Fifty-plus years since chef Rick Stein’s first visit to France, his latest television series and book of the same name saw him return to l’Hexagone. In Secret France Rick Stein heads off the beaten track, mostly to rural, authentic France, in search of what he describes in the book as “true, rustic French cooking.” We’re hot on his tail…
A journey through France in the name of food
Stein starts his Secret France journey in Dieppe in the north, wending his way southeast to Colmar in the Alsace region via Champagne country, then traverses south and west through Burgundy and Limousin to Perigueux before diverting southeast again in the direction of Port-Vendres, Uzes, and rounding off a tour de feasting in Cassis.
In the cookery book published to accompany the series, he tells readers that the vision was for a foodie journey with little or no plan – the aim being to discover the gems of authentic French food that demonstrate how innate cuisine is to French life and culture.
> Indulge in our A-Z of French Gastronomy
Authentic French cooking
In the book he says he had a sense, an “idea that things are not as they once were with food in France” and that over priced, zealously elaborate dishes lacking flavour or quality have stormed the industry in place of food fait maison.
And so on this journey through Secret France Rick Stein shows us some of the uniquely French techniques used to create some of the nation’s best dishes. He also dines and cooks his way around the country in search of the very best and quintessentially French recipes. And he celebrates some of the least flexible yet delightfully French nuances, including restaurants only offering set menus, or made-up-on-the-day menus based on what has come fresh from market, and fixed service times. Quite why anyone would want lunch after 2pm continues to baffle most rural French restaurants, refreshingly!
> Discover authentic French cuisine aboard a luxury hotel barge cruise
Rick Stein Secret France highlights
Allow us to summarise some of his most rustic findings and some of our favourite foodie facts from the Secret France Rick Stein tour.
Comté
As he makes his way through Jura viewers and readers alike are invited to indulge in France’s favourite cheese. Comté wheels mature by the thousand in an old military fort in the Jura mountains.
Did you know… For up to two years these rounds are salt washed, rotated and tasted in Fort Saint Antoine before making their way to restaurants and fromageries across the country and around the world.
The milk used to make the cheese must travel no more than 25 km to the fruitières that make the cheese. So each area has its own flavour characteristics. (The word fruitière comes from the French verb ‘fructifier‘ which roughly means ‘to produce’ or ‘to bear fruit’).
> Make your own Comté dish with these 3 recipes
Buckwheat pancakes
True to his mission, in search of the humble, artisan approach to food that makes French cuisine so special, Stein lingers quite extensively on the topic of buckwheat pancakes.
Did you know… Brittany, Normandy and the Auvergne stake claim to these savoury batter based items originating on their patch.
Stein serves a savoury version with portobello mushrooms and either Cantal, Comté or Gruyère cheese. Those with a sweet tooth may also enjoy them for dessert smothered in butterscotch apple caramel as one would find time and again in Dieppe.
Omelettes
Who’d have thought an internationally renowned chef would get excited over the humble omelette? Yet in Secret France Rick Stein celebrates this dish as exemplary of simply fine French cooking.
Did you know… the best eggs and the best butter, and nothing else, will render a simple yet sublime supper in the form of Rick Stein’s French omelette.
Great artisan French produce
Stein references some of France’s most sublime French produce. Some of these more than others, perhaps, we take for granted in their availability and their deliciousness. Yet as we pause to reflect on the good things in life, let’s remember how some of these delicacies have come about.
Roquefort
Roquefort is the ‘cheese of kings and popes’ and is said to have been a favourite of Emperor Charlemagne. This unpasteurised sheep’s milk cheese hails from the area around Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the South of France
Did you know… Roquefort was awarded the first ever AOC certificate when France began regulating product naming and production.
Its creamy yet tangy blue-veined richness is the work of 5 months’ aging in the Combalou caves, which has been going on since 1411 when Charles IV determined that only the locals, who had been doing so for centuries previously, could ripen the cheese and produce ‘the real thing’.
> Crack more facts in our dictionary of French cheeses
Château d’Yquem
Château d’Yquem is the one and only sweet wine to have been awarded a premier cru superièur classification. That’s quite an achievement. But it is the just reward for one of the French wine world’s most toiled over harvests.
Did you know… You can visit, tour and taste the Sauternes of Château d’Yquem. And savour it you will when you learn that each vine produces just one glass of wine!
Along a 20km stretch of the river Garonne, a 110-hectare vineyard of semillon and sauvignon blanc grapes enjoy a unique microclimate that assists noble rot (botrytis action). It is this process that transforms the grapes into their exquisitely renowned flavours.
> Sip your way through our French wine guides
Charolais beef
Charolais cattle hail from Charolles, between the rivers Loire and Saône in Burgundy Franche Comté but today you’ll find the breed all over the world. One of the largest cattle breeds, they are recognisable for their mostly white coats.
Did you know… the area around Charolles has applied for UNESCO world heritage status to protect and conserve the habitat and farming processes that this celebrated breed enjoy.
The cattle are renowned for the flavour of their meat, which is largely associated with their vegetable based diet and the regimented land management of their outdoor grazing space to ensure an optimum quality food source.
Indulge in your own secret France
Obviously, this list could rattle on and on, but we’d also recommend reading the book if you can’t get hold of re-runs of this latest TV series.
Did you know – you can read about Rick Stein’s French Odyssey culinary cruise in southern France on our own French Waterways pages? Look here
Other than Sauternes, we haven’t featured any desserts in this article yet Stein himself says at the preamble of the book’s dessert section that the French still ‘rule the roost’ on the pudding front. And we can vouch for both his theory on building a dessert menu as well as the exemplary list of recipes included in this section – both are rousing for even the already fullest stomach!
Already got this book? Here are our other French food book recommendations
Ready to plan a future trip to France? Start here
Enjoy reading this? Do please share it with others – PIN this post:
