Wining and Dining Provencal Style

On Tuesday, we joined five others and took a cooking and wine tasting class in the heart of Aix-en-Provence. Oh. My. Gosh. It was amazing from start to finish.

At 9:45 a.m., we met Brian (host) and Ronald (chef) under the Hotel de Ville clock tower.  There were 7 of us—oddly enough, one of the other couples, Cynthia and Rick, lives in West Seattle, and Brian is from Burien. The Puget Sound rocks!  Laura and Nathan were from Connecticut, and Sarah hailed from Australia.

We walked a block or two to the open-air produce market where Ronald inspected and purchased all manner of fruits and vegetables while educating us on how to pick the best ones. Next, off to the Poissonier to buy Sea Bream, a mild white fish. Then we headed to the teeny tiny Fromagerie to buy a lot of beurre (butter!) and crème fraiche. We ended our tour by stopping by the wine shop and Brian picked up 4 bottles of wine—two roses from Bandol, a white wine, and a late harvest Grenache.

The Aix produce market

Ronald shops for melons.

We went to a loft apartment in a very old building. The apartment was small and adorable! The 7 of us crowded around the counter and watched Ronald cook our meal. Did I say watched? We actually helped him by chopping vegetables, cutting fruit, and deboning fish. Along the way, Ronald—a wiry, Frenchman who talks a mile a minute and cracks a lot of jokes—taught us the correct way to chop, to hold a knife, and to cook.

Ronald shows us how to chop parsley.

Deb and David learn how to quickly chop red bell peppers.

Here’s what we ended up having for lunch: Chantrelle mushrooms in butter sauce, melon, Italian ham, and figs with basil, a mixture of sautéed vegetables, Sea Bream in beurre blanc sauce, and rice pilaf, along with our dessert—various fresh fruits that had been marinating in sugar and Grenache wine while we ate.

During lunch, Brian—who specializes in wines—gave us a course in tasting and buying wine. We learned the 5 “S’s” of wine: See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, and Savor! We tasted three great Provencal wines along with dinner and dessert.

Course 1--Chantrelles in butter sauce.

Course 2 - Melons, ham, and fig.

(See how happy we all were? And we hadn't even eaten yet!)

Frankly, we were sorry to leave! It was 3 p.m. and we were stuffed. Later, Brian emailed us the recipes that Ronald made us. Wow! For more information, visit www.wineinprovence.com!

Correction: My dear brother pointed out that most restaurants in France offer meals where the service tip is included. True, that. But for higher end venues where service is incredible, it's perfectly okay to add a tip, in cash, or round up to the nearest Euro.