Harvest Of Gold

Saffron production is once again growing in France, and the country’s best chefs are taking note, says Dominic Rippon

- Dominic Rippon

Saffron is perhaps the most alluring of all the exotic spices that find their way into French haute cuisine. Even in tiny quantities, it imparts an evocative golden hue to dishes; accompanied by flavours that are so subtle, they can be a challenge to put into words. Some talk of a delicate sweetness, while others find an attractively bitter tang; or honey and fresh flowers, with undertones of freshly picked girolle mushrooms.

Nicknamed l’or rouge – or red gold – a single gram of top French saffron is worth between €30 and €40; so it is, quite literally, worth more than its weight in the precious metal. Unlike that other jewel of the French kitchen, the truffle, saffron is not difficult to grow. Rather,

its value is derived from the intensive labour required in its preparation: as many as 200,000 flowers must be hand-harvested in October, and their tiny crimson, filament-like pistils collected and carefully dried, to make a single kilogram of saffron.

Saffron comes from a breed of crocus known as Crocus sativus, which is native to south-west Asia, but was probably first cultivated in Ancient Greece. In Greek mythology, the god Zeus is said to have laid his lovers on a bed of saffron, to stimulate their desires and increase his own virility! Homer and Pliny the Elder were also fans of the spice, which has been praised since antiquity for its medicinal properties.

Saffron was first planted in France in the Middle Ages, arriving either from North Africa via Spain, or through Italy from the eastern Mediterranean. Bulbs were planted in the Gâtinais region around the city of Orléans, and in the ancient province of Quercy, in south-west France, which became the dual cradles of French saffron production. Saffron needs water to produce flowers, but it likes to be planted in free-draining soils, like loam, sandstone or clay-limestone. Above all, it needs plenty of direct sunlight.