Ma Cuisine du Soleil, or in its English translation, ‘Cuisine of the Sun’ is the title of a cookbook by the famous chef and author Roger Vergé. We were recently privileged to use some of his finest recipes for one of our short courses, which we offer to the public each week. There’s nothing like a little French cookery to liven things up in the kitchen, vous ne pensez pas?

Learning culinary skills from a legend

The author, who was born in central France in 1930, learned many of his culinary skills from his aunt. As a young man, he moved to Africa and lived in Morocco, Algeria and Kenya, learning local cuisines and customs during his time abroad. Armed with new skills and culinary insights, he headed back to France where he opened three successful and now famous restaurants including Moulin de Mougins, which has three Michelin stars. Chef Vergé was renowned for his unique cooking style which was labelled ‘cuisine of the sun,’ a variation of Provence style cooking which focused mainly on using fresh, local ingredients.

This was a totally unique concept at the time compared to the methods that other chefs in the area usually made use of. Chef Vergé authored four other books after Cuisine Du Soleil, but the first was by far the most popular and famous. It was very interesting to research and hear all the stories about this style of cooking, as well as to have real accounts relayed to us by our school’s principal, who had been to the area and who has had the honour of receiving a signed copy of Cuisine of the Sun from Chef Vergé himself. It may look a little weathered, but it still holds the most outstanding collection of recipes.

French cooking lessons are un succès!

The entire evening class was very enjoyable and the recipes turned out wonderfully. The experiences that we receive as students in terms of being able to help in the kitchen, prep for the recipes and set up the dining room is really first class. Plus, we’re very involved in explaining the recipes and different cooking skills to the guests who attend our short course evenings, so it’s great to get the best of both worlds, whether we’re cooking ourselves or helping others to do so.

We get to do some cool stuff in our kitchens, and with inspiration from fine French cookbooks like the Cuisine du Soleil, it’s easy to be a Culinary Arts student at IHS.