Cuisine of the Sun

From the Food Vault Dept.: To have chef Roger Vergé visit Albany in 1987 was a Very Big Deal. I was already a fan by way of his book Cuisine of the South of France, and was delighted to cover that visit in the piece below. As you’ll notice, I also got to taste some excellent food and wine into the bargain.

                                                                                                 

WHEN ROGER VERGÉ was five years old, his aunt Celestine bought him a small bench so that he could see over the top of the kitchen counter. It’s a view – and a point of view – that stayed with him for the next half-century.

Roger Vergé

Vergé – one of the very few chefs with a three-star rating from France’s prestigious Michelin guide – was at the Desmond Americana Saturday to introduce a new line of wine that bears his name, an occasion honored with a dinner by the local chapter of the Chaine des Rotisseurs.

“It is very important to have kids in the kitchen,” says Vergé, who cites tales of his own children’s cookery. “My daughter was eight and we were preparing some dessert tarts. I watched as she filled a tart with honey and then sprinkled sugar on top. ‘Why did you do that?’ I asked her. ‘How else are you going to cook the sugar?’ she said.”

He calls his cooking “Cuisine of the Sun.” He emphasizes freshness and creative seasoning. “I like to cook with herbs,” be explains, “and it is very important to have a mixture of fresh vegetables on the table, too. These are all sun products.” At his restaurant in France, Le Moulin de Mougins, he offers a menu not only crafted around what’s available and fresh any given day, but one that also stresses a harmonious blend of food and wine.

And that’s where his just-introduced wines come in. Having purveyed a line of gourmet products, including vinegars, mustards, and seasoning blends; having opened schools to pass along his philosophy to cooks both amateur and professional; having written a pair of books on the subject (Cuisine of the South of France and Roger Vergé’s Entertaining in the French Style), it’s a natural extension of his wish to share a complete dining experience.

At the Chaine des Rotisseurs dinner, the wines were complemented by a variety of pleasing foods prepared by executive chef Michael St. John.

According to local club president (“bailli”) Joel M. Spiro, the Chaine was founded in 1248 as a guild of goose roasters – the name is literally translated as “chain of the roasting place.”

“The royalty of France got interested,” says Spiro, “and membership grew. It became a society of people interested in good food and wine. But it ended with the French Revolution.” In 1950 the society made a comeback and now flourishes all over the world, with about 5,000 members in the United States. “There are chapters in every city of significant size. We have 45 members in the Albany area and have functions about five times a year.”

Barbara Boyajian is a member and the selection of wines in Barbara’s World of Wine and Liquor, her Wolf Road store, includes the Vergé selection – an exclusive offering in this area. It was her idea to tie in the chef’s appearance with a society dinner.

Vergé has as sunny a personality as his philosophy suggests. “When you know something,” he explained, “it’s good to help others with what you know. That’s why I opened my cooking schools. That’s why I chose to come visit you and let you know what I can do for you.”

The dinner was a buffet that featured tenderloin of beef en croute, filled with spinach and a carrot mousse, bay scallops sautéed at tableside with snow peas and mushrooms and finished with Pernod, filet of sole paupiettes stuffed with seafood, and a breast of chicken with a pungent mustard sauce, along with herb potatoes and a ratatouille served in individual zucchini shells.

On each table was a selection of three of the Vergé wines: one red, a Moulin-a-vent, and two whites, a Saint-Veran and a Macon blanc vlllages.

Most of the wines he has chosen originate in the Burgundy or Rhone Valley regions; in his restaurant are also wines of Provence. Vergé selects the cuvée, the wine taken from a particular harvest, that will bear his name; this can come from any of a number of vineyards, and is bottled at one of the wineries of his choice, often with Vergé himself in consultation with the resident enologist.

“Wine is the best company for food,” he says. “That was the emphasis of my last book, in which I give not just the recipe for a particular item but the recipe for a complete meal, including wine.”

But nobody should be bound to a cookbook as if it were a law book, he says. “My book is large. It doesn’t belong in the kitchen. When I read a cookbook, I take notes, I think about what I am going to prepare. Then I think how I would like to improve it. You should read a recipe only to know what to buy at the market and what to bring into the kitchen. Then you let your own creativity work.

“Cooking is a part of philosophy. You make a recipe: you add some mustard, a touch of brandy: there. You are making it with your heart.”

What does this three-star chef enjoy cooking for himself most of all? He gives an Adolph Menjou shrug. “I go into the garden behind my house. I pick up some tomatoes, some things for a salad, maybe some fresh potatoes. Then I go into the kitchen and see what happens.”

– Schenectady Gazette, 17 November 1987