An Irish Chef in France

Euro-Toques chef Martin Dwyer, much missed in Ireland since he and his wife Sile sold their eponymous restaurant in Waterford and moved to France, describes how they landed on their feet when they decided to live in the Languedoc

We may well have settled on the Languedoc for practical reasons but soon realised that it is a very special area indeed. It has a unique climate; our village of Thezan les Beziers is about 15 kilometres from the beaches on the Mediterranean Sea to the south and about the same distance from the Monts d’Espinouse, which are the continuation of the Montagnes Noires, to the North.

These mountains are in fact the foothills of France’s great internal plateau, the Massif Central so we, in its shelter enjoy a mild Mediterranean climate, with the soft wind called Le Marin blowing from the South East and only occasional blasts from the Tramontane which carries colder winds from the Pyrenees.

The land is almost 100% given over to the production of wines, and, even though there are many wonderful vintages produced by small boutique vineyards, historically the great bulk of wines produced here were lowest common denominator: Vins de Pays. This has now placed the whole region at an advantage.

As these warhorse vines are being uprooted and replaced with modern named varieties Languedoc is heading the posse in France for producing varietal wines, as they do in the new world, and as the modern vine drinker expects. This is why they call Languedoc France’s new world wine producer. From a wine drinker’s point of view it means that the wines of the area are as yet (with a few exceptions) very competitively priced and it is not at all strange for us to be able to buy excellent wines En Vrac ( a bring your own bottle to the vineyard system) for as little as a Euro a litre.

As well as the exciting times which are happening on the wine front Languedoc has always had its own cuisine, quite distinct from its neighbours in Provence and Gascony.

Languedoc boasts its own large fishing port in Sete which has produced a great classic of French cuisine La Bourride, this dish certainly rivals and in my opinion is better and more refined than the Provençal Bouillabaisse.

Away from the sea the thrifty farmers of the Languedoc have come up with one of the most delicious of their peasant stews in the Cassoulet. This combines using the preserved Confit of duck or goose (a by-product, in fact, of the Foie Gras industry) with various discarded parts of the pig or lamb butchery, some local sausage and a hearty quantity of beans to stitch them all together.

Just to the south of us is the saltwater internal lake of the Etang de Thau which is awash with Mussel and Oyster farms, revered by the cognoscenti for the high salinity which makes them particularly prized.

The spring here is full of blossom, particularly Cherry, which thrives along the slopes of the mountains to the north but also we get early peaches and apricots and superb plums from up the road in Agen.

This is not a land of cheeses (although I do love a local fresh goat’s cheese, especially when eaten for breakfast with Honey and Walnuts) but it is not too far to Roquefort, arguably Frances premier Blue Cheese which is made from Sheep’s milk, or its close cousin, Blue d’Auvergne which is made from the milk of cows.

But having decided that this was the right place for us we also then had to determine that the people of Thezan thought we were the right people for them.

On our first year in Thezan Síle noticed that the village was looking for a posse of volunteers to spend a day cleaning up the village. Now this seemed to us an ideal opportunity for us to integrate and even ingratiate ourselves into village life. There were about 26 of us, of all ages and stations who gathered at the Mediatheque that morning and we were furnished with yellow jackets, protective gloves and long tweezers to pick up the rubbish, and black sacks to put it in.

It was a tough day’s work, and some of it fairly disgusting (France has fly-tippers too) but it had its rewards. One was we got to meet a whole heap of new people, all local and all delighted to welcome us in.

In the middle of the day we were given lunch and it was a very good one, aperitifs, terrine, couscous, grilled sausages and cheese and coffee. Plenty of wine was drunk by all, including the Mayor who joined us for lunch. Without doubt the best part of the day for the Dwyers was when the Mayor addressed us directly and said "Well, do you think you made the right decision to move to Thezan?" Síle made the perfect reply; "We are delighted, we love it here "

This was greeted with huge beams from everyone (including the Mayor) and a surprising round of applause. It seemed we had started to be part of the village...

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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