Mastering the Art of French Eating by Ann Mah

Author:Ann Mah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2013-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

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I thought cassoulet came from Toulouse, but once I decided to travel there, to discover the dish’s true story and secrets, I learned that an entire region of southwestern France claims it, specifically a cradle-shaped territory that forms the province formerly known as Languedoc. “Cassoulet is the God of the Occitan cuisine,” wrote the chef, culinary lexicographer, and author of the first Larousse Gastronomique, Prosper Montagné, in his 1929 book, Le Festin Occitan. “A god in three forms: God the father is the cassoulet of Castelnaudary; God the son is that of Carcassonne; and the Holy Spirit is that of Toulouse.” These three cities—Toulouse, Castelnaudary, and Carcassonne—lie in a line that curves gently eastward, connected not only by cassoulet but also by the seventeenth-century man-made waterway the Canal du Midi.

The territory of Languedoc takes its name from its language, the Latin-based langue d’oc, spoken there since the twelfth century. The word oc, which means “yes,” distinguished the language from the langue d’oïl, spoken farther north, where the word oïl eventually became oui. Speakers of the language of Oc were called oc-citan—Occitan—and they once covered most of southern France. Today the langue d’oc is still spoken by about a third of the region’s population, taught in the region’s schools, and broadcast on television and radio.

Until the French Revolution, the kingdom of France was organized into provinces—like the Languedoc, or Burgundy, or Champagne—their boundaries delineated more by common customs and traditions than political decree. In 1790 this system was abandoned in favor of the administrative départements still used today. Languedoc was divided, and Toulouse, the province’s ancient capital, became part of the Midi-Pyrénées, while the rest of the territory formed the Languedoc-Roussillon. This explained why my favorite French guidebooks, the Guide du Routard series, split Toulouse from Castelnaudary and Carcassonne.

Over the centuries Toulouse has enjoyed many waves of prosperity: as a central city of Roman Gaul, as a Visigothic and Carolingian capital, as one of medieval Europe’s great artistic and literary capitals governed by the counts of Toulouse, as a center of the Renaissance dye trade, and today as the headquarters of Airbus, one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers. Wandering the city in the famous southern sunshine, I noticed that everything and everyone seemed tinged with a rosy glow, the flush heightened by the reflection of sun on Renaissance architecture. They call Toulouse la ville rose—the pink city—and indeed the streets are a girlish paradise, ranging from sixteenth-century hôtels particuliers in shades of palest petal to the hot coral brick façades of the place du Capitole.

I kept searching for a hint of the town’s status as the “father” of cassoulet, which the culinary historian Prosper Montagné had mentioned. The city, however, with its crowds of well-heeled shoppers and university students sauntering arm in arm, seemed to have other interests. Though many restaurants offered cassoulet—usually announced in a chalkboard scrawl reading CASSOULET MAISON TRADITIONNEL! which made me very dubious indeed—they all also specified that they served “le véritable cassoulet de Castelnaudary,” the authentic cassoulet of Castelnaudary.

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