Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Olympic Games begin in France in just a few days. Paris is not the only stage. There'll also be sailing and soccer in the Southern Mediterranean port of Marseille, which is France's second-largest city but sometimes overlooked. Yet a new cookbook is out to change that. It's by a Marseille native who want you to discover the city through its food. OK, I'm willing, but NPR's Eleanor Beardsley got the assignment.
VERANE FREDIANI: (Laughter).
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: I meet Verane Frediani amidst the outdoor food stalls in the Noailles neighborhood, commonly referred to as the belly of Marseille. This filmmaker with an infectious laugh wants you to discover her hometown, which she calls unique in France.
FREDIANI: When I was a child, I always heard people saying, Marseille is not France. And I really didn't understand what they meant by this, and it was really frustrating for me.
BEARDSLEY: Now she knows that's Marseille's strength. It's more than just French. France's oldest city has been a melting pot of culture since it was founded by the Greeks 2,500 years ago. Frediani says it has none of the arrogance of Paris or the neighboring Cote d'Azur.
FREDIANI: You don't have to be in Marseille for generations to call yourself a Marseillais. Coming from somewhere else, it's common. Everybody comes from somewhere else. Everybody is Marseillais within five minutes. The moment you arrive here and you like it here, you are Marseillais.
BEARDSLEY: Her book, "Taste The World In Marseille," shows a town brimming with energy, ideas and talented chefs who are revolutionizing French gastronomy, like French Congolese chef Hugues Mbenda.
HUGUES MBENDA: I come here every day to find a lot of products like cassava, okra and plantain.
BEARDSLEY: The 35-year-old began cooking with his mother. His family moved to Paris when he was 9. He opened his own restaurant in Marseille five years ago. Prior to that, Mbenda worked in Michelin-star establishments in Paris and London.
MBENDA: If you have the project, you want to cook, you must learn the basic of French food.
BEARDSLEY: He ticks off some of those basics - royal hare, beef burgundy, blanquette of veal. Mbenda marries French dishes with African flavors - chiles, mango sauce, a bit of baobab added to a creaming hollandaise. He says Marseille is the perfect place to experiment.
MBENDA: I like the sun, la mer, the sea, and for me, it's big. Marseille is the second city of France, but it's like a small city because every people talk together. We have time. In Paris, you go work. You go home, work, home, work, home.
BEARDSLEY: Frediani's cookbook has become a top-selling guide to Marseille itself, bringing to life the people, neighborhoods and ingredients that make this chaotic and colorful Mediterranean port tick. The just-released English edition, which adds tips for non-French speakers, was translated by American food writer Alexis Steinman.
ALEXIS STEINMAN: This is a hard city to understand. This is not a city like Paris, where you come and you have your list of monuments. There was a writer, Blaise Cendrars, who said, Marseille is not a city of sites. It's a site within itself. And that's why you have to be here. You have to walk. You have to be in the streets.
BEARDSLEY: Steinman says Frediani's beautifully photographed book captures the unique flavor of this town.
STEINMAN: She did it so smart 'cause she used the Marseille voices. She didn't just write a book. She said, I want to interview chefs, and I want them to finally talk. As a food writer myself, I'd never translated anything before. But it really felt like it was a passion project, and we really wanted to share it with the world because Marseille has been under wraps for so long.
BEARDSLEY: One thing this Mediterranean port is known for is its fish stew, or bouillabaisse.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE FRENCH CHEF")
JULIA CHILD: I always feel that part of Marseille itself is cooked right into the bouillabaisse. You can somehow just taste the flavor and the color and the excitement of that old port.
BEARDSLEY: Iconic chef Julia Child prepared bouillabaisse for an episode of "The French Chef," broadcast on PBS.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE FRENCH CHEF")
CHILD: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Child haggled with the fishmongers. She described Marseille's hot noise as so different from Paris's cool sophistication. Steinman says Child exemplified how Marseille opens itself up to foreigners who take an interest in the city. Frediani's book features many women chefs...
MARIE DIJON: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: ...Like young Marseille native Marie Dijon, who bubbles with energy and charisma. At her restaurant, Caterine, in a former votive candle factory, Dijon serves us a soup of Mediterranean green crabs, the kind she caught as a child with her mother. There's a roasted leek crumble. The crumble is made of dried crushed prawn shells. Dijon grew up cooking with her father. She studied law, but the call of the kitchen was too strong. She says this is Marseille's moment.
DIJON: (Through interpreter) Historically Marseille is a meeting point of different civilizations, and it's still an exciting, happening place today. There's a spirit of openness and freedom, a feeling you can do anything any time, gastronomically and otherwise. It's inside us. Everything is possible in Marseille.
BEARDSLEY: Dijon cooks with high-quality local products and says she throws nothing away. Louis Schwartz, a Brit who grew up in France, is one of the cooks in her kitchen. He says he loves Marseille eating.
LOUIS SCHWARTZ: It's sort of a mix of Italian, Spanish. But it has that French style and that French rigor, but without all the butter and the cream, and it's much lighter, much less meat, lots of vegetables.
MUSTAPHA KACHETEL: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Our last stop is a Marseille institution. Mustapha Kachetel is the fourth-generation owner of couscous restaurant Le Femina, opened in 1921. Pictures line the walls, including one of travel food filmmaker Anthony Bourdain eating here.
KACHETEL: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "He came twice and loved our barley couscous," says Kachetel, "which is in the style of the Kabylie region of Northern Algeria. It's the recipe of my great-great-grandmother." And you'll find it in Frediani's cookbook. She says the people of Marseille want to tell you about their food and their city. All you need is a little curiosity, time to explore and a good appetite.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Marseille.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: And tomorrow on WEEKEND EDITION Sunday with Ayesha, when you think of a city with hopping nightlife, does Ottawa, Canada, come to mind? Well, maybe it should - Ottawa after dark. Tomorrow morning, you can listen on your smart speaker, tell your smart fridge, or (laughter) why not turn on - what do they call it? - the radio?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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