Discovering Traditional French Cuisine in The Medieval City of Carcassonne
1 Video View·Nov 13, 2023
Famous for its medieval fortress, the south-western French city of Carcassonne is also renowned for its cassoulet, a hearty dish made with meat and white beans. FRANCE 24 takes you to meet a chef for some tips on how to make this delicious stew.
The medieval town is the jewel of the city,
and if we think of a city that's emblematic of the Middle Ages,
it's Carcassonne.
It's known throughout the world.
The cassoulet, or stew, is the god of Occitan cuisine.
Back in the 13th and 14th centuries,
they first started making cassoulet.
When we were young, our grandmothers made it on Sundays.
They took the stew to the bakers,
where they'd keep it in the oven.
They went to Mass and then returned to bring it home.
A good stew can only be served in a good casserole dish
that keeps it hot.
And I found the right blend of earthenware
to have a reliable, pretty, and solid material.
Perched above the river Oude,
the citadel of Carcassonne is part of a thousand-year history.
It's the largest medieval city in Europe,
and it's a living legend in the newly named region of Occitanie,
in the southwest of France.
Carcassonne is lucky to be right in the center
of the new region called Occitanie,
which includes the old region of Languedoc-Roussillon,
Catalan country, and extends almost as far as Bordeaux.
Once one of the capitals of the Christian world,
Carcassonne was on the pilgrim's path
to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Pope Urban II came to bless the stones of the city,
so it's one of St. James's itineraries along the Mediterranean.
In the heart of the city, at the Auberge de Lis Inn,
Chef Blasco is preparing a dish that locals consider divine.
Cassoulet is a stew. It's a family dish.
Legend has it that during the Hundred Years' War in the 15th century,
they used beans to make cassoulet for the troops.
And in Carcassonne, they put partridge in it.
A true regional dish, authentic Occitan cassoulet
is made with local ingredients,
and cooked with the regional savoir-faire.
It all starts here, to prepare the cassoulet with pork breast,
rinds, hocks, and feet, and to accompany it, beans, of course.
One of the secrets lies in cooking it in two different stages,
first simmering the ingredients,
before putting it in the oven in a casserole.
We let the beans soak and simmer before bringing them to a boil.
We mix cooking stock with the beans, then we drain them.
We put them in with the other ingredients in the cassoulet,
and we put it all in the oven.
We'll put the duck in.
And now all that's missing is the sausage. There.
The cassoulet is ready to go in the oven,
and has to be cooked in the casserole.
Cassoulet draws its name from the dish it's cooked in,
the cassoule, or in English, casserole.
Guy is one of the last artisan potters to make terracotta dishes.
For many years now, I've been working with restaurant owners
in Carcassonne who want flat, wide, resistant casseroles
that keep the food warm at the table.
And these are the qualities we find in the earth nearby,
from next door, in fact, northwest of Noire Mountain.
The fruitinous earth, rich in iron, was also used by their ancestors.
Guy carries on the traditional crafts of local potters in his work.
I start shaping it to get rid of any air pockets,
so that gives it a rough form to begin with before spinning it.
That way, it requires less effort to work it when we spin on the wheel.
It takes a long time to learn how to work the potter's wheel,
especially when you want to make loads of pieces in the same style,
and do a series, a whole series by hand.
Making handicraft dishes with genuine skill
requires keeping up a regional art which may be on the verge of disappearing.
There are not too many of us left who know how to work the potter's wheel,
so I want to make products stamped with the Occitan cross,
the symbol of our region.
Now the time has come to return to the kitchen
to take out the Occitan cassole and taste it.
And here's the cassole, finished with a nice crust.
Now let's bring it to the table.
Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to welcome the god of Occitan cuisine, the cassole.
Served in the mold of Occitan folklore,
the cassole is savoured as a tasty sample of the land,
which connects the guests to a long regional tradition.
You have to be determined, you have to love your job.
This has always been my passion.
I think it's part of our heritage now to make cassoulet,
and the dish it comes in, the casserole.
The chef Prospere Montagnier said cassoulet is a three-headed god,
with Cassol Naudery, the father, Carcassonne, the son, and Toulouse, the Holy Spirit.