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Ellen Wallace is posting here while Jonell is away; she’ll be back next week.

Prepare to rub elbows with a lot of people if you head for Gruyère in the next four days: the charming hillside castle town is expecting 40,000 people to visit the Salon suisse des Goûts & Terroirs, Switzerland’s largest regional produce fair. It’s a great place to discover regional dishes and suppliers, with 250 artisans on hand.

There are 20 workshops for children ages 6 to 12 and three for adults, on whisky, molecular cuisine and mushrooms. This year’s fair has invited star-studded super-chef Irma Dütsch who made her name at the Fletschhorn Hotel in Saas Fee to be its ambassador, and she is offering public cooking lessons with Swiss celebrities invited to cook under her guidance.

The Salon opens from 10:30-22:30 Wednesday to Sunday, 9-13 September and 10:30-17:30 Monday the 14th.

Entry: CHF6 for children and CHF13 for adults.

Ed. note: Ellen Wallace is posting stories on food during Jonell’s absence; she’ll be back in mid-September.

La Potagère in St-Pierre-de-Clages, Valais, is a mix of gourmand excellence, no frills and over-the-top whimsy

By Ellen Wallace

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Vineyards of Chamoson seen from above, fruit basket from La Potagère

Look for this sign in St-Pierre-de-Clages, near Chamoson, Valais

There might be another food shop somewhere in Switzerland that equals this one for sheer fun, whimsy and great quality, but I have my doubts. I was in two neighbouring villages, Chamoson and St-Pierre-de-Clages in Valais, to write about the Vinea wine fest over the weekend. I had one of those accidental and serendipitous food discoveries that make the art of cooking and the joy of eating that much more fun.

Winemaker Claude Crittin from Maurice Gay wines invited several journalists to climb the hillside above Chamoson, to better view the magnificent hillside of vines there. We were offered one of the most beautiful, as well as tasty, aperitif tables I’ve enjoyed: good wine with excellent thin rye bread, Valaisan slivered meat that is dried in the open air, and a spectacular fruit basket.

The table was dotted with charming bottles of homemade pickled fruits and vegetables. I was still admiring the fruit basket when I popped pickled square of pumpkin in my mouth and stopped in my tracks because I have never had anything like it. Slightly spicey, gently pickled and simply beautiful, as were all the other vegetables in the jar (zucchini and onions). Then I tried the small pickled asparagus, crunchy, barely cooked and so delicate, a far cry from the usual fresh fare or canned ones, that I decided I had to find out who made these.

Names like no other jams have

Living proof that chic marketing counts for less than great products

It turns out that everyone in the world except me (and, I suspect, you) knows about La Potagère, but it’s still worth mentioning. Marie-Cécile and her husband Jean-Francois Buchard, have been running this small shop off the main street of St-Pierre-de-Clage for 32 years. They are open seven days of the week and have never taken a vacation. You can only do this if you really, really love your work, and it’s clear that they do. They have fun.

They make elegant fruit baskets, such as the one the Maurice Gay winery offered us, but their core business is a very good fresh fruit and vegetable indoor market that is a collection of plain crates of great food. Their reputation has much to do with magician Marie-Cécile’s open-minded approach: anything that strikes her fancy goes into the big jam-making pot.

indoor farmers market

Marie-Cécile with customer

The quality of the produce they sell explains why their own homemade confitures and pickled foods are so delicious, but it’s the owners’ sense of fun that is responsible for the odd combinations and whimsical names, such as jams called l’Escalier de l’artiste and La danse du café. They recently had a visit from a Swiss public television crew that wanted to see how the latest confection, from cherries and balsamic vinegar, was made. It was diplomatically named Couch de cerises sur le pain and was inspired by a comment made by retiring Swiss federal councilor Pascal Couchepin, from nearby Martigny, who reportedly plans to become an apprentice when his job as a politician ends in October.

After much browsing I settled on jars of pickled asparagus, pickled pumpkin and a jam: melon with pear, largely because the elegant colour was so appealing.

The couple sell other artisans’ goods, such as wonderful pastas, wines, cheeses and numerous regional products. I couldn’t resist what turned out to be excellent, delicately flavoured mini-meringues that you pop in your mouth. I opted for pale green pistachio ones but I was tempted by all of the other 10 or so flavours, made by Scrunch. The walls are plastered with odd posters and magazine articles. The corners hold strange collections of objects and it was only as I was leaving that I tripped over a nook with interesting soaps. I’ll check them out on my next visit.

No time for vacations, with business booming for 32 years

Not to miss, this little corner in Valais! But you might have to ask for it once in the village, as the entrance is off the street, down a driveway and around the corner. On the other hand, everyone knows where it is.

Related: TSR, June 2009, portrait,  Marie-Cécile Buchard

by guest Ellen Wallace, editor, GenevaLunch

Fredy Girardet, godfather of the 2008 Vigne du Monde wine in Féchy, where he lives, being interviewed by journalists

I’ve been waiting for years to say I had dinner with Fredy Girardet. Unfortunately for me, the world’s chef of the century (New York Times labeled him thus) retired and closed his restaurant in Crissier before I managed to get there for dinner. You can imagine my delight, then, when I was invited to join Girardet and Féchy winemakers for dinner Friday night, 12 June, with the menu worked out by the famous chef and Lazare Slaquer with Michel Hug. The last two are part of RSH, a catering firm in Crissier. Break down RSH and you have Philippe Rochat, who took over Girardet’s Crissier restaurant, Slaquer and Hug. This is not your average catering trio and the meal was anything but average.

The dinner was so pleasant that very exceptionally I forgot to take photos of most of the meal, so you’ll have to be content with a shot of the dessert.

First, the setting: the terrace of Domaine de Fischer in Bougy-Villars, a town perched above Féchy that is linked administratively to it. I know it mainly as the home of one of Switzerland’s best chocolate makers, Tristan. The beautiful old winery has a magnificent view of much of Vaud, Lake Geneva and the French Alps.

The meal:

• Langoustine au concombre mentholé, gaspacho de San Marzano (wine, Coup d’oeil, Pinot Blanc 2007, AOC La Côte, Albert Caillat)
• Friolet de turbot, jus de carotte au gingembre (wine, Doral 2007, AOC Féchy, CH Meylan & Fils)
• Volaille fermière à la fleur de courgette truffée (wine, Provokation Absolu 2007, AOC Vaud, Kursner Frères)
• Charlotte de nectarine du Roussillon rafraîchie au lait d’amande (Gewurztraminer 2008, AOC Féchy, Jacques Pélichet)

nectarine, almond milk

The conversation, with Fredy Girardet at my table: the local wines and efforts to try new things, dogs (Girardet’s airedale, who is named after a grape variety and is the fourth such dog in his family, quietly joined us for dinner), sports and how some sports players are paid too much these days, memories of flying over Greenland in a small private jet en route to New York, food and the importance of waiting until it is in season to buy it fresh.

We need to wait a little longer for good peaches, I learned.