“The Gourmet Stage” offers you a new itinerant meeting between Nantes and Bordeaux. By taking you to meet local flavors and producers, Nathalie Helal is accompanied Sandrine Audegondwine specialist and historian.
The Vincent Guerlais chocolate factory
Departing from Nantes, let’s take a look at an exceptional chocolate factory which is celebrating its quarter of a century.
From 2008 to 2012, the Vincent Guerlais chocolate factory was one of the ten national winners of the prize for the best chocolate maker in France awarded by the association of Chocolate Crunchers. This chocolate factory, with its six shops in the Loire-Atlantique department, offers fine pastries, soft macaroons and even subtle chocolates.
The new specialty of the house? The “P”tit Beurre by Vinent” The petit-beurre is indeed a very local specialty that Vincent Guerlais has chosen to revisit by coating the praline biscuit with a layer of melting chocolate.
White prawns in Bordeaux
There are still “real” fishermen in the city of Bordeaux. These, like Jean-Marie Hauchecorne, leave traps in the Garonne to bring up eels, white shrimp or catfish. Former consultant for large companies, Jean-Marie Hauchecorne has become a fisherman at heart. He resells what he catches to local restaurants and amateurs.
A lover of the heritage and richness represented by the Garonne, he also helps people discover the river and its secrets.
“The Gourmet Stage” also introduces you to the Saunion chocolate factory with Thierry Lalet. Distinguished by the State label “Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant” (EPV), the Saunion house has been making delicacies since 1893. The production is artisanal in a workshop in Bordeaux.
A specialty to know? Les guinettes bordelaises, chocolate candies with alcoholic cherries hidden inside.