60 Seconds with Richard Bertinet by Angela Mount

Top ingredient you can’t live without

Flour - it forms the basis of all my breads

Food & wine match that most impressed you

A classic I’m afraid - seafood - preferably crab - with a great and very chilled muscadet

Favourite dish of yours... 

This is like choosing between your children!  With summer coming up and a trip to the South of France in the offing how about my Tarte Tropezienne and Vin d’Orange.

This is a traditional tarte in and around St Tropez. My friend Thierry Pezzuli, who runs a bakery in nearby Les Arcs sur Argens, makes great big tartes, and when we are there on holiday, he always brings one when he comes around for an aperitif. This recipe is inspired by his version.

It isn’t a classic tart as we think of them in the UK; it is more like a Victoria sponge, but made with a light, sweet dough. Although it will keep for a couple of days in the fridge, it is best eaten fresh at room temperature with a glass of rosé or, or even better, Vin d’Orange, the local tipple.

The dough is difficult to make in small quantities, so I suggest you either freeze half of the dough for another time, or use it to make tiny doughnuts. The easiest way to make it is using a food mixer, otherwise you need to follow my special stretch-and-fold technique for dough.

Method

- Warm the milk for the ferment until just tepid then pour into the bowl of a food mixer. Crumble the yeast into the flour, add to the milk and whisk until you have a mixture like a thick porridge. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for a minimum of 2 hours at room temperature.

- Add all the dough ingredients to the ferment and mix for 3–4 minutes on a slow speed, then about 10 minutes at medium speed until the dough comes away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.

- Lightly flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Fold it over on itself a few times then form it into a tight ball. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rest for at least an hour in a draught-free place.

- Divide into two balls. Freeze one at this point, or use it for doughnuts. Roll the remaining ball into a circle, roughly 23cm in diameter and about 5mm thick.

- You can either lay the dough straight onto a non-stick baking tray, or if you want a neater edge, place a ring, about 23cm and lightly buttered and floured, on top of the tray, and lift the circle of dough into it. Cover again with a clean tea towel and leave to prove for 1 hour.

- Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas 5, and ideally put a baking stone or upturned baking tray on the middle shelf to heat up – when you place your tray of dough on it, this will help to direct the heat quickly to the base of the tart.

- Brush the top of the dough with the beaten egg. Scatter with flaked almonds. Place the baking tray on top of your baking stone or upturned tray in the oven for about 20–25 minutes until dark golden brown on the top. If you lift an edge of the base with a palette knife, it should be light brown and firm underneath.

- Take out of the oven, lift off the ring if using, and leave the tarte to cool on a rack. Mix the orange flower essence into the crème légère and when the tarte is cool, slice in half horizontally and sandwich with the cream. Dust the almonds with icing sugar.

Vin d’Orange

This cool drink recipe comes courtesy of La Fontaine d’Ampus, a lovely restaurant in a courtyard in the pretty little hillside village of Ampus, France, near my wife Jo’s family holiday home in Provence. It is brilliant on a summer’s evening with a wedge of Tarte Tropezienne. In France you can buy ‘l’alcool pour fruit’ in the supermarket, but I suggest you use vodka. You do need space for a big tupperware box in the bottom of the fridge (or you could halve the quantity) – and you need patience, as you have to wait 40 days for it to be ready!

Quarter 8 oranges and 2 lemons, leaving the skin on. Put in a large tupperware box (that has a lid) along with 5 litres of rosé wine, 1 litre vodka, 850g sugar, a bayleaf,  3 cloves and a stick of cinnamon. Put on the lid and leave in the bottom of the fridge for 40 days, then filter, bottle and keep chilled.

Favourite dish of someone else’s...

I first met Florence Knight when she came to do a stage with me many years ago.  We recently ate at Polpetto her restaurant in London and between a group of us ate the entire menu.   Her palate is amazing and some of the dishes we ate that day have to rank right up there, particularly an amazing pork chop and a roasted beetroot puree

Who is your food hero? Where did you get your inspiration?

Lionel Poilane was always a hero of mine - everything in his books always made such sense to me when I was learning my trade.  More generally in the food business I have always greatly admired Robin Hudson one of the founders of the Hotel du Vin chain and who is now responsible for The Pig near Bath.

Greatest achievement

I think having my first book Dough published rates right up there.  To see what you do in print for the first time is an incredible feeling.  However I hope that the greatest is yet to come.

What do you enjoy about the Bath food scene?

The number of independents has to be Bath’s greatest strength.  Whether it is great pubs, quirky cafes or smart restaurants there are so many good places to eat (and drink) now.

Favourite restaurants in London?

Too many to name them all.  I love Polpetto, anything Angela Hartnett or Mark Hix do is amazing and we ate at the pop up Vintage Salt last week - that was great.  I also can’t wait to eat at Nathan Outlaw’s revamped restaurant.

Key tip for bread making

Show the dough who’s boss!

What wine is in your fridge and in your wine rack right now

Lots of Provencal rose.  Once the sun comes out this is it for me.  At the moment we are drinking  Domaine Saint Esprit, a little known wine from near Flayosc that is owned by friends of ours Richard and Helene Croce Spinelli  that we have to bring back when we visit as no one yet imports it.

What are your top red and white from the Great Western Wine selection at the moment?

I love the Chablis Defaix with both seafood and fish. It has an incredibly clean and fresh taste, with depth of flavour and real style. It's great with my favourite seafood, but also delicious with any fish with a butter or cream sauce.

As it's Summer, I'm after a lighter style, fruity red wine, that I can enjoy chilled. Beaujolais Vieilles Vignes works perfectly – it's packed with juicy, strawberry fruit, it's what good Beaujolais is all about, and it's great with both meat and fish dishes, especially fish such as monkfish.

Desert island meal

Seafood, home made mayonnaise and some of my sourdough followed by a sharp lemon tart.

Desert island wines

A case of ice cold Cotes de Provence Rose please and some fizzy water so I don’t get too dehydrated drinking all the wine in the sun shine!

Will you be visiting any food/wine regions this summer?

My wife’s family have a house in Provence so we tend to go down there every year and this one is no exception.  It is up in the hills above a small market town, among the vineyards and pretty idyllic really.   I am looking forward to a blissful couple of weeks of rose, swimming and sunshine.

So what's your record on the Saturday kitchen omelette challenge?!

17.22 seconds but I wouldn’t eat the omelette!

What do you do when you're not teaching or cooking?

Either I will be at one of our bakeries (in Bath or Milton Keynes) or at home with family and friends.  Very occasionally I manage to take a day out to go shooting or fishing but the diary is so packed it does’t really happen very often.

 By Angela Mount

Photographs by Jean Cazals from Patisserie Maison by Richard Bertinet (Ebury Publishing)

www.bertinet.com

(recipe card edit by GWW)