DECONSTRUCT CASSOULET

With more than one town laying claim to this bean-and-meat stew, its exact origins are unclear. But one thing is certain - the dish is a centuries-old French classic

- FELICITY CLOAKE

In South West France, cassoulet is more than king: it’s God Himself. That’s according to the celebrated belle epoque chef Prosper Montagné, anyway — and almost a century after he said it, no one’s arguing. This humble bean stew is as much part of the cultural identity of the Occitanie region as rugby and red wine.

It’s nothing fancy — a slow-cooked dish of white beans and meat (three different types are apparently mandatory in every dish, according to the États Généraux de Gastronomie Française of 1966, a kind of Vatican Council for French food), flavoured with garlic and vast amounts of animal fat. It’s comfort food extraordinaire, but cassoulet worship isn’t all peace and love. As chef André Daguin puts it, “cassoulet is not really a recipe, it’s a way to argue among neighbouring villages of Gascony”.

Feathers fly about what goes into the pot (traditionally a glazed earthenware bowl called a cassole, made specially for the purpose in the village of Issel, in Aude), how it should be cooked and, most importantly, who should take the credit for its invention. As food writer Jeanne Strang notes, if seven Greek cities claim to be the birthplace of Homer, as many towns in South West France bill themselves as the home of cassoulet. However, according to Prosper Montagné, there are three main contenders. Although he was a son of Carcassonne, with its famous medieval citadel, the chef nevertheless allowed that the cassoulet of Castelnaudary, about 25 miles to the west, was ‘God the Father’, naming Carcassonne’s version ‘God the Son’, while residents of the regional capital of Toulouse had to be content to dine out on the ‘Holy Spirit’.