Bon Appétit, Dordogne by Solange Hando
Featured Hotel in Dordogne
Villa La Benechie
See all hotels in Dordogne >
“Would you like to cook a meal worth £5000?”
Big smile, sparkling eyes, our chef laid out a dozen gleaming sea bass on the large wooden table. We stared in awe but within half an hour, we had learned to scale and fillet almost to perfection. Chargrill for two minutes, “watching like a hawk”, add prepared spinach and fennel and serve with Pastis and crème fraîche sauce. Simple, bursting with aroma and flavour, it tasted like heaven.
“Well done,” said Jim, “that recipe won me top cash in a competition. Now you are chefs.”
With such a compliment from a ‘pro,’ who worked with Rick Stein and featured on BBC Master Chef and Food and Drink, our confidence soared to new heights. Never too late to start, I thought, even though Jim Fisher admitted being in love with cooking since the age of three when he poked a finger in his birthday cake. Some 35 years later, our chef decided to embrace his vocation full time, eventually hitting the road with wife and daughter in search of the perfect venue to set up a cookery school. “We travelled all over Europe,” says Lucy, “but when we found this place in Périgord, we knew it was right. It has been a challenge at times but eight years on, it’s looking good. It’s so peaceful and safe around here, we just love the quality of life.”
Food and France were a great combination for us too, ten budding cooks from all walks of life, hoping to learn a few secrets over the next five days and impress family and friends back home. We couldn’t have dreamed of a better location. Named after its dense foliage in the pretty south west corner of the Dordogne, Black Périgord has a long tradition of rustic fare with generous helpings of mushrooms, truffles, walnuts, goose and duck preserve and foie gras. Small vineyards cling to the slopes above the river and the famous wines of Cahors, Bergerac and Monbazillac are on the doorstep.
We happily sampled them all, meeting for the ritual aperitif al fresco as the limestone walls of Bombel took on a golden hue in the setting sun. Out in the country, just north of Sarlat, Bombel is a cluster of beautifully converted 17th-century barns, light and spacious with modern conveniences but still dotted with the odd cartwheel or plough from a former life. The fragrance of rosemary, lavender and sage drifts across the courtyard and a vine climbs up the steps to plush lounge diner and mezzanine kitchen.
Cooking over, there was time to sunbathe or take a dip in the pool, stroll around the 7 acres of ground and enjoy pastoral views across rolling hills and meadows strewn with buttercups and woodlands, where deer grazed in the shadows. The nearest hamlet was half a mile away and nothing disturbed the peace but the dawn chorus and occasional call of a cuckoo.
Every day, we learned new skills, how to chop herbs and retain full flavour, shape cheese quenelles with teaspoons and handle freshly-made pastry “as gently as a butterfly”. We created exotic ice creams, a leg of lamb studded with orange and garlic and a tartiflette, a creamy potato gratin so scrumptious guest Amanda promised to serve it on her wedding day. After a tasty breakfast of freshly-baked bread and croissants, the kitchen was abuzz as we chopped, tossed, whisked, stirred and mastered knives and blowtorch like old hands.
We prepared a meal size starter for lunch and main course and dessert for dinner. I loved it all but top of my list were goat’s cheese and roast tomato tarts with basil mascarpone and ‘pommes sarladaises’, the local speciality of sauté potatoes. We used lashings of olive oil, herbs from the garden and the freshest ingredients all round. Ready? Not yet, for “we eat with our eyes”, said Jim, so every dish was presented like a work of art, delicate, colourful, a full blown ‘wow’ on a plate.
‘Cook in France’ is a flexible holiday. You can enrol for the whole week, part of it or just a day. The course is conducted in English and suitable for everyone. Freddie, our youngest guest, was just 15, and 16 year old daughter Jenny joined in too. Some weeks have a special theme, vegetarian or Christmas cooking, or ‘matching food and wine’, or you can combine cooking and painting. Menus are prepared in advance but take account of guests’ preferences whenever possible. In true Périgord fashion, we relished walnut bread and duck in many forms but to ease us gently into gourmet mode, meals often had a lighter touch, described as Mediterranean or classic French Bistro.
After two energising days in the kitchen, it was time to relax, explore as we pleased or meet the locals and practise our French. Wednesday is market day in Sarlat so we set off early to beat the crowds and browse the wonderful displays of local produce, with more than enough ‘tasters’ to last us until lunch. Country bread, fresh strawberries, wild boar saucisson, duck pâté, preserve, melon, cheese, spinach, snails, artichokes, olives, asparagus and walnuts coated in chocolate, it was temptation every step of the way.
Basking in sunshine in the cusp the hills, Sarlat oozed fragrance and colour, a quaint old-fashioned place with steep roofs and honey-coloured stones draped in wisteria, elegant town houses, Gothic and Renaissance styles, and medieval lanes meandering through archways and courtyards where bright little restaurants beckoned in the shade. In this former provincial capital, numbering around ten thousand people, over sixty restaurants showcase the cuisine of Périgord. The traditional ‘peasant food’ has earned recognition. I glanced at the broad bean soup with laurel and thyme and the foie gras and apple glazed with Monbazillac but settled for melon and thin duck fillet, truffle omelette and walnut cake with chocolate sauce, promising to burn off excess calories on a few hours’ sightseeing.
Apart from late afternoons and the mid-week break, cooking keeps you as busy as you wish, but add a few days in a gîte or chambre d’hôte and you can have the best of both worlds. Black Périgord is full of wondrous sights over a small area, though you will need a car or taxi to get around. Head north to see the delightful village of Montignac on the river Vézère and Lascaux II, a copy of the original cave paintings out of bounds for protection, or go west for the troglodyte dwellings of Les Eyzies de Tayac or south for some of the ‘plus beaux villages de France’ mirrored in the clean emerald waters of the Dordogne.
The medieval Bastide of Domme sits on a rocky spur overlooking the valley, La Roque Gageac squeezes between river and cliff with a troglodyte fort and exotic garden shaded by bamboo and palms, Beynac has a stunning château perched on the cliff top, a steep climb on rough cobbled lanes but worth the effort for the view. You can canoe down river or cruise in a traditional gabarre, past ancient castles and lush greenery fluttering with kingfishers and wagtails, cycle, ride, visit the panoramic gardens of Marqueyssac or ramble through the countryside along trails festooned in poppies and wild orchids. Old ‘bories’, circular dry-stone huts, pop up here and there and geese and chickens scuttle in the farmyards.
Back in Bombel, our chef was on a mission, determined for our benefit to “demystify Haute Cuisine and repackage it in a rustic and user friendly form”. By Thursday, we were ready to tackle almost anything. Now we relied on taste buds rather than measures to mix flavours and textures, prepare tantalising dressings, raid the fridge for imaginative toppings, bake mini-Camemberts with herbs, olives and more, and achieve that most elusive of French desserts, a perfect Crème Brûlée. We learned about the versatility of lemons, crackling and croutons, crunchy on the outside but soft inside.
Now the time had come for some serious planning. The Friday night challenge ‘Ready, steady, cook’ was almost there. “We’ll divide into three teams,” explained Jim, “starters, main and dessert. Join the team of your choice then design a dish, be creative, do something new.” There were a few cookery books on the shelves to set us off, but our imagination soon worked wonders. How about banana and ginger ice cream? Asparagus tips and Parma ham served with Hollandaise sauce and quail eggs? Giant ravioli, Bombel made of course, stuffed with juicy prawns? Or dark chocolate tarts with walnut and poached pears? By early afternoon, all chefs were at their posts.
“Don’t worry,” said Jim, “it’s only a bit of fun and I’ll be here to help.” There was hardly any panic at all. Time just flew until hours later, we ‘plated up’ a feast worthy of the finest restaurant. It tasted as good as it looked.
“We could never have done this on Monday,” said Kate, “we’ve learned so much, it’s simply amazing.”
“You’ve all been brilliant”, added Jim, “the food sang on the plates. Now you can take the recipes home and I guarantee you’ll find all the ingredients you need, in any good shop or Deli.”
Remembering the £5000 sea bass, I vouched to visit my fishmonger as soon as I returned and slip into my luggage a bottle of that all important Pastis.