Our Chef's Recipes

Our Chef - Bob Chambers

Bob Chambers, Food Editor of burgundytoday.com, is an American chef who trained in Paris at La Varenne. In New York he has been executive chef of the American Express Publishing Corporation and L’Oréal. Here’s how the love affair with Burgundy began.

‘But it’s really quite simple,’ the voice on the other end of the telephone was saying. ‘When the balloons land, they’ll pack up and come to meet you for the picnic.’

I had just finished a year at cooking school in Paris, and I was being offered a job that sounded like a dream come true as Chef at the Bombard Society. For the months of May through October, I would be cooking picnics for groups of people who would spend their days touring Burgundy’s wine cellars and châteaux and their evenings floating by balloon over the villages and vineyards in the heart of the region known as the Côte d’Or. If someone had predicted then that I would spend the next six years in Burgundy as ‘Chef du Pique-nique’, I would never have believed it, but that is exactly what I did.

My kitchen was in the tower of the château just outside Beaune, and through its many windows I could look out over the fields to the vineyards on the hillsides beyond as I planned my menus. My picnics quickly took on the form of rather elaborate buffets. Coming up with new and interesting salads was a constant challenge, and my daily trips to the open markets in this food-rich region were my greatest source of inspiration.

Here I have prepared a summer menu for dinner on the terrace and, in response to your requests, bring you my recipes for Beef Burgundy and Gougères, two regional specialites. At the change in season, try the Spring selection, Shades of Autumn or the Burgundian Dinner in Winter, prepared one chilly day while staying in the Morvan Forest. I hope you will enjoy them all.

Bob Chambers

Menus

Spring Menu

• Avocado Soup
• Lamb Brochette in Yoghurt, Lime and Pepper Marinade
• Green Bean and Tomato Salad with Basil Vinaigrette
• Strawberries in Champagne Jelly with Lemon Coconut Cookies

Summer Dinner on the Terrace

• Salmon Salad with Fennel and Radish Vinaigrette
• Chicken Chablis
• Poached Peaches in Cassis and Red Wine or
• Chocolate Gâteau

Shades of Autumn

Apéritifs

• Baked Quail Eggs
• Gougéres

Starters

• Red Pepper Soup or
• Marinated Salmon served with brown rolls and lemon wedges

Main Course

• Breast of Duck with Mushrooms & Walnuts or
• Duck Confit

Dessert

• Apple and Raisin Pudding with Caramel Sauce or
• Bittersweet Chocolate Tart

A Burgundian Dinner in Winter

• French Onion Soup
• Coq au Vin
• Pear and Red Wine Custard Tart in a Hazelnut Crust