An Edible Voyage

June 2021 I first discovered the delights of Pompette during the lockdown with one of their At Home meals.  It was so memorable that it immediately went to the top of my list of restaurants to eat at as soon as restaurants could open up post pandemic.  My mum was in town one Sunday, restrictions had eased, it was time! Pompette has such a great vibe - from the moment you turn off of Bnabury Road and see the vibrant red awning, to the laid back atmosphere that invites the long, leisurely lunches that France is known for.  I really could stay there for hours, beginning with their homebaked baguette and Burgundy butter to accompany an apperitif, moving on to the steak-frites and a good bottle of red wine, then finishing up with a coffee and digestif late in the afternoon. The creme brulee is exceptional - everything you want from this luxurious dessert.  A wide, shallow dish to give the perfect topping to custard ratio, that satisfying crack as you break through the war...

February 2020 Snow in winter, sun in summer and always incredibly scenic mountains.  The cuisine is influenced by rural farming villages of years gone, leading to hearty dishes, heavy in dairy products. Winter and summer I love the French Alps.    Chamonix is my choice for the summer – plenty to do, great vibe, some stunning hikes, start of the Haute Route trail, and close to some beautiful lakes to cool off in.    Come winter, La Plagne is great for mixed ability groups as there are lots of wide, cruisey blue runs, but plenty to keep more advanced skiers and boarders challenged.    St Martin de Belleville is a pretty, quaint mountain village with a relaxed vibe, but which is linked by a gondala and chair lift to the 600km of pistes in the 3 Valleys.    It’s a great option if you’re not looking for anything too raucous but don’t want to compromise on the size of the ski area.    And if you do fancy an apres-ski p...

February 2020 Micro-breweries are popping up all over the Alps.  MBC in Chamonix brew some tasty beers and also do delicious chicken wings (half price on Mondays!).  Ibex brewery in Morzine was a recent discovery for me.  Both their Cabin Fever IPA and Apres Apres IPA are full of flavour and well balanced. Find Ibex beers at Pourquoi Pas bar in St Martin de Belleville, and MBC beers at MBC in Chamonix.

February 2020 I am never too sure about this dish.     Hailing from Savoie, it’s a must-try in the Alps, but I always feel it should be served as a side dish rather than as a meal in itself.    Layers of potato, onion and bacon are baked in a reblochon cheese, cream and white wine sauce.    It’s a very rich dish, and a good one to keep you full for the day when in the mountains, but the mildness of the reblochon means I find they are often rather bland.    A variation is Croziflette, made in the same way but using tiny squares of locally produced buckwheat pasta in place of potato. Find it at almost every restaurant in the Savoie region.

February 2020 These sausages from the Savoie region have a dense, meaty texture and are bursting with flavour.     They are traditionally cooked in white wine and served with crozets (see ‘Tartiflette’).     I was sceptical about whether these would be any different to a good British sausage, but they really were distinctive and so flavoursome. Find them at L’eterlou in St Martin de Belleville.

February 2020 Another of my ‘must try’ dishes whenever I find myself in France, and another dish accidentally created when the filling was overcooked and started to burn but was served anyway and loved by all.    An apple tart caramelised with calvados so that the pastry is soft, sticky and sweet, the apples are soft, sticky and sweet, and there is a lively zestiness from the brandy that goes particularly well with the creaminess of the vanilla ice cream.    This one had the added bonus of being served alongside a canelé, a cylindrical pastry from Bordeaux with a gooey centre which contrasts particularly well with the tough, caramelised crust.    The nut brittle gave a pleasing contrasting texture to a soft dessert. Find it at La Roy, a homely mountain restaurant hidden just off the Biolley run in St Martin de Belleville.    

February 2020 I get excited when I come across a place selling escargots.    Even though they taste only of the copious amounts of garlic and parsley butter they are swimming in, I do enjoy the meaty texture.    I found some at La Voute, a restaurant on the main street of St Martin de Belleville, although they were out of their shells and I think I prefer them when they still have their shells on – the process of using the various implements to remove them adds a certain something to the drama of the dish.    So although they were good, they didn’t quite match the ones I found at a restaurant near the Trocadero in Paris which were beautifully presented in a ceramic egg box.

February 2020 Anywhere else this would be textures of chestnut.    A miniature chestnut crème brulee works fantastically well to give a subtle variation on a traditional dessert, and features alongside a miniature chestnut tart and madeleine.    Use the chestnut brittle and smears of the sticky, sweet crème de marron to balance the delicious, almost savoury chestnut ice cream – a real highlight of the dish for me.    Find it at La Montagnard in St Martin de Belleville, a cosy restaurant in a converted barn with an intimate atmosphere and cheerful staff.    They also do a fantastic burger topped with local cheese.

February 2020 Make no mistake about it, I love cheese, pretty much every type of cheese, so you would think these dishes would be a dream come true for me.     And I do love them in small doses, I just find it difficult to comprehend eating such a vast quantity of cheese in one sitting – where almost the whole meal is melted cheese.   Raclette is a Swiss cheese, nutty and sweet with earthy undertones, which has become popular in the French Alps.  Around 200g of cheese per person is melted under a table top grill and scraped off as it cooks, on to a plate of boiled potatoes, gherkins and charcuterie. Cheese fondue is a mix of firm, mountain cheeses such as gruyere, emmental, comte and beaufort, heated with white wine, a little garlic and Dijon mustard.  The communal ceramic pot is placed above a burner in the centre of the table for everyone to dip bite-size pieces of bread in to, using a long, thin fork.  It is delicious, especiall...

February 2020 Patisserie I love a good choux pastry.    In fact, it’s probably my favourite type of pastry, so any trip to France is a great opportunity for me to get my fix.    It only seemed right to combine it with a French favourite – crème de marron, et voila, you have a Choux Crème Marron.    A sort of chestnut flavoured pastry cream is piped on to a choux dome with a very thin tipped piping bag so it looks like spaghetti.    The slightly crisp, light choux pastry the perfect vehicle for this very sweet with a hint of nuttiness creamy delight. French meringues are a delight for my palette when it comes to texture – crunchy outside, chewy inside.    Add in the crack of dark chocolate chips and it’s a winner. Find these at La Rissole, St Martin de Belleville’s village bakery.    They also do a delicious tarte au citron – tangy, sweet and a little bit sticky. Viennoiserie I’ve spent a lot of...