Jacques Marcon, chef & Carine Davier, market gardener, the good duo in the vegetable garden

In the Marcon family, Jacques is the man behind the kitchen garden. It was he who, in 2018, took the initiative of creating one, on a plot of land - not the most convenient - located at the bottom of a valley, straddling the Ardèche and Haute-Loire, a handful of kilometers from Saint-Bonnet-Le-Froid.

On this sloping, isolated 16-hectare site (of which only one hectare is currently cultivated), which had previously been used for farming, Jacques Marcon produces much of the produce used in the gourmet restaurant's kitchen. Vegetables, herbs and a few fruits are grown by Carine Davier, who is not afraid of hard work or solitude.

Why did you choose this location to create the kitchen garden?

Jacques Marcon: When Napoleon divided up the communes, this small piece of land was registered as part of the commune of Saint-Bonnet-Le-Froid, so it's called the enclave of Saint-Bonnet. Before the First World War, there were over 100 wheat-growing inhabitants here. There was even a mill to make flour. Then came the war, and most of the men died on the front. The women went off to work in the region's chemical and textile factories, or in the coal mines at Saint-Etienne. As a result, there was no one left to farm. And even less so on land like this, which is quite steep and not very profitable. I often come here for a run, and one day I stopped to say hello to Monsieur René Sarte, who was born here in 1934. He told me all about the history of this place and why it was ideal for growing crops. The mountain shelters it from the north and east winds, creating an interesting microclimate. Even my father, a local, didn't know why it was called the enclave. In three generations, the memory had been lost.

When you bought it, was it still being farmed?

J.M.: Mr. Sartre bought it in the early 2000s, hoping to revive it as he had known it. But with age, he was getting tired and lacking the means. When I bought the land from him, I promised to bring it back to life. He passed away in 2023... but I kept my promise.

Did you have to tame this unconventional piece of land?

J.M. : Yes, it's not conventional at all. When I told my father I was building a garden there, he thought I was crazy. And when I took Carine there, I think she thought I was crazy too! Well, not so much because she believed it.

Carine Davier: We're at an altitude of 800 metres here, which is quite high. I was coming from 500 metres up. Normally, there'd be a big difference, except that here, it's special. On the one hand, there's a microclimate and, on the other, climate change is actually happening very fast. In the five years I've been here, I'm now doing exactly the same thing I used to do on the plains.

Carine, why did you accept Jacques Marcon's proposal to cultivate this vegetable garden?

C.D.: We knew each other from the market where I was a market gardener, so he told me about the project and I came to see the plot. It was perfect timing because I had to make a change in my life. I wasn't quite ready - it's something you grow into - but he wasn't in a hurry. Jacques, I didn't really know who he was. We come from two different worlds, almost opposites really. When I started getting interested in gastronomy, I realized that it appealed to me enormously. Because, when he comes into the garden, everything interests him. For example, in a conventional market garden, you'd think, "Damn, my arugula's going up. "But he comes along and says: "That's great, I've got rocket flowers! ".

Laurence Barruel, ©Cyclon'Valleye

Are you self-sufficient thanks to this vegetable garden?

J.M.: We are for most of the growing season. Sometimes, at the beginning of the season, Karine doesn't have quite enough beans, for example. So on Saturdays I have to pick some up in Saint-Etienne from her colleagues who work in the same way. But I'm practically autonomous.

Did the growers you worked with before setting up the kitchen garden feel that you were letting them down?

J.M. : Before I started the garden, I warned them that the following year, I'd certainly be taking fewer vegetables from them. And they were all delighted! Everyone told me: you can never have enough vegetables! Especially since they're small market gardeners with only two hectares. The problem was that their customers yelled at me when, for example, I took too many vegetables and there were none left for them!

What makes a good vegetable?

C.D.: What makes it taste good? I imagine it's its terroir. The soil, the water. Some growers don't use irrigation, but I do, with spring water, and I think that's a real plus. I've never worked with the Rhône or the Loire, but I think that counts for a lot. I can hear Jacques saying in his head "Yes, but there's the way of doing it too". Perhaps...

Has this kitchen garden changed the way you cook?

J.M.: Yes, I think we're much more reactive. I can arrive at the kitchen garden with an idea in mind and end up doing something completely different. Because, really, who decides here? It's the garden. Not us. I never put pressure on volume. For example, until recently I had a zucchini dish on the menu because it was so good. But we had a hail storm on one of the plants and this morning, I changed the dish a little and put in more pâtissons than zucchinis. Every day, we adapt the plate according to the garden. I don't impose anything on my suppliers.

Do you get ideas for dishes from the kitchen garden?

J.M.: Yes, for example, I'd go for a walk where there's a rose geranium, which is very aromatic. And just before, I'd eaten a carrot. Carrots and geranium work really well together! So I'm currently making a carrot, geranium rosa and mussel dish.

Laurence Barruel

So, the success of this kitchen garden is really down to the two of you?

J.M.: Yes, totally. The link between Carine, the garden and my mushroom pickers is part of my job. It's even the job I'd like to develop even further once my brother Paul is completely back [Winner of the Bocuse d'Or France 2023, he's currently preparing the European final to be held in Norway in March 2024 editor's note].

Maybe I'll even be the second person to come and give Carine a hand every morning.