To the kitchen! Reine didn't move to Provence until she was 14. Before then, she had lived in Les Vosges and only liked fatty bacon! In Avignon she discovered olive oil, but couldn't get to grips with it. Her pasta would stick, and her omelettes were beyond scrambled… But she was a fine seamstress and intended to become a doctor. It was only when she met Guy and all of her in-laws that she started to embrace the Mediterranean – Tunisia, Malta, Sicily. She cautiously crossed the threshold of the budding La Fenière in Lourmarin where Claudette, Guy's mum, allowed her to do the pastries and decorate the plates. Then came the day when Reine made the fish couscous, the lasagne and the offal dishes. Claudette could leave her to it: Reine had become a chef.
Lime and liver of monkfish "You then take your pastry and you fry it in oil, my girl." Excerpt from the recipe for manicotti, as passed on from Claudette to the young Reine. That's how her cuisine came about. It contains a pinch of Claudette's - tributes, celebratory dishes, Guy's memories... Ravioli à la ricotta, kadaifs, honey cigars, carrots in cumin, fish from La Goulette with garnish, springtime couscous, tuna bricks, halva, stew with lemons... Her inspired hands turn them into grilled small red mullet with a julienne of carrots in cumin, roast rack of suckling lamb from the Pyrenees, preserved shoulder of lamb in spices, fine wheat semolina with new vegetables and Argan oil, honey and almond manicottis, halva ice cream...
La Fenière 