Renaissance in Basque Country

Visiting the Basque Country for the first time some 20 years ago, I was famished after the five-hour train ride from Paris to Biarritz, so I tumbled right off the train into a tavern near the station. It had a white stucco interior, a dark wood-beamed ceiling and table runners of striped Basque linen. The menu was my first glimpse of Basque food. I ordered piperade, a regional classic of soft scrambled eggs with green peppers, tomatoes and onions, which came topped with several brittle slices of well-grilled country ham; then came fresh tuna steak. Both were delicious and I promptly fell in love with the region, the southernmost corner of France.

During the next few days, however, I never again found a meal as good as that first one. Almost everywhere, regional authenticity was dumbed down, as if the cooks were afraid that the robust, clear tastes of Basque cuisine might trouble northern French palates, more accustomed to unctuous cream sauces. I mused on this distant and now radically upended past recently, as I traveled through the Basque region — whisked there on a three hour TGV joyride from Paris — to relish its astonishing culinary renaissance.

At the new L’Auberge Basque in St-Pée-sur-Nivelle, young chef Cédric Béchade offers some of the most sophisticated contemporary cooking to be found anywhere in France. Interestingly, Béchade isn’t even a native born Basque, but rather an ambitious and very talented cook who was drawn to the region, he says, by “its superb cooking, amazing produce and great quality of life.” Joining a growing number of young chefs who signal the sea change in Basque country image and cooking, Béchade is on the leading edge of the region’s new wave. “I worked in Paris for a long time,” he explains, “but I couldn’t’ wait to get back here. There are few places in Europe where you have so many spectacular ingredients at hand, and now that the border between France and Spain has more or less dissolved, you can shop the whole region for produce. We don’t hesitate to drive south for a great meal, any more than the Spanish hesitate to drive north. The Basque country is a good reflection of the new Europe — it’s a once-splintered region made whole, and that makes it one of the most exciting places to eat in Europe today.”

At his auberge in the lush green countryside just inland from seaside St-Jean-de-Luz, Béchade works in a sleek open kitchen from which he can observe guests in the contemporary dining room that’s been added to a handsome 17th century traditional Basque farmhouse. Since he’s passionate about working with fresh seasonal produce, his menu changes often, but an excellent dinner on a September night began with locally produced foie gras sautéed, wrapped in a fine corn crepe and served with three different sauces — a tangy tomato chutney, an espelette-pepper syrup (the small red peppers grown in the town of Espelette are one of the region’s gastronomic emblems) and a creamy corn puree. Each sauce brought out different aspects of the perfectly sautéed foie gras, and a garnish of yellow beans with fine slivers of Bayonne ham added interesting texture to the artfully composed dish. A main course of grilled Ibaiona pork — Ibaiona pigs are raised near St-Jean-Pied-de-Port and yield some of the world’s best pork — was brightened with a sauce of pan juices, cider and finely grated Granny Smith apples. Sautéed mirabelle plums for dessert arrived under long wands of crumbly homemade shortbread.

Farther inland, just outside of Hasparren, genial chef Arnaud Daguin and his charming wife, Véronique, offer another take on the new Basque hostelry at their delightfully restored guesthouse Hegia, a 1746 stone farmhouse perched on a hillside with splendid views of the surrounding Labourd region. The sleek, all-white interior and contemporary furnishings come as a surprise, including the long oak table and high stools in the dining area of Daguin’s open kitchen, from which guests watch the chef at work.

Daguin formerly cooked at Les Platanes in Biarritz, but wanting to return to cooking that was more spontaneous and personal, he and his wife devised their table d’hôte formula: no menu, no wine list; breakfast and dinner only, served solely to guests staying in one of their five spacious, minimalist white rooms with black-and-white mosaic tile baths.

“It is not a restaurant,” says Daguin. “It’s a private home with paying guests.” (It does, however, have one Michelin star.) Since many of those guests stay at Hegia for several days, Daguin’s menus change daily. One recent feast began with small sautéed squid stuffed with Bayonne ham, followed by braised dove with fresh porcini mushrooms. A cheese course was irresistible, topped off with a fine apple tart cooked in Daguin’s wood-burning oven.

The new wave has not bypassed Biarritz. Chef Philippe Lafargue has become popular for his inventive riff on traditional Basque recipes and produce in the edgy cooking he serves at Chez Philippe, a loftlike space with an open kitchen and wood-burning fireplace, a modern herb-and-vegetable garden and a lot of contemporary art (which is for sale). Dishes that show off Lafargue’s style include monkfish livers cooked with crushed hazelnuts and coriander; grilled locally caught tuna with a garnish of peppers, onions and tomatoes; wood-roasted suckling pig; and black-cherry cake. Chez Philippe serves dinner only.

Sleek Sissinou, also in Biarritz, has streamlined modern décor with pale green walls, dark plum-colored banquettes and a steel bar. Chef Michel Cassou-Debat — Sissinou is his nickname — began his career in the haute cuisine kitchens of the Troisgros brothers and now turns out terrific contemporary Basque bistrot cooking (which this year won a Michelin star), including such dishes as sautéed anchovies with tomato-and-mozzarella bonbons; merlu (hake) with tempura vegetables; and crème brûlée seasoned with green tea and passion fruit.

St-Jean-de-Luz, now a favorite seaside resort town, has been a famous, even notorious, fishing port since the Middle Ages (when it was known to the English enemy fleet as a “viper’s nest”). Just outside of town, Chez Claire et Vivien has quickly won a following for its innovative Spanish-inspired menu style — everything is available in half portions, making it possible to compose a tapas-style feed if you choose.

Chef Vivien Durand and his wife, Claire, formerly at La Taverne Basque in St-Jean, recently took over this small restaurant attached to the Écomusée de la Tradition Basque, a museum of Basque furniture, arts and crafts. Among the starters on Vivien’s current menu, the trout tartare and the roasted crottin (goat cheese) from the Pyrénées with spice-bread blinis are both outstanding, as are imaginative main courses like a piccata of Ibaiona pork with red onions or tuna tartare served with pork lomo (fine slices of dried, paprika-rubbed pork). Desserts are excellent, too, including a luscious black cherry clafoutis baked on a plancha (griddle).

 

IF YOU GO

All prices are per person without wine, unless otherwise indicated.

L’Auberge Basque D307 (Vieille Route de St-Jean-de-Luz), St- Pée-sur-Nivelle, 05.59.51.70.00. €50-€60. website

Hegia Chemin de Curutcheta, Quartier Celhai, Hasparren, 05.59.29.67.86. Double room, dinner and breakfast for two: €600. website

Chez Philippe 30 ave du Lac Marion, Biarritz, 05.59.23.13.12. €50-€70. website

Sissinou 5 ave Maréchal Foch, Biarritz, 05.59.22.51.50. €40-€50.

Chez Claire et Vivien Route Nationale 10, St-Jean-de-Luz, 05.59.51.02.89. €30.

Plus:

Arrantzaleak Come to this simple little dining room overlooking the port of Ciboure and the Nive River for sublime fish and shellfish, mostly grilled or griddled. The seabass with a Basque garnish of parsley, garlic chips and vinegar is superb. 18 ave Jean-Poulou, Ciboure, 05.59.47.10.75. €40. website

Le Bistrot des Halles Just a few steps from Biarritz’s wonderful covered market, this popular little bistrot attracts a local crowd with good, reasonably priced Basque cooking. Dishes to look for include fish soup, tuna steak with fava beans and tomatoes, and sea bass cooked in a salt crust. 1 rue du Centre, Biarritz, 05.59.24.21.22. Lunch €13; à la carte €30.

Les Pyrénées This delightful traditional auberge with a one-Michelin-star restaurant run by charming owner Firmin Arrambide serves up delicious classics like grilled wild salmon with béarnaise sauce or roasted rack of baby lamb. 19 place du Général-de- Gaulle, St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, 05.59.37.01.01. €70-€100. website

 

Originally published in the November 2007 issue of France Today.