Inside BASQUE Country Baker, cheesemaker, pepper farmer, curer of ancient hams: These are a few of the makers preserving the native tastes and character of this distinctive corner of southwestern France By Jane Sigal PHOTOGRAPHS BY BETH GALTON Food Styling By Mariana Velasquez My friend Olivia’s mother and aunt are preparing quintessential Basque dishes for din- ner. There will be blistered padrón peppers, along with baked goods. For the moment, it’s a squid cook-off, and the sisters eye each other’s mise-en-place in the aunt’s apart- ment kitchen in Biarritz, an elegant beach town wedged between the Pyrenees and the Atlantic Ocean. • When most people think of Basque country, they think of BASQUE-STYLE FISH with Spain, but the region is made up of seven provinces, three of which are in France. GREEN PEPPERS and MANILA CLAMS recipe on pg. 56 The French portion, called Iparralde in the Basque lan- Ospital can tell if the meat is pleasantly savory—or musty. guage, has its own way of doing things. Dinner’s at eight, not “We work with the nose,” he says, at the same time prodding 10, and it’s a full meal. While Olivia’s mother and aunt squabble the ham leg with his left hand to feel if it is too hard (dried over just how much garlic is too much for their dishes—both out), too soft (not aged long enough), or properly firm. end up lovely, though I prefer her aunt’s intensely garlicky France recognizes jambon de Bayonne—raw, unsmoked, version—there’s no debate on the subject of how to properly simply cured with salt and air-dried—as worthy of its own approach the ubiquitous gâteau basque that follows for des- indication géographique protégée (IGP) label. Translation: sert: no fork necessary. Eating the uniquely French Basque Here is a ham so inherently special and inimitable that any pastry, buttery and filled with dark cherry preserves, with attempts to duplicate it elsewhere or tweak its production your hands is part of the pleasure. should be prevented by law. Yet Ospital’s father, Louis, felt, On an early spring tour of the Pays Basque, when the Atlan- like judges from older generations, that the designation didn’t tic is cold but surfers are out, suited up in neoprene, Olivia go far enough to protect the quality and traditions of their introduced me to some local characters who are keeping the hams. In the 1980s, they created their Ibaïama label, which region’s wholly unique traditions alive while adding their uses only a specialized breed of pigs and a 20-month-average own interpretations. Together, they compose a gastronomic aging time. Even the source of the salt is indicated: Salies-de- cross-section of a region that maps and locals sometimes Béarn, where a saltwater spring produces white pyramidal disagree on. “This is Basque country,” as Olivia’s cousin told crystals that taste of violets. me one night at the dinner table. “Not France.” Today, Eric Ospital is a recognized master of the ham- making arts. Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud fly trainees The Charcutier to southwest France to study with him. In his late teens, Ospital With his right hand, Eric Ospital slides a probe into the thick- apprenticed with charcutiers in Bayonne and did his military est part of the jambon de Bayonne (Basque ham), then presses service in Berlin around the time the wall came down. After, it to his nostrils and inhales deeply. The probe, called a sonde, Ospital worked at Paris’s legendary food emporium Fauchon is shaped like a digital thermometer but more elegant and during the tenure of pastry visionary Pierre Hermé. He learned much lower tech, carved as it is from horse bone. discipline and precision while preparing oeufs en gelée and Ospital is a judge at the annual Foire au Jambon, a ham fair foie gras terrines. It was around that time, in the 1990s, that held each spring in Bayonne food artisans began to appear on the menus since 1462. In tented stands of Paris’s best restaurants. along the Nive River, fairgo- Ospital had found his mission: to reha- ers noisily dig into ancient bilitate the profession of charcutier. In the shepherd’s snacks of griddled 1980s, as the French began to eat out more, cornmeal flatbreads stuffed charcuteries started focusing less on cured with bacon or sausage and meat and more on takeaway meals, too often dripping with cheese. But bought from industrial wholesalers. Ospital here in the ham competition, traveled to Italy to see how the finest hams it’s nearly silent, the mood were made. He modernized his father’s rec- serious. Ospital and his fellow ipe by using less salt and then took the nutty, judges, charcutiers dressed in sweet ham to Paris. Modern bistro pioneer matching neckerchiefs and Yves Camdeborde preferred the texture of black lab coats, make their Ospital’s product to the fabled acorn-fed way around tables of enor- hams of Spain and introduced it to his cli- mous haunches. Among them ents. Eventually, Joël Robuchon and Thierry are red-robed, note-taking Marx came calling—though they members of the Bayonne served the ham in dainty slices, ham brotherhood, photographers, and unlike in Basque country, where a crowd of tense farmers. These farm- it’s often cut into thick steaks, stead hams are rubbed with red piment griddled, and served with eggs. d’Espelette for color and arranged in folk- Ospital’s hams are aged in loric displays. One re-creates an autumnal an airy drying room next to scene with moss, chestnuts in their spiky the Ospital family charcuterie shells, and cèpe mushrooms. Another ham in Hasparren, 22 miles south- is accompanied by a cutout of the Bayonne east of Biarritz. The space looks skyline—all cathedral spires and arcaded like the spotless attic of a par- houses—and other regional signifiers, like ticularly industrious Basque the handmade woven basket and leather grandmother: Strings of Espe- POTATO and PEPPER ball of pelote, a popular jai alai–like game, TORTILLA with HAM and CHEESE and cocoa beans, a nod to the region’s Top: Eric Ospital (left) and fellow fair judges assess the quality of a recipe on pg. 57 delicious chocolate. ham by its smell. Bottom: A string CHICKEN BASQUAISE By holding the sonde to his nostrils, of piment d’Espelette chile peppers. recipe on pg. 56 54 SAVEUR.COM LOCATION PHOTOGRAPHS BY OLIVIA LECUMBERRY WILCOX Chicken Basquaise garlic, and bay leaf to the plate (3½ cups) the ham and cheese are just as brother, brother-in-law—is pressed into harvesting duty. It’s with the sausages. delicious served on the side. SERVES 6–8; Photo pg. 55 1 medium Spanish onion, done by hand, an AOP regulation. The chiles are air-dried thinly sliced Active: 55 min. • Total: 1 hr. 2 In the same pot over medium- 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat- ⅔ cup plus 2 Tbsp. extra- (but not smoked like pimentón in Spain) on racks, first in 5 min. high heat, add the onion and leaf parsley, plus more virgin olive oil the greenhouse for two weeks, then for two days in a dehy- This recipe, adapted from chef shallot and cook, stirring occa- for garnish 2 medium yellow onions, drator. When all the moisture is coaxed out, the peppers Sébastien Gravé, is emblem- sionally, until lightly browned, quartered and thinly atic of the Basque region’s about 5 minutes. Stir in the 2 lb. skin-on, boneless are ground. Dried, they’re the same oxblood color as the sliced affection for colorful, peppery tomato and cook until the liquid hake, striped bass, or exposed timbers in the storybook farmhouses of the region. stews. Though paprika can evaporates, 3 minutes. Add the haddock, cut into 1½ tsp. kosher salt Before they had dehydrators, farmers strung up the pep- tomato paste and cook, stirring, 2 lb. large Yukon Gold work in a pinch, it’s the flakier, 8 equal fillets pers on south-facing façades, and you still see them, red lightly spicy, more enigmatic for 1 minute. Stir in ½ cup stock 12 Manila clams, scrubbed potatoes (about 6 large braids on whitewashed walls, in the pepper’s namesake Espelette pepper that’s char- and ½ teaspoon salt, scraping 1–2 tsp. piment d’Espelette potatoes), peeled and up the browned bits from the acteristic of the region. (ground Espelette sliced ⅛ inch thick capital of Espelette, near the Spanish border. Harking back bottom of the pan. Cook until pepper, optional) 2 large red bell peppers, to this custom, pepper growers save the prettiest chiles to 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive the liquid is mostly evaporated, thinly sliced (3½ cups) sew into garlands, and locals dry them at home or buy them oil 5–8 minutes. Return the thyme, 1 In a 12-inch skillet, heat the ¼ tsp. freshly ground black 4 small fresh chorizo garlic, bay leaf, sausages, and dried, then crush or chop them as needed. chicken (skin side up) to the olive oil over medium-high heat. pepper sausages While Bidart can rattle off that it takes 7-plus kilograms pot. Transfer to the oven and Add the garlic and cook, stirring 10 large eggs 4 skin-on, boneless of fresh peppers to make 1 kilogram of the spice, he can’t tell roast until the chicken is cooked occasionally, until just begin- 8–10 thin slices firm sheep’s chicken breasts (about through, about 10 minutes. ning to brown, 1 minute. Sprinkle milk cheese, such me much about what to do with it in the kitchen.