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Joel Thiébault
Vegetable King
In 1873, Joel Thiébault great-grandparents were among the
first to set up shop as maraichers, or market gardeners, along the
newly created farmer’s market now situated on the chic Avenue
President Wilson in Paris’s 16th arrondissement.
 The boyishly handsome Thiebault, a young-looking 51 years old, remembers
riding to Paris from their farm on the outskirts of the city in a
horse and buggy. Little would he have know then that he would one
day create a veritable vegetable empire, with everyone from Michelin
three-star chef Pierre Gagnaire to aspiring bistrotiers clamoring
for the more than 1,700 different varieties of vegetables grown on
his fertile 22 hectares of land in Carrières sur Seine, only
7 kilometers as the crow flies from the Eiffel Tower.
Passion, hard work, an instinctively outgoing manner, and a near
fanatic drive to constantly search for new and more flavorful varieties
of vegetables has put Thiebault at the top of his game. What’s
best, is that any Parisian homemaker can vie for those same colorful
treasures, since Thiebault and his staff can still be found at the
same President Wilson market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings,
and the Rue Gros market in the 16th on Tuesday and Friday mornings.
And what’s more, since June, those housewives don’t
even have to leave the comfort of their cuisine, since two Thiebault
pals have set up a thriving home delivery system, known as Le Haut
du Panier.
The birth of the business goes like this: Longtime friends Antoine
Meyssonnier, a professional photographer, and Raimundo Briones, an
architect, were going on a ski vacation together, families in toe.
They were renting a chalet and wanted to be sure to have the best
possible ingredients throughout the week. They asked their friend
Thiebault to create a survival box that would get them through the
week. It worked so well, they figured Parisians might be delighted
to be offered the same service.
So, since last June, Meyssonnier and Briones have become high class
delivery men, anointing apartments in every arrondissement of Paris
with delectable paniers, actually sturdy cardboard boxes that arrive
at the appointed hour each Friday, filled with pristine and brightly
colored vegetables arranged like precious jewels.
I confess that when the doorbell rang at precisely 7 am on the day
of my first delivery, I was as excited as a little kid on Christmas
morning. When I opened the box, I gasped. I could almost smell the
earth. T glistening spinach, multiple varieties of tender variably-colored
lettuce, tender lamb’s lettuce, carrots, parsnips, turnips
and Jerusalem artichokes, potatoes, leeks and parsley had all been
picked just the night before, and everything screamed fresh with
a capital F.
Meyssonnier and Briones – each 34 years of age -- are brilliant
entrepreneurs, since they knew the first thing many cooks might ask
is “What on earth do I do with all this?” A simple, uncomplicated
and delicious recipe created by one of the duo arrives with each
delivery, and supplementary recipes for the seasonal produce can
be found on their web site www.lehautdupanier. Clients are offered
a choice of several different weekly baskets, from the starter version
I mentioned for 38 euros, on to a familial delivery for 58 euros.
In the summer time, the large basket can weigh up to 18 kilos, and
is meant to feed the family in vegetables for a week.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Thiébault and
his vegetables are quietly transforming the scope and the focus of
modern French cuisine, particularly in the nation’s capital.
For some time chefs such as Pierre Gagnaire and Pascal Barbot of
the new Michelin two star L’Astrance have been Thiébault
addicts, urging him to grow certain new and different varieties of
vegetables, showering their menus with all manner of rare and unusual
vegetables. However, more recently, all over Paris, one seems menus
where vegetables are king, not just something to shore up the protein
portion of the meal or act as a pretty green bangle on the plate.
No longer just a bridesmaid, vegetable are now the bride.
Today, chefs and restaurateurs such as Antony Clémot of Mon
Vieil Ami, William Ledeuil of Ze Kitchen Galerie, Michel Troisgros
of La Table du Lancaster, William Bernet of Le Severo, Benoit Guichard
of Jamin, and Louis-Jacques Vannucci of Le Soleil are armed with
a new creative spirit towards vegetables, creating winter roasted
root vegetable daubes; combining lily white cauliflower with sweet
langoustines; caramelizing Belgian endive and pairing them with glistening
fat scallops; marinating paper-thin slices of raw Jerusalem artichokes
in orange flower water and fresh mint; or pairing penne pasta with
fresh basil pistou, slices of chorizo sausage, aged Mimolette cheese
and tender, baby garlic shoots. A far cry from the standard boeuf
carottes, navarin d’agneau, leeks in béchamel sauce
or a standard potato purée.
Thiébault, who works with a staff of 15 and clearly sleeps
only two or three hours a night, took over from his mother a few
years ago, and in recent years as he has grown in demand and respect,
he sees that chefs are becoming more and more flexible, eager to
adapt to the vegetable of the moment as it is plucked from the earth,
rather than relying on a menu that will get them through an entire
season.
“It’s strange to say, but the entire mad cow scare of
a few years back truly gave a boost to our business,” explained
Thiébault over lunch at one his client’s restaurants,
the tiny wine bar Bistral, in the city’s 17th arrondissment. “People
were scared to death. And they realized they really didn’t
know a lot of about vegetables. And they had to learn, fast.”
For more information, check Thiébault’s web site, www.joel-thiebault.fr.st
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