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Saliers, France Gilles Rongier -- whose wares I happened upon last October, when we visited France -- makes some of the very best pâtes de fruits or gélées in the world!

Monsieur Rongier has now been kind enough to share with us a behind-the-scenes tour of the making of his famous pâtes de fruits (M. Rongier displays these in the photo shown at right), as well as his renowned pains d'épices (a kind of traditional gingerbread, shown below). Note: recipes given are not Gilles Rongier's recipes! His creations are unique and superior to anything you or I could make.

The jewel-like fruit jellies are created from an age-old recipe passed down for generations. Such pure fruit delicacies are a specialty of Provence -- particularly when created by this celebrated confiseur -- and all have a delightful melting texture, a refreshing taste, and are made entirely with pure fruit. They are prepared from fruit grown by small producers all over France, from Normandy to the Rhone Valley. The fruit is shipped directly from these orchards. No filler fruit is ever added, so that a raspberry or a passion fruit jelly will have all the rich flavour of the concentrated fruit.

Pâtes de fruit, literally "fruit pastes," are firm pieces of sweet fruit purée, a bit like jam made solid, rolled in sugar and cut into various shapes, generally squares or rectangles. M. Rongier's are wonderfully flavourful, with a great chewy, toothsome texture, and a fruitiness so intense it makes the hair on the nape of your neck stand up.

M. Rongier -- through his company named Aux Délices de la Montagne -- creates authentic and original confectioneries by combining dry fruits, cereals and fresh flowers, sugars are extracted from fruits...and voila! The pâtes de fruits embrace the brilliant (and all-natural) flavours of eucalyptus, pine, honey, mint, bilberry (Myrtille), clementine, passion fruit, peach, apricot, blueberry, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, pear, gentian and licorice (and probably some I have left out by accident) and are available mainly by mail, by contacting M. Rongier directly: Gilles Rongier, Aux Délices de la Montagne, 15430 PAULHAC, France.

(More pâtes de fruit production photos -- courtesy of Aux Délices de la Montagne -- are near the bottom of this story.)

At other times (such as during Festival periods) Aux Délices de la Montagne products are available at local craft and artisanal food markets.

Periodically, Aux Délices de la Montagne appears at the Gare de l'Est in Paris as part of a promotion -- La région Auvergne est présente à la gare de l’Est -- when the region brings in various artisanal foodsmiths to showcase their wares. Among the participants: AUX DELICES DE LA MONTAGNE; COMITE DEPARTEMENTAL DE PROMOTION DES PRODUITS AGRICOLES ET ALIMENTAIRES DE L'ALLIER; FROMAGES D'AUVERGNE; LA CAVE A DOMICILE; LAITERIE BOURBONNAISE; MAISON CATHELAT; NECTAR ET NATURE (La Ruche des Puys); PELAIRE François; PEPINIERE D'ENTREPRISES AGROALIMENTAIRES DE MOULINS; SALAISONS DU VAL D'ALLIER; SARL ATABBLE and TRIPROUX JULHES.

As far as the pains d'épices are concerned, this cake owes more to what we North Americans think of as "gingerbread" than the "spiced bread" that would seem to be the case from the translation. A real pains d'épices is, indeed, more of a cake than a bread. According to Sharon Tyler Herbst writing of gingerbread in THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION: "This sweet dates back to the Middle Ages, when fair ladies presented the rather hard, honey-spice bread as a favour to dashing knights going into tournament battle.

"In those days, gingerbread was intricately shaped and decorated, sometimes with gold leaf. Today, gingerbread generally refers to one of two desserts. It can be a dense, ginger-spiced cookie flavoured with molasses or honey and cut into fanciful shapes (such as the popular gingerbread man). Or, particularly in the United States, it can describe a dark, moist cake flavoured with molasses, ginger and other spices. This gingerbread 'cake' is usually baked in a square pan and often topped with lemon sauce or whipped cream."

Gingerbread has been baked in Europe for centuries. In some places, it was a soft, delicately spiced cake; in others, a crisp, flat cookie, and in others, warm, thick, steamy-dark squares of "bread," sometimes served with a pitcher of lemon sauce or whipped cream. It was sometimes light, sometimes dark, sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy, but it was almost always cut into shapes such as men, women, stars or animals, and colourfully decorated or stamped with a mould and dusted with white sugar to make the impression visible.

The term may be imprecise because in Medieval England gingerbread meant simply "preserved ginger" and was a corruption of the Old French gingebras, derived from the Latin name of the spice, zingebar. It was only in the fifteenth century that the term came to be applied to a kind of cake made with treacle and flavoured with ginger.

The gingerbread legend contains no small amount of magic. Traditionally, this bread is made with molasses and it is spiced with ginger; for centuries, it appeared in popular tales like 'The Little Gingerbread Man' and 'Hansel and Gretel.'

By the 17th century, fairs in England offered children gingerbread delicacies in the shapes of snowmen, of jolly women, animals and saints embellished with gilt or gold-leaf.

In the Middle Ages, the fashionable women of the Royal Court allotted gingerbread figurines -- as good-luck favours -- to the most valiant knights.

The gingerbread was traditionally regarded as a delicacy of Christmas. In Nuremberg, at the beginning of the 17th century, families attended the "Christkindmarkt" to buy decorations carved specially for Christmas, to buy speciality sausages and the region's famous gingerbread cakes, called "Lebkuchen."

Today, one can still discover the moulds that were used especially for the various gingerbread biscuit shapes of Saint Nicolas's Day in the museums of Germany.

At the end of the 19th century in North America, gingerbread was already known for decades. The immigrants of various ethnicities brought with them their own versions so that today brightly coloured and decorated gingerbread belongs as much to our Christmas traditions as those from overseas.

The traditions in France were closer to the German than the English ones, with noteworthy recipes for pain d'épices coming from Dijon, Reims and Paris. In 1571, French bakers of pain d'épices even won the right to their own guild, or professional organization, separate from the other pastry cooks and bakers. In Paris, a gingerbread fair was held from the eleventh century until the nineteenth century at an abbey on the site of the present St. Antoine Hospital, where monks sold gingerbread cut into the shape of pigs.

In contemporary France, pains d'épices are traditionally cooked on an open hearth. Another amazing and tantalizing tradition has slices of pain d'épices nestled in clarified butter in a non-stick pan, and sautéed with escalopes of real Goose foie gras! Lastly, I think the best version of North American gingerbread I've ever had was the recipe that Barbara-jo McIntosh served at her now-defunct restaurant on Cambie Street. She drizzled it with a caramel sauce, and I believe there might have been pecans involved.

In any case, if you are tempted to order authentic pain d'épices or pâtes de fruits, you should contact Monsieur Gilles Rongier at this address. . .and tell him Anne Garber at evalu8.org sent you.

© worldwide 2005.

© worldwide 2005, Anne Garber / evalu8.org
Garber Gastronomic columns exclusive to evalu8.org by Anne Garber.
Photos copyright 2005, courtesy Gilles Rongier & Aux Délices de la Montagne

Read Anne Garber's other Garber Gastronomic columns...