On a recent trip to New Caledonia, I was fortunate to be shown around Noumea by the delightful Gabriel Gate, the well-known French chef based in Melbourne. On our last night, we dressed up for dinner at the Escoffier School of Cooking, a training ground for local students, and one of Nourmea’s best kept secrets (mind you, when we pulled up outside, I thought it was a grand motel, not a cooking school).

Gabriel Gate and me

You’ll be pleased to know you can enjoy a classic French meal at the school’s restaurant for a fraction of the price you pay at other Noumean restaurants.  The school publishes its  menus for lunch and dinner each month and you can pick up a copy at reception, though due to its popularity you will need to make a booking.  For the first time Australians can now attend cooking classes at Escoffier in Noumea through Superb Food and Wine Tours as part of a fantastic gourmet experience.  Visits to the food markets at Port Moselle with one of the Escoffier School chefs are also included.
In fact the markets were a highlight of my visit, not just because of the abundance of fresh local seafood, including inexpensive mud crabs, ‘crevettes bleus’ (fresh local prawns), Vivaneau (a delicate local white flesh fish, ‘rougets’, ‘bigorneaux’ (sea snails) and ‘perroquet’ (parrot fish), but because of the colourful fruit and vegetables next door at the ‘Marche Municipal’.  I couldn’t resist the local pawpaws, the freshly desiccated coconut (prepared fresh to order), and the divine  ‘vanille de Lifou’, a fragrant vanilla bean from the isle of Lifou.  Root vegetables such as taro, yam, sweet potato and manioc are also abundant.  One of the favourite dishes of the Kanaks (indigenous Melanesians) is “bougna”,  a traditional feast of root vegetables and pieces of chicken, pork and seafood wrapped in banana leaves, moistened with coconut milk and buried  in a ground oven.
There are a host of other top notch French food outlets to check out including ‘Chocolats Morand’, a superb chocolate shop in an arcade in town, and ‘Comtesse du Barry, a renowned French gourmet store where  you can sit outside under the mango tree and taste some of their superlative French wines and champagnes.  On Saturday mornings, fresh Dumbea oysters are available and make for a perfect match.
To get you in the mood (and thinking about your next trip), here’s a recipe of Gabriel’s which he shared with me:

Exotic Fruit and Coconut Custard Coupe

Serves 4

“I prepared this delicious dessert at my lovely apartment in the Promenade Apartment Hotel at Anse Vata”, Gabriel told me.

1 cup of full cream milk
100 g desiccated coconut (best if fresh!)
2 egg yolks
50 g caster sugar
25 g plain flour
1 cup of whipped cream
Pulp of 2 tropical passion fruits
1 cup diced pineapple
1 banana, thinly sliced
1/3 vanilla pod, cut open
200 g pink pawpaw, cubed and mixed with the juice of 1/2 lime
4 slices of brioche, about 1 cm thick and the same size as the top of the glass coupe
4 long wafers

Place the milk and desiccated coconut in a saucepan and warm on low heat for a few minutes.  Strain the milk through a cloth and discard the coconut.
In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar for about 20 seconds, then stir in the flour.  Whisk in the coconut milk, return it to the pan and cook on low heat until it thickens.  Transfer the custard to a bowl and allow to cool.
When the custard is cold, fold in the whipped cream, then transfer it to a piping bag.
In a bowl, mix together the passionfruit, pineapple cubes, banana slices and vanilla pod.
Spoon a few cubes of pawpaw into 4 parfait glasses.  Top with a slice of brioche, tucking the edges of the brioche well into the glass.  Pipe a little coconut custard on top, then add the tropical fruit mixture.  Serve with a long wafer.

You can check out more at www.newcaledonia.com.au

Escoffier School Bookings: Ph. (687) 27 63 88