Is it good enough to put your name on?

Last weekend my chum Tony and I flew from Amsterdam to Bordeaux to visit my mother, Nina, and brother, Jeremy. They live in the Médoc region of France, near the small town of Vendays-Montalivet. Lesparre-Médoc is the “county town” and where we go to stock up for the weekend.

First stop is the Eléveurs Girondins where they sell the most wonderful beef from local cattle — Blonde d’Aquitaine, Limousin and Bazadais. The shop only opens a few hours every day and there is always a queue. There are certificates on the counter explaining what’s on offer this week — almost a résumé of the animal you are going to be eating. We bought some rump steak and entrecôte (well, actually, rather more than some).

Second stop was Carrefour, the local supermarket, where the cheapness (but goodness) of wine compared to the UK is galling, and the quality of available produce does give an indication why France is supposed to be the best place in the world to live.

As it happened, it was my birthday; so Tony (birthday exactly a week earlier) and Jeremy decided we needed a birthday cake. We went to La Crique, a promising-looking pâtisserie not far from Carrefour. I waited in the car while the other two went in to buy; they returned with a tarte aux fruits and the news that the chef was a fluent English speaker having recently returned to France after 23 years in the UK. He is William Hamelin. I’ve binged him and discovered that among other things he was Chef Pâtissier at the Connaught Hotel, professor of pâtisserie at Westminster Kingsway College and President of the Association Culinaire Française— this guy is the real deal.

The tarte aux fruits was sublime! None of us could remember ever having eaten better. That meant, gourmands that we are, we had to go back for more on Saturday. We all went into the shop hoping for another tarte aux fruits, but there were none. M. Hamelin explained some of the other delights, which included — surprise, surprise — a bread and butter pudding. I can’t recall the elegant French name, but he said that one of things he wanted to do was introduce the French to English puddings. Well, we’re English, but we bought some anyway and they were g-o-o-d!

Our other purchase was a tarte tatin, which, our pâtissier said was so good, he put his name on it! This he did with a tasteful little sticker on the box. This phrase resonated with me as a worthwhile addition to a personal manifesto. Next time you deliver a project, Seth Godin might ask “Is it art?” and William Hamelin might ask “Is it good enough to put your name on?”. Well, is it?