“What used to amaze me about the apples my grandparents grew and stored on the farm was that, even if the skin was as wrinkled as Grand-Père’s face, the inside stayed fresh and beautiful – just like him he used to say! Even after months of storage, the taste was tremendous. So with these apples, my Grand-Mère taught Maman to bake. Whenever I tell my son, Antoine, we are going to visit his Grand-Mère in France, the first question he asks is “Can you ask her to bake an apple tart, please, Papa?”…
Daniel's grandparents ran a farm, and the food the family ate was from their own produce. It instilled a love of fresh, seasonal food in the young boy and that ethos has never left him.
"As I child I loved to eat at the home of my tante Suzanne, the smell coming out of her kitchen was always amazing" he says "she used to bake for the family every Sunday. She taught my mum how to cook, and my mum became a great cook herself".
Daniel learned to love cooking from his grandmother, aunt and mother and at the age of just 15 started working in a restaurant. For the next 40 years he worked in some of the most prestigious kitchens around the world, fine tuning his skills, working with the best of the best including the much loved Michel Roux.
Along the way he collected Michelin Stars and became a TV star on the popular British Saturday Kitchen TV Show. He’s written two books The French Brasserie Cookbook and Revolutionary French Cooking. But though he's now an international chef and celebrity, some things haven’t changed. Daniel still loves to cook with local produce whenever he can and one of his favourite dishes is simple apple pie – made just like his maman's...
Interview with a chef: Daniel Galmiche
Daniel Galmiche is a French chef with an absolute passion for delicious food. It’s something that’s in his DNA having been born in eastern France in lovely Lure, Franche-Comté Aside from the magical Jura mountains (a veritable hotspot during ski season), the great forests, lakes, rivers and waterfalls, the hidden valleys and gorges, mountain villages and spa towns. It's also famous for its gastronomic products including smoked ham, sausages, emmental and Bleu de Gex cheese