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Living in the Languedoc, and working in hospitality affords me a social life which may be the envy of many. Despite working pretty much flat out for 8 months of the year, to be able to enjoy 4 months of relative inactivity, seems pretty fortunate. This Winter passed in a flurry of activity. Barcelona, Tuscany, Madrid, Andorra, and a whistle stop tour of Eastern & Southern France, meant my feet scarcely touched the ground. Yet now, here we are, mid April, and work has once again begun in earnest – for me, for the vines, for the restaurants, and for wineries.
Bud break has happened pretty much everywhere now, and the vines are putting on growth that can be measured in centimeters per day. Soon enough we’ll be into flowering, fruit set, and then the long march to harvest… but for now, it’s good enough to know that Spring has sprung, and there are balmy days and gentle evenings to look forward to. And that’s good enough for me.
So what is it about sitting around a table, breaking bread, chewing the fat, and sharing a bottle that makes this Southern lifestyle so special? I genuinely believe that in part, it’s down to our respect for food, our belief in eating local, our lack of inhibition about how much any given wine, actually costs, and more about the shared experience, and the ability to talk about pretty much anything, including religion and politics, without a full scale argument breaking out over the cheese course.
Seasonal eating – sounds uncomplicated; logical even, and I’ll be honest, if I’m not very careful, I’ll end up sounding slightly messianic about how much it ires me to see strawberries in the supermarkets at Christmas. ( won’t somebody think of the children – and the carbon footprint ); and for those of us living in the Minervois, now is the season for asparagus, with cherries, courgettes, and stone fruits close on their heals. It’s out with the hearty game casseroles of Winter, and time to dust off your plancha or fire up your barbecue.
Until you’ve eaten fresh squid cooked on a plancha, frankly you haven’t lived, and down here, we’ll plancha anything from vegetables to duck hearts ( don’t wrinkle your nose, they’re delicious ), it’s social eating at its best. The evening air is already redolent with garrigue herbs, and garlic, and we have another 5, maybe 6 months of this olfactory onslaught! Relaxed dining, it’s a Languedoc forté, we can pique nique like no other region. In fact, even if you’re the sort who has neither the skill nor inclination to ‘get busy in the kitchen’ we have food heroes like Linda Wearn at La Table d’Emilie and Petra Lutz of Fait Maison, who will do pretty much everything for you, from canapes & drinks, picnics or a full blown dinner party, or even a wedding reception – they’ll even find you waitresses, and a sommelier if that’s your thing! Caroline Conran, who moved to Languedoc some years ago, has written a fantastic book about the regional cuisine.It’s called Sud de France, if, like me, cookery books are a bit of a compulsion, then it won’t disappoint.
Don’t let our relaxed attitude, and love of cobbling together a lunch of bread, cheese, olives and oysters fool you into thinking we have a somewhat ‘laissez faire’ attitude towards comestibles! Languedoc Roussillon boasts no less than 26 Michelin starred restaurants throughout the region.. I wouldn’t want you to think we’re complete country bumpkins… on second thoughts…