The key ingredient that makes both Italian and French food so good

Guillaume Brahimi's Plat du Tour journey started in Italy this year, with a pasta lesson and a historic cake.

Guillaume gets a lesson in making agnolotti from Rosanna Nicola in Italy. Credit: Plat Du Tour / Blink TV

— See each episode of Plat du Tour during the live broadcast of the Tour de France on SBS and SBS On Demand. The past four seasons of Plat du Tour are also streaming at SBS On Demand. —

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French and Italian food are often considered rivals for the crown of best European food. But for Guillaume Brahimi, there’s a key ‘ingredient’ that unites them: the sharing with loved ones.

“For me, Italian food has the same values as French food, it’s about sharing with friends and family, sharing with people you love,” says Brahimi, who this year spent time in Italy filming for Plat du Tour.

“They have the same philosophy of using seasonal produce, and lots of generosity, an abundance of food.”

Plat du Tour, now in its fifth season, takes us along the route of the Tour de France, with Brahimi meeting locals, exploring the regions’ culinary history, and trying local dishes. And while the tour has taken riders into Italy before, this year is different. It’s the first time the tour has started in Italy.

And thus, so does Plat du Tour, with Brahimi visiting Florence, in Tuscany, and cooking up one of the Italian city’s classic dishes, bistecca alla Fiorentina. He also orders a wine through a buchetta del vino – a wine window. As local guide Francesca Sabatini explains, these wine windows date back to the sixteenth century, when rich families started selling wine from their palaces, through small windows in the walls.

Guillaume Brahimi with tour guide Francesca Sabatini at a buchetta del vini (wine window). Credit: Plat du Tour / Blink TV

The second stage of the Tour, also in Italy, runs from Cesenatico to Bologna, and Tour Du Plat sees Brahimi visits the deli of Davide Simoni, a fourth-generation charcutier who makes a traditional and highly respected mortadella. The pair put together a hearty mortadella sandwich.

Guillaume Brahimi with owner David Simoni at Salumeria Simoni, about to try the house mortadella. Credit: Tour du Plat / Blink TV

Meeting food artisans like these is a joy for Brahimi. “I love Plat du Tour because, for 21 episodes, I meet new people, I discover amazing people, some great dishes, and some great craftsmen, people who are artisans and they're the best at what they do. And I just love that.

“When we are at the deli, trying the mortadella, what he is always trying to do is make the best mortadella, he’s not trying to do 20 different charcuterie. And that’s what I love, they are a perfectionist in their craft.”

For the third episode, which ties to the Tour’s stage three finish in Turin in northwest Italy, he has a chance to meet someone else who’s been perfecting her skills for many years – 83-year-old nonna Rosanna Nicola, who shares her technique for handmade agnolotti, pasta pillows filled with silverbeet and ricotta.

Guillaume Brahimi with Rosanna Nicola picking herbs from the garden and making pasta for homemade agnolotti. Credit: Plat du Tour / Blink TV

A lesson in handmade pasta with an Italian nonna was a first for Brahimi, who says it was a lovely experience. Brahimi makes a browned butter and sage sauce (made with sage the pair pick in her garden) to go with the pasta, and Rosanna gives it a nod of approval – although she does suggest it could do with more salt, so perhaps the Italian-French rivalry continues, even amongst amicable kitchen companions!

From here, the Tour, and thus Plat du Tour, heads into France. But first, Brahimi has one last taste of Italy to enjoy. The Tour stage departs from Pinerolo, a medieval town at the base of the Italian Alps. In the centre of town, near the beautiful San Donato cathedral, he visits Castino Patisserie to taste a torta Zurigo – a chocolate cake with a cocoa biscuit base, Chantilly cream and nougat in the filling, and covered in hazelnut chocolate with cherries dipped in white chocolate on top, and found only at that patisserie. Like many of the dishes he tries during Plat du Tour, this one comes with a story attached. It is said that the cake was invented for Princess Jolanda of Savoy, and needed to be sturdy enough to reach her in Zurich in good condition.

A cake of an entirely different nature marks the end of the Tour’s time in Italy. With the stage ending in Valloire, in the Alps, Brahimi’s recipe for this episode of Plat du Tour is a cake that is known for being as light as a feather, the gateau de Savoie. It, too, has a story.

“In the fourteenth century the Count of Savoy, or as we say in French the Comté de Savoie, Amedeo the sixth, conquered the les Alp, on the Italian and French border. To impress the visiting Holy Roman Emperor, he requested his chef to create a cake as light as a feather. This cake is still around in the region,” Brahimi explains in Plat du Tour. “Gateau de Savoie is a light sponge cake, so easy to do.” A fitting creation to end his time in Italy.

See Plat du Tour each night during the live broadcast or catch up anytime at SBS On Demand.