Cassis Bistro chef trades techniques with Mama Régine in South of France
'It's amazing how much you can understand someone when you don't even speak the same language'
For restaurateur Gilles Brassart, the best part about owning French restaurants in Calgary is the thrill of bringing the food of his childhood to Calgarians.
"There's a whole other excitement you don't find in France," says Andrea, his wife and co-owner of Cassis and Suzette Brittany Bistros.
"To cook french food in France isn't the same — people are used to it. They're experts! They're like, 'Meh — my mom makes that.'"
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To that end, this past summer Gilles and Andrea brought chef Stephanie Borgens, who has been in the kitchen at Cassis for the past two years, back home to France to cook with Gilles' mother, Régine, at her home near Aix-en-Provence.
"We really want to go back to Gilles' roots, and his mom's roots, in the deep south of France," said Andrea of their evolving menu at Cassis — a warm, approachable bistro on 17th Avenue at Crowchild Trail.
"Everything she cooks is amazing, more often better than you'd get in any restaurant. Our goal is to present that to our guests."
Soul food
Borgens grew up just outside Calgary on a small farm in Water Valley and attended the Culinary Arts program at SAIT before becoming Chef de Cuisine at Capo with chef Giuseppe Di Gennaro.
While she had traveled to Italy and cooked in kitchens in Vancouver and Australia, she hadn't yet been to France.
"Most of my cooking background is Italian, but I found the transition to French quite difficult — except for the south of France," Borgens said.
"The cuisine in the south of France and Northern Italy are actually quite similar. In the south of France there are olive trees, tomatoes, all the same ingredients you'd find in traditional Italian cooking — there's so much crossover. It's soul food. It makes you feel good."
Adopting the French rhythm of life
Borgens went to France with Gilles and Andrea and their daughter, and stayed with Régine for 10 days.
"I was like part of the family," she said. "It was amazing. You have pastis (an anise-flavoured spirit and apéritif) in the afternoon, and sit down to a proper dinner. By living with them, I got to experience the day to day rhythm of the south of France."
They spent days cooking together, often browsing through Régine's old recipe cards and books.
Some Borgens couldn't decipher, and so took photos on her phone and brought them back to her French sous chef and right-hand man, Sebastian Herrera, to translate.
Trading techniques
Many of the techniques mama Régime passed on were ones her mother had taught her.
Language was a minor barrier, but they both spoke the language of the kitchen. "She'd explain something in French, and then she'd show me, and then I'd show her the way I did it — it was a really neat exchange," Borgens said.
"It's amazing how much you can understand someone when you don't even speak the same language."
They harvested produce from the backyard garden, and used olive oil pressed from the small olive grove in her backyard.
They collected ingredients from neighbours down the road — one grows almonds, and another raises lambs and goats. It wasn't unusual to spend three hours at the table lingering over a meal.
"When you sit down to eat, it's not to sustain yourself with food; it's to enjoy, to spend time with your family, to enjoy your glass of wine," Borgens said.
"Coffee to go doesn't exist there. You don't take your coffee anywhere. You sit, you enjoy your coffee, you visit, and then you go."
Ironically, soon there will be coffee to go beside Cassis, as they expand to include a coffee shop in Market 17 next door. Geared toward cyclists like Gilles, they hope it will become a new hub for the community they live and work in sometime around mid-November.
Cooking like grandma
Some of mama Régine's dishes have made their way back to the menu at Cassis — like the stuffed Cornish hen with mashed potatoes and chicken liver and mushroom fricassée, stuffed calamari, soup au pistou (a Provençal vegetable soup), and a tomato and olive tart.
Once a year Régine comes to Calgary and joins the kitchen to prepare dinner at Cassis during her visit — they send out an email letting customers know it's time for dinner with mama Régine, and it sells out every time.
"Someone once told me I cook like a grandmother," Borgens said.
"And I thought that was an amazing compliment, because when you eat your grandmother's food, you go home and you feel good. You may be stuffed, but that sense of health and happiness and love — it's all there in the food."
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