03/21/2007
Interview of Maja Hoffmann
Le Sambuc, June 14th 2006
How did you come with the idea of the restaurant La Chassagnette ?
How did you come with the idea of the restaurant La Chassagnette ?
It results from the collision between my desire and this place. When I had the opportunity to acquire this sheepfold in 2000, I remembered a lunch I had in a tavern in the middle of the Cretan countryside. Tables were set in the middle of a beautiful age-old orchard, it was a simple idea with absolute natural and delicious logical. I talked about it to a few friends who gave me their point of view on the project.
La Chassagnette as it exists nowadays is the result of these exchanges ?
Yes, we talked a lot about it, exchanged ideas coming from everyone’s personality and experience : Anne Igou from Hotel Nord-Pinus ; Stanley, the father of my children arriving from New York ; Jean-Paul Taris from the organic station of Tour du Valat. To all of us, La Chassagnette appeared like the ideal place to fulfil this Cretan dream into a Camarguean version which explains the reason why the garden is the centre of La Chassagnette.
why did you choose to match organic and gastronomy ?
Nowadays, bio-grown food is an obviousness for many reasons : preservation of the environment, health...as well as taste matter. However, it has lengthily been associated to a flavourless and sad way of cooking, while it’s precisely the contrary! The concept of the restaurant La Chassagnette is to allow the headchef to express his talent by glorifying organic products, particularly, freshly cut fruits and vegetables of the garden , Camarguean agricultural productions as rice and organic bull.
Where did you find a headchef which was talented and who shared La Chassagnette’s philosophy?
With Armand Arnal, young and talented chef, emulator of Alain Ducasse, we are writing the third chapter of our history with the common desire of lightness and openness concerning cooking and our structure. After the beginning of Edith and Manu Camacho (from Beauduc) mostly centred around fish, the chef Jean-Luc Rabanel helped us in confirming our gastronomic concept and getting a media-related approval.. Today, Armand Arnal’s arrival goes with a will of creating, inventing, exchanging and serving the garden products and the Camarguean’s agriculture. We want to host our guests in this spirit by proposing them to share the joy of a gastronomic and healthy experience in a place that makes you feel like you were “somewhere else” and yet, at home at the same time. It is not an hazard if the group is named "Heureuse Camargue"…
Precisely, what is the objective of the group you are founding whose La Chassagnette is a part of ?
To sum up the spirit of Heureuse Camargue, we are experiencing a sustainable development model towards the Rhona Delta. You know, the Tour du Valat which is an organic station founded by my father Luc Hoffmann, played a role in the protection of the environment and notably for the birds of Camargue. The ambition of Heureuse Camargue is to extend this action in the land, around natural parks created during the 20th century by encouraging organic productions in rice growing and stockbreeding around the protected areas. That is to say, protecting the environment and ensuring a proper income to farmers of Camargue at the same time. From my point of view, the preservation of the environment can not be considered apart from men and women activities who live and work in. Only Camargue’s inhabitants can guarantee the future of this region.
To go back to the restaurant, it is not easy to find organic produtcs ?
The majority of the products used for cooking is organic and our garden has been certified with the label Ecocert.. Every time it is possible, the chef chooses organic products but sometimes the product doesn’t exist, I’m thinking about fish for instance, or he isn’t entirely satisfied by its quality. Eventually, our goal will be to use only 100% of organic products. We usually use fair trade. To my opinion, La Chassagnette is different from other restaurants: it claims on being ethical and that gives it all its sense.
Why a library, it is pretty unexpected in a restaurant, isn’t it ?
La Chassagnette isn’t only a restaurant. In one hand, you can walk through the garden, smell the perfume of the flowers, taste an aromatic herb, in the other hand, you can glance through a book or consult some other works.. We are building up a library which will propose a wide diversity of books : from ways of life to agriculture, from Camargue to photography or architecture. In the same concept, La Chassagnette hosts pupils as we consider as our duty to make children discover and like fruits and vegetables.
You are really attached to Camargue?
I spent all my childhood in Camargue, from my birth to high school. With my brothers and sisters, I went to school in Arles and spent most of our summer holidays in Beaulieu. I grew up in a natural but living Camargue. It is not a museum. This Camargue has an economical future thank to the organic agriculture notably. It is this idea I wish to stand up for. The restaurant is the forefront of this project but La Chassagnette is above all an happy place that make you feel comfortable.
why did you choose to match organic and gastronomy ?
Nowadays, bio-grown food is an obviousness for many reasons : preservation of the environment, health...as well as taste matter. However, it has lengthily been associated to a flavourless and sad way of cooking, while it’s precisely the contrary! The concept of the restaurant La Chassagnette is to allow the headchef to express his talent by glorifying organic products, particularly, freshly cut fruits and vegetables of the garden , Camarguean agricultural productions as rice and organic bull.
Where did you find a headchef which was talented and who shared La Chassagnette’s philosophy?
With Armand Arnal, young and talented chef, emulator of Alain Ducasse, we are writing the third chapter of our history with the common desire of lightness and openness concerning cooking and our structure. After the beginning of Edith and Manu Camacho (from Beauduc) mostly centred around fish, the chef Jean-Luc Rabanel helped us in confirming our gastronomic concept and getting a media-related approval.. Today, Armand Arnal’s arrival goes with a will of creating, inventing, exchanging and serving the garden products and the Camarguean’s agriculture. We want to host our guests in this spirit by proposing them to share the joy of a gastronomic and healthy experience in a place that makes you feel like you were “somewhere else” and yet, at home at the same time. It is not an hazard if the group is named "Heureuse Camargue"…
Precisely, what is the objective of the group you are founding whose La Chassagnette is a part of ?
To sum up the spirit of Heureuse Camargue, we are experiencing a sustainable development model towards the Rhona Delta. You know, the Tour du Valat which is an organic station founded by my father Luc Hoffmann, played a role in the protection of the environment and notably for the birds of Camargue. The ambition of Heureuse Camargue is to extend this action in the land, around natural parks created during the 20th century by encouraging organic productions in rice growing and stockbreeding around the protected areas. That is to say, protecting the environment and ensuring a proper income to farmers of Camargue at the same time. From my point of view, the preservation of the environment can not be considered apart from men and women activities who live and work in. Only Camargue’s inhabitants can guarantee the future of this region.
To go back to the restaurant, it is not easy to find organic produtcs ?
The majority of the products used for cooking is organic and our garden has been certified with the label Ecocert.. Every time it is possible, the chef chooses organic products but sometimes the product doesn’t exist, I’m thinking about fish for instance, or he isn’t entirely satisfied by its quality. Eventually, our goal will be to use only 100% of organic products. We usually use fair trade. To my opinion, La Chassagnette is different from other restaurants: it claims on being ethical and that gives it all its sense.
Why a library, it is pretty unexpected in a restaurant, isn’t it ?
La Chassagnette isn’t only a restaurant. In one hand, you can walk through the garden, smell the perfume of the flowers, taste an aromatic herb, in the other hand, you can glance through a book or consult some other works.. We are building up a library which will propose a wide diversity of books : from ways of life to agriculture, from Camargue to photography or architecture. In the same concept, La Chassagnette hosts pupils as we consider as our duty to make children discover and like fruits and vegetables.
You are really attached to Camargue?
I spent all my childhood in Camargue, from my birth to high school. With my brothers and sisters, I went to school in Arles and spent most of our summer holidays in Beaulieu. I grew up in a natural but living Camargue. It is not a museum. This Camargue has an economical future thank to the organic agriculture notably. It is this idea I wish to stand up for. The restaurant is the forefront of this project but La Chassagnette is above all an happy place that make you feel comfortable.
08:15 Posted in 06 • Infos Presse | Permalink | Email this
03/02/2007
Carte des vins
(cliquez sur l'image pour télécharger
la carte des vins au format pdf)
la carte des vins au format pdf)
18:25 Posted in 03 • Les vins | Permalink | Email this
03/01/2007
Why organic?
The bio-grown food is an obviousness for the preservation of the environment, health...as well as taste matter. However, it has lengthily been associated to a flavourless and sad way of cooking, while it’s precisely the contrary! ".
The concept of the restaurant La Chassagnette is to allow the headchef to express his talent by glorifying organic products, particularly, freshly cut fruits and vegetables of the garden , Camarguean agricultural productions as rice and organic bull.
The majority of the products used for cooking is organic and our garden has been certified with the label Ecocert. Eventually, our goal will be to use only 100% of organic products. We usually use fair trade. To my opinion, La Chassagnette is different from other restaurants: it claims on being ethical and that gives it all its sense."
Maja Hoffmann, instigator of La Chassagnette
09:30 Posted in Pratique | Permalink | Email this | Tags: organic camargue restaurant gourmet food provence chef