How persistent is the appeal of a terroir today? In the second edition of Isigny Sainte-Mère’s company history, the author quotes recent surveys which found that 30% of all Europeans think that the provenance of a cheese is an important factor in their choice. Three quarters also responded that they eat traditionally-made food, which are [...]

Speaking to the Isigny Sainte-Mère chef Ivan Vautier about his jazz concert performance with Andy Sheppard earlier this year, he was clear that he wanted to turn out recipes that would be impossible with a conventially-equipped domestic kitchen. His recipe for galettes, topped with a 65 degree egg and laid out on a cappucino of [...]

Finger food need not mean undistinguished or bland, but it does mean presenting food in a form in which it really can be eaten with fingers. Isigny Sainte-Mere chef Ivan Vautier puts a lot of time into his preparation which means that most of the real work is done before service starts: take his recipe [...]

Lurking in the back of every French kitchen cupboard will be a bottle of Crème de Cassis, a sweet blackcurrant liqueur with multitudes of uses. In his recipe for venison chops, Isigny Sainte-Mère chef Ivan Vautier uses it to add colour on the plate and sweetness in the eating. The full recipe is here: http://www.isigny-ste-mere.com/EN/r_viandes.php?id_type_recette=2&numero=18 [...]

Feeling like a change from Christmas pudding this year? Isigny Sainte-Mère chef Ivan Vautier has published numerous dessert recipes, including this one with poached pears at http://www.isigny-ste-mere.com/EN/r_dessert.php?id_type_recette=4&numero=27&page=1 It’s worth making sure that the pears are quite firm, so that they do not turn to a mush after being cooked. The result will still be edible, [...]

Seafood and a lot of inshore fisheries can be considered as extensions of the terroir notion, since the seabed that forms the continental shelf is contiguous with the land that supports the more readily accessible products of a terroir. By the same token, the inshore waters are fed by the rivers that cross the landscape. [...]

A Croque Monsieur is standard offering at bars and cafes across France: it comprises melted cheese on toast with a slice of ham between the cheese and the meat. When the Isigny Sainte-Mère chef Ivan Vautier prepared his version, he used Normandy’s charcuterie speciality, andouille, with Pont l’Evêque cheese. The andouille is a speciality sausage [...]

Fancy a change from turkey at Christmas? The Isigny Sainte-Mère chef and Michelin-starred restaurateur Ivan Vautier has a dramatic recipe for lobster on an onion tart base. Working in the opposite way to the celebrated Tatin sisters, Ivan cooks his onions on top of greaseproof paper atop a plancha or Spanish worktop hotplate, before adding [...]

As every Camembert is wrapped before going into its box, bear in mind that it is a living cheese and needs to breathe. That is why at least half the box will be made of wood, since boxes made completely of cardboard tend to go soggy, while the cheese does not travel well. The Camembert [...]

The cep is a member of the boletes family, which sports tubes instead of gills underneath the cap. Also known as porcini (piglets) in Italian and once referred to as the ‘penny bun’ in England, this imposing fungus has a delicate hazelnut flavour. It is a classic culinary fungus which, like the morel, can be [...]