Brigitte Grondin is a reference in the Creole cooking domain.  Originally from Reunion Island, her fourth recipe book has recently been published.  “Du bonheur dans votre assiette” (“Happiness in your plate”) is published by Epsilon and 4 Epices.  We met up with her…

Runweb: In the fourth and most recent edition of your book, published in September 2007, you have included a notebook of recipes exclusively made with ‘produits Pays Réunion’ (local products from Reunion Island).  What motivated you to form this partnership?

Brigitte Grondin: I love my island and am the daughter of a breeder and farmer.  The idea of becoming a partner of Réunion Island’s Fédération Régionale des Coopératives Agricoles or FRCA (‘Regional Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives’) was important to me.  I wanted to support their project and their idea of the label “Produit Pays Réunion” (Reunionnese local products). 

And you’ve been using these products for a long time, no…
Exactly.  I could not imagine myself refusing their offer of a partnership.  In my recipes, I highlight fruits, vegetables, meat and local fish.  I’ve always worked like that.  It seemed logical to me to participate in this project and therefore follow on with my project of eating better Creole food.  Even outside of my cookery books, these are the products that I use everyday at home.

How do things work at home concerning the food shopping?
I buy little.  I go food shopping several times a week in order to have the freshest products available.  As I said earlier, I am the daughter of a breeder.  We always ate fresh farm produce of a high quality.  We knew where it came from.  I rarely buy frozen foods.  It is for all these reasons that I agreed to this partnership.  It was also interesting to create new recipes with these products.

Have you discovered new products among those with the label “Produit Pays Réunion”?
 ‘Les cheveux d’ange’ (‘Angel hair’ or very finely minced meat).  I did not know it under this name.  For me, minced meat is really just minced meat.

Was it this partnership that encouraged you to bring out a new edition of your book in 2007 or had you already planned it?
The third edition of “Du bonheur dans votre assiette” had sold well.  We hadn’t really realised how well.  It was therefore necessary to do it again.  We made the most of the occasion in order to bring out a new edition.  The FRCA was most probably aware of my new edition.  Through my publishers, they asked if we could create recipes made exclusively with these products.  I accepted immediately.

“The pleasure of pleasing others”

How did you come to write recipe books?
It followed on from a get-together with my friends, Fabienne Jonca, Grégoire Olivero and Eric Robin.  I had a restaurant in the rue Pasteur in Saint Denis at the time.  Now it’s the ‘Zanzibar’.  They asked me the typical question: “Why don’t you put all your recipes into a book?”  But I had never written a book before.  It just came about like that.  Now, Grégoire is in metropolitan France and Fabienne has been the publisher of all of my books.  For this last edition, Eric Robin also became one of my publishers and dealt with the presentation of the pages.  Hervé Doris is to thank for the photographs.

Is the conception of such a book hard work?
My role is to create the recipes and come up with the layout for the photos.  As for everything else, I trust my partners.  My role is to create recipes and luckily that is not too hard for me.  I always find something new to invent.

Where does your wish to create recipes come from?
First of all, there was my grandmother who cooked a lot.  She often cooked meals and cakes for the whole family.    She organised the church fête.  We never saw here weigh anything.  She knew all of her ingredients and their quantities by heart.  When I was little, my mother entertained a lot.  Today, I realise that I am just like her.  I enjoy having people over and I rarely weigh my ingredients now.  Even now, although my mother is older, she still enjoys cooking for a dozen people over the weekend.  I was brought up in that atmosphere.

There’s not only happiness in you plate but all around you as well?
Exactly.  It’s all about enjoying receiving people and creating a convivial atmosphere for friends and family.  The pleasure of pleasing others.

 Is it hard for you to think up new recipes?  How do you go about it?
I am lucky in that I travel quite a lot and am able to discover other cooking methods.  The secret of it all is that I enjoy cooking.  I have two passions: cooking and painting.  I often say: I cook like I paint and I paint like I cook.  Inspiration comes with practice.  I don’t even realise notice it.  I am aware of the fact that I am very curious as I watch endless television programmes and I read recipe books.  That’s where I get my ideas, colours and images from and then I put them into practice.

 “I know in advance if my recipe will work”

Do you let people taste before going ahead?
No.  It’s just like when I paint.  I create a recipe and either people like it or they don’t.  My children made me realise this.  My daughter was eight when I took her to metropolitan France with me for the launch of the first edition of my book.  One day, she told me that she had followed one of my recipes but wanted to know how I know what ingredients had to go into it.  I didn’t really know how to explain it to her.  I just know these things.

Is it a gift?
It’s just a part of me.  When I come up with a recipe, I have an image in my head of what I need to put into it.  It’s just like when I paint a painting.  I see the colours, the image and the final result.  I know in advance if my recipe will work or not.  I never taste them.  I simply create them.

What about other people’s cooking?
I love sitting down around a table and eating…I love gastronomic cooking just as much as simple cooking.  I’m not really complicated.

Are you a big eater or epicurean?
I would say that I am more epicurean for the pleasure of tasting and discovering what others have put into their cooking and how they have gone about it.

What are your recommendations for the New Year celebrations?
Any recipe with litchis in it is always remarkable!  The mixture of sweet and sour is essential.  The mix of meat and litchis gives a extraordinary flavour.  The litchis make a meat dish more refined and luxurious.

Interviewed by Véronique Tournier
December 2007