It's Always Sunny in Provence

Annie Jacquet-Bentley wants you to fall in love with French cuisine. That's why she's taking you to France.

by J.F. Pirro

 Are the French nasty? Annie Jacquet-Bentley says that's nothing but a myth. In fact, she swears the sun's always shinning over her chalet in Provence. The celestial orb, she says, pumps up their personalities — the natives smile, they nap at midday, they drink wine and eat well.

 "Provence is blessed by the gods for 365 days a year," says Jacquet-Bentley. "It could be raining elsewhere, but not in Provence. It's always sunny. It's not like that in New York or Philadelphia where everyone's stressed out."

FRENCH TOAST: Francis Trzeciak and Annie Jacquet-Bentley relax at Chester County's popular Birchrunville Store Cafe. : michael m. koehler

This month, the restaurant consultant, who's worked with chefs like Daniel Boulud (New York's Daniel) and Thomas Keller (Napa's French Laundry), will launch the ultimate French hospitality experience. She's taking reservations for four private culinary trips to Le Mas de Rocquejeanne, her 18th-century restored farmhouse in Murs. She's calling the venture "Annie's Kitchen in Provence."

The first two trips, scheduled for Jan. 3-7 and Jan. 9-13, will feature Francis Trzeciak, chef-owner of the nationally acclaimed Birchrunville Store Cafe in Chester County. Both sessions are truffle-focused, offering a fun, instructive glimpse into the secret world of the costly aromatic tuber.

"Everyone's afraid of truffles because they're so expensive and fragile," says Trzeciak. "It's true. If you don't know what you're doing, you're throwing hundreds of dollars in the trash."

But don't think these overseas excursions are highfalutin and haughty. If anything, they're high-spirited: Jacquet-Bentley says she's a cook, not a chef. She's passionate about food, a love she'll also share for the third and fourth trip installments, set for June and September of next year.

Trzeciak, a friend and neighbor in Birchrunville who was born near Murs in Sorgues, feels privileged to be involved. He thinks potential guests should feel the same. "Who else would invite you to their house?" he asks. "This is a unique experience."

It's similar to the business Jacquet-Bentley used to own and operate, L'Ecole des Chefs ("The School of the Chefs"), which she started in 1998. Before recently selling it, she offered weeklong internship programs with celebrated French chefs both here and abroad. Now, she's promising more hands-on, practical and personalized instruction in her new niche travel-cooking gig, where classes are limited to six students each.

"It was more intense," she says of L'Ecole des Chefs. "The interns were on their feet all day. It was the equivalent of golfing with Tiger Woods. Interns came away with a sense of awe, but it was definitely a pressure cooker."

One intern, a surgeon, told her the stress in his chef's kitchen was on par with an operating room. Jacquet-Bentley's out to offer a more relaxed introduction to the inner sanctum of French gastronomy.

"This will be like cooking with friends," she says. "It'll be at a level where participants can reproduce what they've been taught."

Provençal cuisine, which is light and healthy, relies on fresh ingredients. The region is known for its luscious fruits (Cavaillon melons, figs, plums) and vegetables (heirloom tomatoes, white asparagus, oak leaf lettuce). There're also flavorful lamb, fowl and venison, hand-crafted goat cheeses, black truffles, hearty wines, fragrant olive oils, fresh herbs and Mediterranean fish.

Among the local specialities covered in the classes: bouillabaisse (a Mediterranean fish stew), salt cod with lightly steamed vegetables, eggs and escargot in aioli, petits farcis (stuffed vegetables), pissaladiere (a slow-cooked onion tart) and tapenade.

Of course, this all comes at a price. The two truffle-centric trips in January cost $3,450, plus an additional $950 per traveling companion. Airfare and accommodations are not included. This rate includes four cooking classes, seven lunches or dinners, wine and champagne tastings, lots of truffles and the guidance of chef Trzeciak.

The summer and fall classes will expand on the idea with market trips, home-cooked meals, guided excursions to olive oil mills and meetings with wine masters, cheese artisans, honey gatherers and bread makers. All the classes will be conducted in English, although Jacquet-Bentley and Trzeciak are both bilingual.

Jacquet-Bentley's French kitchen is state-of-the art: Its features include a large center island, cold cellar and wine cellar and a professional Lacanche stove. Still, the long, antique farm table, exposed beams and thick whitewashed plaster walls are an old-world reminder of what the space once was — two livestock barns. It's a convenient metaphor for her approach to Provençal cuisine — nods toward all things modern, with an equal amount of reverence for time-tested culinary traditions.

"In [the United States] we forget that food is much more than food," she says. "It's love, but here everyone's going 15 different directions. No one sits down to share a meal with family. Europeans still do. Maybe I can make that impact — but then maybe the people who will come to me already know food is a gift of love."

(j_pirro@citypaper.net)