Forum on Taste and Tarentaise Culinary Traditions
‘Taste Academy Trophy’ at Pralognan-la-Vanoise

Week-end 13-14 JULY 2009
Views of forum 2008

Website of the Taste and Tarentaise Culinary Traditions Academy

	The Forum on Taste and Tarentaise Culinary Traditions
	Promote local gastronomy Local food is unquestionably one of the criteria which characterize and identify a tourist region. Local produce is indispensable in promoting local gastronomy, not only in the kitchen but also in terms of evolution and creativity. The Taste and Tarentaise Culinary Traditions Academy is the guardian of this know-how. The association was created in 2003 and now groups together about thirty members from different backgrounds such as the restaurant industry, agriculture and technical culinary education. A quality charter federates the members of the Academy around the common values that they wish to defend. The Town Square A forum to bring us together to talk, taste and compare… Since 2005, the Academy organizes the Forum on Taste and Tarentaise Culinary Traditions in Pralognan-la-Vanoise and proposes a rich and varied programme: conferences, talks, demonstrations, cooking contests and ‘the passing of Tarentaise knowledge from one generation to the next’, bakery competitions (creation and decoration of bread), blind wine-tasting... 43 villages of the Tarentaise Valley come together for the occasion in the heart of the Vanoise massif and present their specialities in the company of the Michelin-star chefs of the valley. A great inter-generational cooking competition Open to all, the cooking competition brings together the villages of the Tarentaise Valleys. The competition has an unusual team system: each team is made up of an elderly person and a young person, both amateur cooks. Each team must present a traditional Savoyard dish or pastry for 8 to 10 people which complies with the theme ‘cooking local Tarentaise produce’. The winning team receives the ‘Taste Academy Trophy’ and keeps it until the following contest. If a village wins for a third time, the trophy is theirs to keep for ever. The team also receives the medal of the Sarto Society from the Tarentaise Chapter (the ‘Golden Heart’). Who will dethrone the village of Bonneval-Tarentaise, winners of the 2005 contest with their celebrated farçon potato cake recipe by Grandma Rose? Lise-Marie and her granddaughter, third place in the cooking competition Around the Forum Many activities are on offer throughout the weekend with conferences, introductory courses and demonstrations including blind wine-tasting and a market of local produce. In 2006, a contest of illustrated poetry on the theme of the Savoie pig was opened to 9 year-old children from schools in the Tarentaise Valley. All the poems were displayed in the Taste Forum. The winners were chosen by the Tarentaise Chapter of the Sarto Society and their class received a prize.   The patron of the 2nd Forum on Taste and Tarentaise Culinary Traditions Jérôme Celle, director of the Celnat company, honoured the 2nd Forum on Taste and Tarentaise Culinary Traditions with his patronage. Descended from a family of millers dating back to 1834 and founder of the Celnat company, Robert Celle began his career in the family flour mill which produced flour for bakeries, oat flakes, hulled barley and animal feed. He witnessed the intensification of cattle rearing and by 1978 he was looking to choose a career direction which corresponded better to his ambitions and to the environment. With encouragement from his brother Jean, he discovered the health benefits of organic foods derived from cereals. In 1979 he created the company Celnat, devoted entirely to organic produce. In 2001, after a career in the hotel and restaurant business, his son Jérôme Celle joined the Celnat team and brought a new dynamic to the business. Since January 2004, he has been the general manager of a 45-strong team. Mr Celle, the President of the Taste Academy Dominique Briquet, and the Deputy of Savoie, Vincent Rolland