Bonjour French Market Friends,
In an unforgettable scene played out on news cameras around the world, President Macron 
got stuck in a traffic jam in New York this week, and called his American counterpart to help him out, unfortunately this did not work because the traffic had been stopped to allow his counterpart’s motorcade to proceed through Manhattan to the UN meeting. It ended with President Macron having to walk for 30 minutes through the streets and stopping for selfies with friendly passers by. His security detail must have been slightly stressed.
Here at home we celebrated our Heritage Day in this beautiful corner of the world. Our Gardens Shopping Centre hosted an eclectic Art display and a team from Pick n Pay sang stirring Xhosa songs which filled the centre with joyful sound, it was a true celebration of all our cultures.
For my “heritage” this was a special week as it is exactly 19 years ago that I launched the French Market project at the Old Biscuit Mill Market. With my French heritage I had been exposed to the culture of a 
diverse range of French cheeses being part of ones’ everyday meal. When I came to Cape Town, apart from some exclusive restaurants, it was impossible to find good French cheese. Therefore, I decided to source some of the great classic French cheese and set up a French cheese stall when the Old Biscuit Mill Market opened, to test my theory that there existed a desire by Capetonians to enjoy real French cheese. I then added a bi-weekly market at our Alliance Francaise and finally opened the doors of our French cheese shop in the heart of the Gardens Shopping centre. With the Pandemic we 
were forced to evolve online as a delivery service, which meant creating our website and we now deliver products around S.Africa. I would like to feel that I have proved my point, and this project is a success. We are probably flying in about 1500kgs of French cheese per annum. And that is not all, we added a whole range of French wines, champagnes, spirits, preserves, biscuits and stunning locally made fresh baguettes and real French patisseries.
And the next part of my adventure has just commenced, I have just started exporting to Namibia this month, at the request of clients of mine who are based in Namibia and love my French 
cheese. I managed to plow my way through all the strict regulations and lots of paperwork. We trucked up cheese, wines and dry goods in a specialised chilled truck 1500km to Windhoek and these will be launched at the beginning of October in their stores. It is very exciting, and I will be spending a few days in Windhoek next week training their staff. If you have friends in Windhoek please let me know and I will tell them where the products can be bought.
This week in our beautiful French Market store we have a delicious range of French cheeses for you to try, from runny and pungent, to mild and creamy, to firm and full of flavour plus a range of Blue cheeses. We have restocked on all the favourites and have a cheese to suit every taste. A new cheese to try is the firm textured goat’s crottin Picandine, this 60gr ball of firm textured goat’s cheese is crumbly and full of flavour.
In the fresh produce range, the violet artichokes are in full season. We source them from 
Ayama at Slent farm on the Paarl-Voorderberg mountain slopes. On Sunday I went with some friends, to pick artichokes and to enjoy their amazing Artichoke Harvest lunch. This was at least 5 courses of incredible flavours of which each one included artichoke in some form. The Harvest lunch runs every Sunday for the next couple of weeks, and I can highly recommend it. We had such fun, and it was great to actually get into the fields and walk between the rows of the artichokes. Ayama do a great wine tasting as well and I have brought in some of their lovely wines into the shop. Check out the Ayama Peitite Sirah – the actual grape is called Durif and originates from Herault, right on the Mediterranean coast with a similar climate to Ayama. The grapes are very small, and the wine is dark red. There are only a couple of farms growing the Durif grapes. We have some bottles in the shop.
Another rare product we have in a small quantity this week are pink Egyptian garlic heads from an organic farm in the countryside, the taste of this pink garlic is more intense than the regular white garlic and its much sought after for culinary purposes.
For my recip
e this week I have to share a recipe with artichokes while we are in the heart of the season. This recipe is very simple and has subtle flavours. I combined artichoke hearts with fresh cream and a lemon, to make a delicious sauce for chicken breasts. It is easy to make, and the taste is very delicate. This dish goes beautifully with fresh tagliatelle or roast potatoes.
I hope you enjoyed your Happy Heritage Day and wish me luck for the launch in Windhoek.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team