These Chefs and Producers are Shaking Up the Time-Tested Loire Valley Food Scene

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These Chefs and Producers are Shaking Up the Time-Tested Loire Valley Food Scene

The Valley of Kings is home to more than imposing castles, it has been a cradle of great, classic French food. But new players in the food and dining industry have entered the game and are adding novelty to the Loire Valley’s food scene.

The Loire Valley has long been the breadbasket of French agriculture, producing most of the country’s colza, 13% of its wheat, and a host of other delicacies. Many of France’s most beloved goat cheeses call the Loire home, from the ashy round puck of Selles-sur-Cher to the truncated pyramid of Valençay. It is here that you’ll find mineral-forward Sancerres and the sparkling Vouvrays that help cement the region’s status as the second-largest producer of sparkling wine in France, after Champagne. It is here that the Tatin sisters ostensibly accidentally invented their eponymous tart; it is here that Rabelais’ gluttonous Gargantua devoured four bulls, fifty sheep, and three hundred partridges for dinner alone (and died of indigestion).  

But there’s a new wind blowing on the Loire Valley’s food scene, where a new generation of innovators is toying with what it means to live up to local terroir. 

The Château de Rivau in Lémeré stands out from neighboring Amboise and Chambord, which beckon visitors from nearby Paris to see what the country’s most Italian king could imagine with Leonardo da Vinci in his corner. Not only is Rivau far older than its Renaissance cousins, with foundations dating back to the 13th century, but its gardens are crafted with fairy tale allure. The potager specifically is dedicated to Gargantua, planted up with 43 varieties of winter squash alone, not to mention fruit trees ranging from apples to native nèfles.

While some of this bounty finds its way into the kitchen of Chef Andrea Modesto, former second to Joël Robuchon, at the on-site Jardin Secret restaurant, the garden also plays a far larger role in the preservation of local agricultural heritage. Since 2013, this potager has been part of the region’s Conservatoire du Patrimoine Légumier, growing little-known or at-risk varieties like the Saint-Marc yellow turnip, purple Tours celery, and Barangeonnier beans and disseminating the seeds to other local gardens. 

The Académie de la Truffe in nearby Ligré is equally concerned with the preservation of culinary heritage, albeit with a much narrower focus: restoring the world’s most famous fungus to the local landscape after a hundred-year absence. While until World War I, truffles had been a core bounty of Touraine, with about 80 tons of the black gold exported from the city of Richelieu per year at the turn of the 20th century, following the devastation of the War, the industry lacked the manpower to continue. The Académie de la Truffe takes full advantage of techniques culled from the Japanese art of bonsai to prune its trees, ensuring adequate sunlight on their roots and thus promoting a robust harvest.

For the moment, the Académie is open only by appointment, catering mainly to team-building exercises for local businesses. But the adjoining Les Jardiniers restaurant takes full advantage of this bounty – as well as other elements of the Loire’s terroir – for a produce-forward menu capitalizing on local ingredients and in-house fermentation. House-made yeast crackers are served with truffle butter, while the appetizer of the day is always governed by house produce, from nasturtiums to root vegetables. Mains may feature duck from nearby Ingrandes or mushrooms from Bernazay. 

Local bounty is on the menu at Blois’ L’Amour Blanc as well, where the bread course is served, not with olive oil, but colza, and caviar is sourced from Sologne. A mostly-natural selection of wines accompanies sweet-and-sour Loire River mullet or veal from the chef’s own wagyu property accompanied by cabbages from the kitchen garden. 

Perhaps the most locavore of all, however, are the duo behind La Cabane à Matelot in Bréhémont, jointly run by professional river fisherman Romain Gadais and Chef Ambroise Voreux. Here, Gadais’ spoils dictate the daily menu, completed with local bounty like poires tapées, a delicacy that sees pears peeled, dried in a wood-fired oven, and pounded flat. Here, they’re transformed in-house into a fermented kefir beverage, the perfect non-alcoholic accompaniment to Voreux’ astounding dishes, like barbel reimagined like a boudin blanc or aspe marinated in house-made garum, an Ancient Roman answer to fish sauce. 

For dessert, head to Amboise, home to Yves Thuriès, an exquisite chocolatier récoltant. Thuriès boasts his own sustainable cacao plantation in San Fernando, Ecuador, marrying the fruity beans with his own hazelnuts, grown in the Southwest. The toasted hazelnuts are the main ingredient in his pralines, not to mention a unique house creation: a calisson reimagined with rich, nutty noisettes in place of almonds. 

Amour Blanc

Lead photo credit : Les Jardiniers

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Comments

  •  Gavin
    2024-11-06 06:30:47
    Gavin
    I do not find the colour of the Amour Blanc pleasing - too muddy perhaps?

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