Gérard Depardieu’s relationship with his home country has been a little fraught of late, he still has restaurants in his hometown of Paris as well as a fish shop.
He drops in on the latter on a visit to the City of Light and surrounding Île-de-France region for food doco series Bon Appetit! Gerard Depardieu's Europe. Travelling with best friend and chefLaurent Audiot, the series records their gastronomic gallivanting, highlighting the stories behind the cuisines they encounter as well as the producer and chefs who work hard to deliver them.
Even in the heart of such a gargantuan city, there are a few surprising fresh food producers at play. High up on the rooftop of the Palais Garnier opera house, there’s a colony of bees supplying many of Paris’ finest restaurants. Many iconic landmarks now house such colonies, including Notre Dame, as it’s safer in the city, far from pesticide usage on farms. The majority of honey is produced during the two weeks in June when the city’s linden trees are in bloom.
On a motorbike cruise around town, Depardieu drops in on Doumbéa, the last ham producers still working in the city. Jambon de Paris is actually brine-cured, rather than dry cured, injecting the salty water into the veins to flavour it, then deboning and adding to a brine bath. A slow, hands-on process, it’s then rested and steamed before being stamped with an Eiffel Tower emblem. The word charcuterie comes from the term charcutier, or “the man who cooked meat.”
Depardieu and Audiot share a baguette together over un cafe, revelling in a yarn that traces the origin of the stick of bread to Fulgence Bienvenüe, the civil engineer behind the construction of the Paris Métro in the late 1890s. It’s said that his builders, hailing from many parts of France, often clashed violently, so they had to ban the sharp knives they brought to work to cut loaves, hence the need for an easily torn baguette. (Of course, it's not the only theory about the birth of the classic French bread - some suggest Napolean played a role, while the changing length of the baguette also has a story.)
And the best of the baguette? For some, it's the tip.
"My father, he used to call the baguette, bricheton. 'Give me a slap of bricheton.' All the time," says Laurent Audiot. "He would always take the end bit. The quignon, he called it."
"Me too, I always keep it for myself," laughs Depardieu.
And the pair agree on one essential in a good baguette. "Crustiness," says Deparieu. Yes, agees Audiot. "If the baguette isn’t crusty, you know your bread isn’t going to be any good."
There’s plenty going on just outside of the city too, with Mereville 75km away dubbed the watercress capital of France. Great swathes of the surrounding countryside are given over to manual harvesting of the peppery noted aquatic plant.
In Milly-la-Forêt, Depardieu’s ever-sniffing nose gets stuck into their celebrated mint industry. Dried in vast wooden stores, the menthol content of the mint is super-charged by ceasing watering three weeks before harvest, with the heat strain forcing it to maximise its strength. Depardieu notes that actor, composer and singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg was a big fan of mint in his vodka.
Below ground, button mushroom farms take over disused quarries. Grown on beds of horse manure, they double in size overnight and must be harvested daily, with firmness, rather than size, the key indicator of readiness.
Gerard Depardieu inhales the aroma of mint at Milly la Foret. Source: Bon Appetit! Gerard Depardieu's Europe
A term of endearment in French, “mon chou” literally translates as “my cabbage,” so it seems only proper that in Neuville-sur-oise, on the outskirts of a city famed for its lovers, there are great fields of the leafy green and purple orbs. Audiot serves mullet or haddock with pontoise, a sweeter variety, lavished with butter, cumin and vinaigrette. He also recommends it for veg casserole, while Depardieu favours wrapping a langoustine in a cabbage leaf and dollops a scallop on top.
If there’s one thing Bon Appetit! Gerard Depardieu's Europe makes clear is that Depardieu will merrily eat anything in the animal kingdom, including elephant and crocodile.
Perhaps most shocking of all is the revelation, on spotting a cute snuffling of a lil hedgehog atChâteau de Courances organic veg farm, that he’s had a bite of that too. His toptip? You can either put a pump up its butt and blow it up until the spikes fall out, then clad it in clay to bake, or boil first, with the spikes then easily plucked like a pheasant, if you were so horribly inclined.
The Ile de France episode of Bon Appetit! Gerard Depardieu's Europe Airs Saturday July 13, Wednesdays at 8.30pm (encores on Sundays, 8pm) on Food Network. Watch earlier episodes on SBS On Demand.
