An Irish Chef in France

Euro-Toques chef Martin Dwyer, is much missed in Ireland since he and his wife Sile sold their eponymous restaurant in Waterford and moved to France. They now live in the Languedoc, where they take guests - and feed them very well.

This month: The Vine

First let me confess that I am not the gardener in Le Presbytère- that role is certainly taken by my wife Sile. I am called upon from time to time when there is heavy work involved but, after forty three years of marriage, we have discovered our own happiest spaces, mine in the kitchen and hers in the garden.

One of our primary requirements when we came looking for a house in the Languedoc was that it should have a garden, as we also wanted to be in the centre of a village this proved to be quite a stumbling block.

Surprisingly we were finally saved by the Catholic Church. Because it was reckoned essential for the parish priest to have a place of peaceful contemplation in which to say his daily office most presbyteries in France are furnished with a little garden, “le Jardin de Curé”. Now this is not at all extensive, not necessarily a bad thing, but being in the centre of an old village it is to be treasured.

The first summer we were here we bought a lot of plants – many that we had grown successfully in Ireland - for our little garden. We had, to our regret, a lot of failures. (I still have a gooseberry bush from that time which, to date, has produced exactly one gooseberry.)

Our successes have all been those plants which grow profusely in the area. We get a great crop of white peaches, the Oleander produces flowers all through the summer, even our lemon tree produces enough fruit to keep my grandsons supplied with lemonade when they visit.

But, without a doubt the most successful planting has been our vine.When we bought this, now about nine years ago, we quite carefully selected a table grape variety; Chasselas. We knew this white grape was very rarely turned into wine (they do make some of Chasselas in Switzerland but this is usually damned with the faint praise of being “flowery”)

Coming from Ireland we knew nothing at all about vine cultivation but we were aware that they thrived here in the Languedoc. The Herault, our department, is in fact, the most densely planted wine area in the world.

For the first few years our vine didn’t seem to be doing much, or so we thought. In fact it was extremely busy sending down roots until it found the water table, as we are at the very top of the village this took a few years, but, once it settled its feet happily in moisture it started to shoot up.

Now our garden is on a level below our terrace, about four metres lower. Pretty soon we began to notice that the vine seemed to be making a beeline for the terrace.

Our terrace, for six months of the year, is the most used part of our house. We take nearly all of our meals there and, as it faces due south and is protected from all three other directions by the house, it is a sun trap par excellence.

This of course brings its own problems as during the mid-summer months it becomes, particularly at mid-day, often too hot to enjoy and really needs some shade. This we have provided over the years by a variety of sunshades, but as we watched the vine climb up to the terrace we realised that it was, as originally intended, going to lend a hand and provide us with the best shade of all, a vine.

I may not be the gardener of the house but I certainly have adopted the role of tender of the vine. Every year over the last three or four, once the vine starts to shoot, you will find me up a ladder cajoling, teasing and weaving the vine into providing the best possible shade from the sun. Every year also, in April, I have meticulously cut off every bunch of grapes (leaving just enough to make grape jelly for the grandsons) this is to encourage the vine to make more shoots and leaves which was what we wanted.

This year I think we will make it, as you can see from the picture taken from across the valley from the house, the vine is already doing an excellent job and has a lot more growing to do. As a reward for its diligence I have decided this year for the first time, not to snip off the grapes. The truth of the matter is that it would produce far more than either I or my guests could possibly use. I shall leave a few come to full ripeness for the jelly and some more for the pure luxury of snipping off a bunch as I serve the cheese at dinner time and adding it to the board for the guests.

For the rest I am going to follow a recipe which the thrifty French housewife in these parts has traditionally used. Just before they ripen the grapes are snipped from the vine and squeezed to make Verjuice. This mild vinegar is now again becoming popular in cooking, and when properly preserved, capable of lasting until the next harvest. I will let you know how I get on.

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Martin Dwyer started cooking professionally over 40 years ago in the legendary “Snaffles Restaurant” in Dublin. After a time in a Relais Chateau in Anjou and in “The Wife of Bath” in Kent he opened his own much acclaimed restaurant, “Dwyers”, in Waterford in 1989. In 2004 he sold this and moved south to France where he and his wife Síle bought and restored an old presbytery in a village in the Languedoc. They now run Le Presbytère as a French style Chambre d’Hôte. Martin however is far too passionate about food to give up cooking so they now enjoy serving dinner to their customers on the terrace of Le Presbytère on warm summer evenings. Martin runs occasional cookery courses in Le Presbytère and Síle’s brother Colm does week long Nature Strolls discovering the Flora and Fauna of the Languedoc. 

Le Presbytère can be seen at: www.lepresbytere.net; 
email: martin@lepresbytere.net

Twitter: www.twitter.com/DwyerThezan