Taste le Tour with Gabriel Gaté S08 2012 EP167
Channel: Peter J Warren
Date: 2020-06-29

This is the stunning gothic cathedral of Chartres just south of Paris and north of the Loire Valley in the region called la Beauce.

Voice over

This is the flattest agricultural landscape of France. 

The farmers are successful at growing the wheat that is used to make the bread that the all world raves about. 

I am here to find out the secret of the French baguette.

The wonderful French baguette is the result of much care. 

It starts with making the best possible flour from wheat, and my meeting with sixth generation local miller, Alexandre Viron, gives me important answers to the secret.


Interview Alexandre Viron

Our flour is good because we are lucky to be in the wheat area of France,
called la Beauce, and we can blend all type of wheat, all varieties, to be able to produce the flour we need to let our customers - bakers, ah do the good baguette.
So the blending is to know at first, to know varieties and to take the best one to be able to produce the most regular flour all of the year.


Voice over
Cyril Avert a master baker from Chartres, makes some of the best traditional bread of the region in his boulangerie, using only yeast, salt, filtered water and the special wheat flour.

One of his secrets is to knead these four ingredients at low speed to form a relaxed dough.

After resting it for one hour, comes the big secret: a slow fermentation.


Gabriel to camera

This is a fermenting room at low temperature.  The bread ferments here for fifteen hours very slowly and that will give lots of flavour to the bread.



Voice over

The superb dough is divided, then shaped into baguettes and cooked into crusty sticks with a thin and appetising golden crust and an irresistible aroma.

 
 

Interview Cyril Avert 

Voilà une belle baguette, Gabriel, alvéolée, une odeur, une mie, un petit peu crémé.  Voilà à quoi on reconnaît une bonne baguette qui est petrie de façon lente.
On a donné le temps à la pâte et le temps au travail.

Here is a beautiful baguette with plenty of air pockets, with a slightly creamy colour. This is how you recognise a good baguette that has been slowly kneaded.
We have given time for the dough to develop, and been patient with time. 



Brioche Perdue
French Toasted Brioche

Voice over

This delicious toasted brioche dish is made using one-day-old brioche and is so easy to prepare.

First, in a pan on medium heat I place 1 cup of milk with 30g of caster sugar and half a vanilla pod.  Whisk all the ingredients until the sugar has melted, then transfer to a wide dish to cool.

Next I beat an egg with 20g of sugar.  I then cut 6 thick slices of brioche.

I briefly dip the brioche slices in the cold milk and lightly coat them with the egg mix.

I cook the brioche in butter on both sides until golden brown.

Gabriel to camera

"This is a popular special occasion breakfast for the family."

I like to serve the sweet toasted brioche dusted with icing sugar and a little cinnamon.

Voilà!  The Brioche Perdue… perfect for a Sunday breakfast with red fruits.


Gabriel to camera

After three glorious weeks in provincial France this is Paris, and tomorrow I visit a great cheese shop where I taste an amazing brie that is made just outside Paris.