Welcome to “The Gourmet Stage”! Nathalie Helal takes you on a gourmet journey from Versailles in Île-de-France to Orléans in the Centre-Val de Loire.
Visit the King’s Vegetable Garden
In this program, the artist and author of King’s vegetable garden, seasonal drawings at Versaillesmakes you discover the plate of the Sun King. In a logbook, she made sketches of morning picking by gardeners, for example.
She takes us behind the scenes of the plantations in the royal gardens.
Romain Chaudé from the Moulins de Versailles tells you the story of the town’s millers. A tradition from generation to generation that continues. The history of the Chaudé family took a turn in 1905, when it left its water mills to go and build a steam mill in Versailles.
It is one of the last cottage industries still operating in the center of Versailles. The grist is local, it comes from a maximum distance of 100 kilometres.
The company has less than 10 employees to produce its flour, but also other products to decorate bread or pastries.
Do you know the pithiviers? An artisanal pastry speciality, this cake is cooked in the traditional way. To preserve quality, the Confrérie du Pithiviers has registered a trademark which includes a professional charter: “L’Authentique Pithiviers”.
Nelson Carreira from the bakery Gaelle and Nelson Carreira in Chambon La Forêt makes you discover the specialty. He obtained the silver medal for the best pithiviers in 2021 and 2022.
Finally, Anthony Manceau from the Manceau butcher’s shop in Jargeau introduces us to the culinary art of Jargeau andouille sausage. This dish takes its name from the Middle Ages and has been known since the 19th century. Its success is linked to the brotherhood of knights of taste-andouille created in 1971.
The secrets of this sausage? Tripe and pork meat, often accompanied by onions, shallot or parsley. The secret of its taste also lies in its cooking in a broth of spices and herbs.