To Good Soup!

France - 30 Dec 11 - Michèle Mesmain

The good weather didn’t fail to show at the winter event that called all hungry soup lovers to the Grand Marché de Tours square on Terra Madre Day.

Luc Durain, expert in finance but passionate about good, intelligent food – that which can change our lives without us noticing - cooked several excellent soups to the pleasure of many passers-by.

“People loved the watercress soup, and often asked me the recipe. It is simple, just add a bit of rice to the watercess sauteed in butter and you get a good consistency,” he revealed.

“The watercress was provided by Sébastien Georget, a producer who participated in Eurogusto last month, Slow Food’s biennial event organized in Tours,” explained Mélanie Fauconnier, Convivium Leader.

“For the other soups - pumpkin, potato and artichoke - we used seasonal vegetables left over after the market which were going to be thrown out. Entire crates of artichokes! It would have been a shame, so we prepared delicious soups with the artichoke hearts. We also salvaged crates of tomatoes, which, even though they are not in season and therefore less tasty than in summer, once seasoned with spices, took on a very appetizing velvety texture,” she said.

The soups, made at home then reheated on a hotplate at the market, drew in the surprised and curious passers-by who let themselves be tempted to join the event. The occasion also grabbed the attention of the local press: “You’re talking about Slow Food?” “Terra Madre?” “What does that mean?” “What about our good products in the Tours area?”

And who knows, perhaps some of the seeds of ideas about changing the food culture that were planted during the event will, here and there, start to germ…


For more stories and pictures from Terra Madre Day, visit
www.slowfood.com/terramadreday

Photo: Kunal Chandra