Food

In Carros, near Nice, the Auda family cultivates a unique specialty-edible flowers. Pansies, borage, and other nasturtiums put some fun on our plates.

 

By Jerôme Dumur - Photos Famille Auda -  November 25, 2011

Office buildings, supermarkets, warehouses, and soon, a brand new stadium: industrial, commercial and urban zones have devoured the edges of the Var region, between Nice and Carros. We can hardly believe our eyes, and yet, 50 years ago at most, these big plains delighted many market gardeners. Unfortunately, few survived the call of the cities and the growth of the property market. Amongst the diehard families that remain, today one has become a reference among culinary enthusiasts and experimentalists, the Audas. Marius Auda, the patriarch, and today no longer with us, established himself at the foot of the village of Gattières over 70 years ago.

Since then, his descendants have continued to enlarge the estate, to try new plant varieties, and to invent new distribution methods. His sons Gilbert and Robert introduced baby spinach and zucchini flowers to our tables. And twenty years ago, following a meeting with the Ducros brothers, they were the first to offer fresh herbs in packets. Both basil and bouquet labeled “Made in Provence ” on supermarket shelves were an instant success. Today, the company’s forty or so employees harvest, package and sell over 500 tons of greens under plastic, including a few hundred kilos of… edible

flowers. Practically exclusive to their company, the idea was launched in 2003 by the third generation at the helm of the farm. “The concept was not widely accepted at first,” explains Sandrine Auda. “It interested a few important chefs, but remained fairly restricted for many years, until the arrival of gastronomic reality TV shows… Concerned with surprising the juries, some contestants – such as Sophie Le Quellec, the winner of Top Chef 2011 – supported our production, and in this way guaranteed its promotion to the mass market. Since then, our flowers have been in fashion. We get orders from all over France, and a national chain, Grand-Frais, distributes our products in about one hundred stores.”

Most often, these cooks use flowers with a mild taste like the pansy, the star phlox, or the poet carnation to decorate their dishes. But there are some fine gourmets who dare employ more strongly flavored varieties to create original combinations. Nicknamed the “vegetable oyster,” so briny is its flavor, borage marries beautifully with fish and shellfish, as does the begonia, whose flavor evokes lemon zest. With its notes of garlic and onion, the chive flower delicately improves meats such as veal or lamb. With its sweet, exotic perfume, the well-named pineapple sage contributes to a fruit salad, as original as it is tasty.

Discover

Marius Auda
1019, Route de la Baronne  Plan de Gattières
06510 Gattières
04 93 08 10 30

To Read

Jean-Michel Lorain, mentor of the Côte Saint-Jacques, in Joigny, is a fan of nature, especially if it’s delicious. His book “Herbes, Fleurs et Salades” (Herbs, Flowers and Salads) is the proof. The 3-star chef from Bourgogne doesn’t only share his recipes with us; he also includes, over more than 300 pages, everything he knows about all the edible plants that one day passed through his kitchen. Here’s a book that nourishes the body as well as the spirit.

(Glénat Editions, 30 Euros)