The breast is on the large side,
its juicy flavor a million miles away from supermarket blandness. The
white meat is soft but firm, under a thin, brown-seared skin that lacks
excessive fat.
As for the gravy pot, I'm tempted to drink it on its own.
My
taste buds are exploding -- and they should be. Because I'm eating
volaille de Bresse, the most expensive chicken in the world, commanding a
cool €40 per kilogram ($48) in the butcher shops of Paris.
High quality
Aux Terrasses chef Jean-Michel Carrette's Suprême de volaille de Bresse with a tabbuleh/malted barley garnish.
John Malathronas
Chef
Jean-Michel Carrette took over his father's business in 2005 and has
kept Aux Terrasses' Michelin star in tact with an imaginative and bold
menu.
"I like to use Bresse chicken and I'm in luck because the quality of the local produce is the highest the world," he says.
Bresse
chicken is the favorite of Michelin chefs, as well as French
Presidents. François Hollande would have nothing else served at his
table and Emmanuel Macron is also said to be an ardent fan.
The
chickens are raised in the historic region of Bresse, a former French
province. As France only exports 5% of its production, you'll likely
have to travel here to savor its taste.
The next day Marie-Paule Meunier, from the Committee of Promotion of the Bresse Poultry
offers a history lesson in the charming market town of Louhans,
considered the capital of Bresse chicken, as we eat in an expressly
certified brasserie.
The original corn-fed chicken
Bresse chickens have a white body, blue legs and a red crest.
John Malathronas
"Unlike
many foods and recipes that are lost in the mists of time, the history
of the Bresse chicken can be traced easily through an abundance of
documents detailing how the farmers paid their rent in chickens and how
they gifted them to invading armies," she says.
"The
first mention is registered in 1591 and tells us how the citizens of
Bourg-en-Bresse offered two dozen birds to the Marquis de Treffort for
having routed the troops of Savoy."
"In
this region, between the rivers Doubs and Saone and below the Jura
mountains, the cultivation of maize started soon after its arrival from
the New World."
Volaille de Bressem it seems, is the original corn-fed chicken.
Its
fame spread in the 19th century aided by the fact that the breed of
white chickens (the Bresse de Bény variety) it is produced from matches
the colors of the French flag -- blue legs, white body and red comb.
The
ultimate accolade came 60 years ago, when the Bresse chicken became the
first live foodstuff to obtain a protected designation of origin
certification (AOC) now valid across the European Union, something
usually granted to items like Champagne, Parma ham or Stilton cheese.
Raising Bresse
Bresse chicken feed is a mix of corn, wheat and desiccated milk.
John Malathronas
There are around 180 farms rearing Bresse chickens in a legally defined area of Bresse.
The Laurency family farm, which lies seven kilometers from Louhans, raises 20,000 Bresse chickens a year.
"Not
only must a certificated chicken be reared in Bresse, but also only eat
food grown in the region," says Anthony, the youngest farm hand while
pointing out the chickens foraging freely in the fields; by law they
must have 10 meters of area each.
He
shows me the feed they have just mixed: "700 kilograms of our own corn
to 300 kilograms wheat grain, topped by 7% desiccated milk.
"The
feed is intentionally poor in protein so that the birds must forage for
insects, worms or snails as well as grass to supplement their diet."
Their
muscle must be turned into fat before they reach our tables, so they're
rested in wooden cages called "épinettes" in rooms with low diffuse
light while they eat, dream and chill out.
The
farm buys chicks from a centralized selection center that guarantees
the purity of the breed -- which was nearly extinguished in the flames
of World War II.
Chicks arrive when they are just a day old and cost $2.40 each, unlike other breeds you can buy for just 35 cents a piece.
Most
Bresse chickens are slaughtered by the time they are four months old,
while the larger "poulardes" -- females on the verge of ovulating -- are
allowed to live one month longer.
The biggest and most precious of them all is the capon, a castrated rooster that must "go through all seasons."
Chicks
who are to be raised as capons usually arrive in February. They're then
castrated in April and slaughtered in time for Christmas.
Top poultry rearer
Most Bresse chickens are matured for around four months.
John Malathronas
December is the time of the region's major agricultural fete dating from 1862, the Glorieuses de Bresse.
This is a series of four one-day events in four different market towns, with prizes for the top chicken farmers.
In
a profession that's traditionally female orientated -- men used to toil
the fields while women reared the chickens -- breeder Rachel
Roussel-Voisard is a trailblazer.
On
December 15, 2007 she became the first woman to receive the top poultry
rearing prize, a blue Sevres vase in the Glorieuses at Louhans.
In her farm, outside the village of Chapelle-Voland at the feet of the Jura mountains, everyone works for the chickens.
Roussel-Voisard
grows her own maize and has a flock of Charollais sheep keep the grass
trim like a golf cours. The neighbor's cows provide milk and Cassis the
cat hunts mice to keep the coops free of vermin.
I watch as she performs a "roulage," one of the region's traditions.
She takes a recently slaughtered, plucked capon and wraps a white linen cloth around it.
With a trussing needle and string, she sews what can only be described as a legless diaper with only the neck sticking out.
She keeps on stitching without piercing the skin, pulling very tightly and pushing out the air.
This
is an ancient preservation technique; as the dead bird is in no direct
contact with air, it can keep for up to three weeks in a cold store.
The tight wrap also helps distribute the fat evenly, however Roussel-Voisard thinks there's more to it.
"It's not just for conservation, aesthetics and taste, but it's also a mark of respect for the animal itself," she says.
No comments