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Anne
Willan
From My Château Kitchen
by
Anne Willan (Clarkson Potter)
Burgundy beckoned and, of course, I responded. I hugged the rolling
hills and tasted food and wine—some of it straight from the
vat—in storybook towns from Pontigny to Chablis to Dijon. But,
apparently, there's one corner of Burgundy I missed that outshone
all the rest: Anne Willan's home. Willan is the famed cooking teacher
who founded Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris and its sister
campus La Varenne at The Greenbrier in West Virginia, and hosted
a PBS series based on her excellent Look & Cook cookbook
series.
Château
du Fey in Villecien is Willan's culinary haven filled with wood-fired
bread ovens and ancient open fireplaces in which kettles of pot
au feu boiled meat stews hang and bubble, and flanked with patches
of vegetables and fruits such as the wild, ungrafted peaches that
are grown between grapevines.
In the hands of a fine cook like Willan, the taste treats that emerge
from such a setting are almost indescribable. But, fortunately,
Willan has attempted to capture the magic in Anne Willan: From
My Château Kitchen. First, she sets the scene with scores
of gorgeous color photographs by Langdon Clay which fill a good
chunk of the 300-page book. The chateau, vistas throughout Burgundy
and mouthwatering closeups of Willan's specialties just may get
you checking your passport and packing a bag.
Before
she gets you cooking, Willan acclimates you to your new neighborhood.
With grace, wit and charm, she writes about her life in Burgundy:
"We first saw Château du Fey through the chill, sheeting rain
of a March afternoon. The shutters were barred and wrought-iron
gates tightly shut. The only sign of life was a thin thread of smoke
sliding down a lean-to roof against what appeared to be a sizable
pigeon house. The main house had an abandoned look and Mark and
I retreated, baffled. And discouraged. Why was it taking so long
to find our future home?"
After
a few more visits to the château and falling in love with
it, Willan writes: "I tried to control a rising excitement. We stood
on the terrace and admired the panoramic view, rare for a local
chateau, we learned later. Châteaux the size of Le Fey were
really working farms and most sheltered in a valley...From Le Fey
nine different villages can be seen, two of them on what used to
be chateau land and all of them witness to the age-old fertility
of Burgundian soil."
That
soil produces much of the bounty that makes Willan's cooking so
special. The potatoes grown on her land are the foundation for a
delicious gratin with bacon and cream. Watercress is the base of
a Dijon-vinaigrette salad that's topped with rounds of hot goat
cheese. Fresh tomato slices cover the top of a tart seasoned with
fresh basil, shallots, garlic and olive oil.
Of
course, a lot more than the garden contributes to Willan's menus.
Her breads are to die for. Burgundian spice bread houses aniseed,
cinnamon and cloves. Brie cheese and walnut brioche is habit forming.
In
grilled coriander chicken with yogurt, the chicken first moistens
by marinating in yogurt. It's then grilled with an excellent sauce
made from ground coriander, fried onion, garlic and yogurt. Sweet-sour
duck breast with cherries is a masterpiece in which the duck and
cooked fruit are topped by a sophisticated sauce of the duck's pan
juices, red wine, caramelized shallots and vinegar.
Although
this may sound complicated, it's not. Willan makes all of her world-class
recipes seem like a piece of cake, and has proven it before in cookbooks,
on TV and in interviews such as one I once did with her in which
she espoused her philosophy of keeping everything simple. The proof
is in the potatoes—and the hot goat cheese salad, as evidenced
by these two recipes:
RECIPES
—Gratin
of Potatoes with Bacon and Cream
—Hot Goat Cheese Salad
(Updated: 10/30/08 SB) |
