Last of Summer: A Cajun/Gascon Fête at Camont

Breathing life back into a community of friends...one delicious dish at a time

25 years ago I hosted a group of 10 New York City folk who had traveled to the wilds of Southwest France with artist John Corbin for what would be a most memorable 3-day movable feast celebrating the Fête de l’Assomption on August 15. on my canal barge. It was a quirky and funny event with a mayfly attack on our canal-side salmon bbq, a toilet paper roll wig for an accordion-playing Louis XIV, fireworks by the grain silos, and a medieval feast in a French village home. Most of the ten had a good time, left and never came back, but John remains a friend until this day and his friend, artist Elaine Tin Nyo, became a lifelong sister. Two out of 10 are good odds when it comes to lifelong friendship. And it all started with a fête.

Sister/Friends 25 years and counting…

On this most summery of Summer holidays in France, August 15th, marks the beginning of the conclusion of 6 weeks of summer vacation. Many people return home that weekend; a few are just starting out. For me that weekend is a giant exclamation point that shouts “It’s Still Summer!” And this party that Elaine and I (and a few other close friends) pulled together marked our 25th anniversary of Food and Friendship with a jovial gathering set to music and food inspired by another friend-to-be— Melissa Martin, Chef/Owner of the Mosquito Supper Club in New Orlean LA. Bonhomie is the word that comes to mind and La Fête de La Louisiane was the occasion.

It was also a sort of fare-the-well to these two who define hospitality—Renee Luby & Alvin Stillman.

The party started long before the guests arrived as you can imagine: 

• J-3: Thursday I bought a few kilos of live shrimp and 7 dozen oysters in the market at Royan at the tip of the Gironde Estuary and drove home with a cooler plugged into the cigarette lighter. I picked up Elaine on the way at her new digs in Libourne and we drove the rest of the way to Camont plotting the layout of the food, bar, band, etc.

• J-2: Friday meant shopping for last minute goods: all the compostable party gear we could find- plates, bowls, paper cups, straws, and the most beautiful spoons, forks and knives out of bamboo. All destined to feed the future gardens.

• J-1: Saturday I started cooking: making the shellfish infused broth for the rice tomorrow, following Melissa Martin’s sage advice on boiling shrimp and crayfish in her Mosquito Supper Club book. The pound of butter and soaking time in the salted buttery broth created a tender and sweet bite of shrimp. The younger crew started to arrive and executed the bar/band/kitchen stations plan. All the chairs in the shade of the acacia tree; the bar table near the band set up and away from the cooks. Ice bought from the frozen food store--14 kgs.

• Le Jour! Sunday lots of food prep in my big teaching kitchen, things put on sticks to deep fry for the Po’Boy station that Elaine mans, Bill arrives with his Duck Jambalaya prepped and ready for cooking, Moe arrives with a giant bowl of corn fritters that might have been the favorite thing at the party, and we made a run for more ice (20 kgs) from Picard before they close at noon thirty. Ice costs  € a kilo (2.2 lbs) Rosa arrived from Nice via Toulouse and we promptly put her to work on brunch duty. She whipped up a delicious golden duck egg frittata and we added a salad, some pastries, and liters of coffee. Taking care of the party crew is essential to a successful fête. 

  

  

  seven dozen of the best oysters went in a flash…

The day of any great party dawns with a delicious anticipation. Will the weather be perfect? It was. Will the food be delicious? It was! Will the guests be willing to suspend reality and be in the moment created just for them- 6 hours of frivolity, music, and conversation? They were. And so... old friends met new, new friends entered into a privileged circle, and Camont, which had languished under a sleeping Covid spell for too long, was burnished to a brighter sheen of friendship and food. And I was, at last, where I belonged, behind the wheelbarrow and cooking.

Kate cooking Riz aux Crevettes et Langoustine

I’m the sort of host that likes to set everything up, wind it up like an analog clockwork, recruit the best team of friends, and then watch it run on its own kinetic energy until the bell rings at 10:00 and it’s time to send everyone home- happy, sated, still tapping to the music, and longing for more. I hide in the kitchen, move among the tables, make sure there is plenty of food, buy ALL the ice in Gascony, trust that the bar will be self-tending, and hire my friend with the best band around- Marty Fields Galloway to make us sing along, get up, and dance. It’s a perpetual motion machine after that. Food, drink, music, conversation…

Martha Fields with Manu Bertrand and Serge Samyn- the Band.

So what makes a big party especially delicious? 

• Something Cold-  Yannick Pompèle opening some of the best chilled Oysters from the Atlantic Coast of France and accompanied by Gazpacho Slushies

• Something Hot- Duck Jambalaya (Bill Law faithfully following The Mosquito Supper Club Cookbook recipe)

• Something Fried- Elaine Tin Nyo on the okra, eggplant, and courgette battered on a stick Po’Boy station; Maurine’s fried sweet corn fritters were a huge hit (roadkill sweet corn supplied by Luke).

• Something BBQed- me at the Wheelbarrow BBQ cooking Riz aux Crevettes et Langoustines with red rice from the Camargue and fresh (as in still alive!) shrimp and langoustines from the Royan Market.

• Something Sweet- All the friends, some damn fine cooks, brought sides and desserts. There was no shortage of sweets- from Renee’s famous lemon bars, Laura’s spectacular brownies, Moe’s spicy peach cobbler, Vétou’s rich clafoutis, the Pompèles brought a giant apple croustade, and I whipped up some home-made Rouge Pop ice cream (Mosquito Supper Club Cookbook) and a very adult blackberry and raspberry fool sorbet (reinforced with my homemade crème de mûre). 

• Enough Ice- after all these years I discovered where to buy ice in France—good quality, hard, clear, big ice cubes for drinks. Picard, of course. (and now I found that they deliver!)

When the music ended and the crowd dispersed à l’heure, I quickly climbed the stairs to my room and tucked in with a worn out Chica under the bed. The composting of all the dishes and bamboo cutlery would wait until tomorrow and Dylan would put all the tables and chairs, party lights and electric cords back in place before a last lunch. The traditional “after party” supper of leftovers would finish the tidying up and before long the only souvenirs will be these great photographs by Colin Usher who captured it all as bright and joyful as any wedding. 

Parties come and go, but this was one for the books. I’ve recreated a modified version of my Riz aux Crevettes recipe on a video lesson here. You can buy the Martha Fields newest album “Headed South” here and follow Marty on Facebook here. And to get inspired for more of the French/Louisiana connection read Chef Melissa Martin’s inspiring Mosquito Supper Club- Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou cookbook here.

And of course, a huge Merci to Colin Usher who took these great pics of joyful times at Camont. You can see more here: these are a few of my favorites of the Kitchen at Camont crew…

Gumbo Willie

Foxy Moe

Nice Rosa

This Piglet

Yours truly

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Tune to SOMM TV for all four episodes of my new Cooking with Wine series!