Emblematic recipes
La tielle. This pastry pie filled with octopus cooked with tomato, spices and herbs, is historically the traditional fishermen's lunch. In the early 1930s, a brilliant Italian woman came up with a revolutionary idea: to use unsold octopus and cook it in a sauce to make a round pie with fluted edges. Originally a poor man's dish, it has since become iconic.
Macaronade. A pasta dish from Italy with a spicy tomato sauce, it is cooked with three different meats. It's definitely a family dish that everyone makes in their own way and from the heart!
Cuttlefish rouille. This dish owes its name to the distinctive color of its fragrant tomato sauce, spiced up with a good aioli. A convivial dish full of character, it can be enjoyed summer or winter.
Stuffed mussels and squid. After a long simmer in a tomato-based sauce, this specialty is served with rice, pasta or potatoes.
Monkfish bourride. A stew of monkfish (queue de baudroie) or white fish with an aioli, the name bourride comes from the Provençal word "boulido", meaning boiled.
Mussel brasucade. A festive meal, brasucade is served in the open air, where the mussels are cooked over a wood fire. The mussels are placed in a large container over the fire. Once opened and dewatered, they are drizzled with sauce. For the sauce, everyone has their own recipe. It can be made up of olive oil, onions, garlic, herbes de Provence, peppers...
Mussel piste. Mussels are cooked marinated in olive oil and lemon, giving them a perfect seasoning.
Oysters au gratin. A recipe as simple as it is tasty, for enjoying warm oysters au gratin in the oven, and appreciating the iodized fragrance of the shellfish that marries perfectly with the parsley butter and crispy breadcrumbs. For children, it's a great way to discover oysters.
Sea and pond: aquatic gardens
Between the daily comings and goings of trawlers, the departure of tuna boats a few weeks a year, and the departures of small boats to set their nets, there's always plenty going on in Sète, the leading fishing port in the French Mediterranean.
The largest shellfish-growing area in the Mediterranean, the Etang de Thau is an inland sea covering 7,500 hectares. Fishing has been practiced here since Antiquity. Eels, wolffish, gilthead bream, goby, muge, clavière... Fishermen use ancestral techniques such as the capéchade - a tunnel-shaped net that traps fish in submerged pots.
Oysters and mussels, the jewels in the crown of local gastronomy, are raised at sea or in the lagoon using a unique production method: rope farming. The shellfish industry currently numbers 500 farms in the Bassin de Thau. Benefiting from optimal natural conditions, oysters from the Thau lagoon are renowned for being both firm and melt-in-the-mouth. Fleshy, subtly iodized and nutty, they draw their quintessence from the nutritional values of phytoplankton.
White fish - mediterranean sea bass, sea bream, sole, capelin, paddlefish, sar, monkfish, hake, red mullet... - have delicate white flesh, and are the source of many delicious recipes.
Blue fish - sardines, anchovies, mackerel, mullet, horse mackerel - are "fatty" fish, rich in protein and omega 3. Their name comes from their blue or blue-green backs. They live near the surface or between two waters, often in schools.
Large pelagic fish - tuna, bonito, swordfish... - are capable of traveling great distances on seasonal migrations. They are rich in proteins and essential fatty acids.
The wolffish, nicknamed the king fish, is the most sought-after fish for the quality of its flesh, which is firm and very fine-tasting. Born in ponds and fattened during the summer, it reaches the sea in November, where it is caught in trawler nets.
The sea bream, fished at sea by professionals, lives part of the year in the ponds and makes its seasonal migration to the open sea at the end of summer. Thousands of amateur anglers take the opportunity to hook them as they pass through the canals of Sète. The spectacle is grandiose and comical, with many a vociferation and tangle of wires, in front of curious spectators who have come especially to the Pointe Courte.
The muge, or mullet, is an important part of the catch, especially for small-scale pond fishermen. It is often cooked boiled or in white wine, and sometimes served in soup, as its flesh has a strong odor when caught in ponds or canals.
Sardines are the perfect summer grilling fish. From simple grilling with vine shoots to fritters, rillettes or marinated in escabeche, there's no shortage of recipes. Sète is the country's leading port for sardine fishing.
The Mediterranean rock octopus can weigh up to 2 kg. Amphora fishing, still practiced by some fishermen, is a traditional technique involving the immersion of pots that the octopus will use as shelter. These pots are then raised and the catch selected. The smallest specimens can be eaten cold, as an aperitif, in octopus salad with olive oil. Larger specimens are particularly well-suited to daube. You can also enjoy them grilled, marinated or fried... And in the famous tielles!
Sea urchins are fished at depths of up to 50m. They are small in circumference, but have a very voluminous coral that ranges from golden yellow to dark red. They are eaten raw with a teaspoon, like caviar. In season, from September to the end of April, they can be found at Sète's halles centrales and in all the good fishmonger's shops in the Thau archipelago.
Clams and cl ams (small clams) from the Thau lagoon are also appreciated for their culinary quality. As are tellins, small bivalves measuring around 2 to 3 centimetres that live on the seashore, buried under a few centimetres of wet sand. Highly prized by connoisseurs for their finesse and flavor, tellines are eaten raw, with parsley or prepared in a creamy sauce with pasta.
Violet is also known as biju or sea potato, due to its large, brownish-black potato shape. It's covered with tiny attached organisms, hence its scientific name of Microcosmus, meaning "small world".
Sea snails comprise two distinct gastropod species: the spiny murex and the pepper snail. The former bears fearsome spines arranged in spirals around its shell, earning it the nickname "sharp". It is fished at sea and secretes a precious dye: purple. The second, known as the "pepper", is more commonly found on pond bottoms. Both are eaten after cooking in court-bouillon, accompanied by an aioli. Their firm, flavorful flesh is a delight.
Earthly delights
Pélardon is one of Europe's oldest goat cheeses. It has been made for centuries in the Languedoc region, particularly in the Cévennes. It's also found in our region, in the garrigue of the Hérault, notably in Villeveyrac. It's an AOC cheese made from raw goat's milk. It is shaped like a small puck with rounded edges. The longer it matures, the more pronounced its flavor. It must mature for a minimum of eleven days. During your visit, don't hesitate to taste some at the producers'.
Olive oil is the symbol of Mediterranean cuisine. It is enjoying a well-deserved renaissance with the recognition of its preventive properties, particularly against cardiovascular disease. Decimated by the frost of 1956, the orchards have slowly recovered. Lucques, Picholine, Olivière, Verdale... Several varieties form a bouquet of varied flavors. Producers can be found in Mèze and Villeveyrac.
Grocery store. The region also boasts producers of saffron, vinegars and tapenades, as well as honeys, jams and fruit juices. Find them in Mèze, Montbazin and Villeveyrac.
Meat. The region is home to many exceptional products, including bull meat from the Camargue, charcuterie from the Montagne Noire and Monts de Lacaune, farm-raised lamb from the Pays d'Oc, farm-raised poultry from Languedoc and Fleur d'Aubrac heifer. A guaranteed delight!
Winegrowing land
L'Archipel de Thau was the first destination in the Hérault region to be awarded the Vignobles & Découvertes label in 2013. Awarded to wine and tourism destinations, this national label guarantees a specialized, high-quality offer. Accommodation, catering, cellar tours and tastings, museums, events... Wine tourism in the region is now supported by over 60 professionals.
Between maritime plains and garrigues, from the Gardiole foothills to the shores of the Thau lagoon, here more than anywhere else, the vineyards reflect their past. Sun-drenched clay-limestone soils, a combination of wind and favorable micro-climate, it didn't take much for Etruscans, Greeks and Romans to invest this terroir to plant vines. Two millennia later, one of France's oldest vineyards is still going strong.
The soils are highly diverse: secondary era limestone at Mireval, Tertiary sediments with the Listel sands and Frontignan clays, and Quaternary with the sandstone pebbles. In terms of grape varieties, white grapes predominate: Picpoul, Terret, Muscat à petits grains, Vermentino, but also international varieties such as Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Viognier. White Terret is specific to this area and is only found near the Etang de Thau. Grenache, Cinsault, Carignan, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Mourvèdre make up the bulk of the red grape varieties.
Muscat de Frontignan
Clinging to the rocky slopes of the southern Gardiole mountainside, the Muscat de Frontignan vineyards benefit from a southern exposure to the sun, sheltered from the Mistral wind. The sea breezes bring the humidity necessary for its development, replacing the rains. Pebbles and colors are the elements that give the terroir its typical physiognomy. This distinctive vineyard, rare in the Languedoc, thrives on reddish, stony, chalky, arid soil. This white grape variety (the same as in ancient times) produces long, narrow, almost cylindrical bunches of delicate amber-yellow grapes. The uneven, tightly-packed grapes swell under the effect of the "Marinades" (sea winds), eventually producing a firm-fleshed grape with a pronounced musky taste.
Muscat de Mireval
Situated between the slopes of the Gardiole massif and the north of Frontignan, the terroir of Muscat de Mireval, with its Jurassic limestone soil of ancient alluvium and rolled pebbles, is protected from the elements by the 230 m-high mountain, and is subject to maritime influences. In a wooded environment of age-old Aleppo pines, the Vic vines are very close to the sea and protected from the southerly winds. They ripen early, giving the grapes lightness and finesse. The vineyards of Mireval, set in the Gardiole hills, sheltered from the north winds and competing for space with the holm oaks and thyme of the garrigue, give the best of themselves: generosity and typicality.
Picpoul-de-Pinet
Along the Mediterranean, at the head of the Gulf of Lion, the Picpoul-de-Pinet terroir stretches around the Bassin de Thau, in the middle of the Agde-Pézenas-Sète triangle. This is the largest white wine region in the Languedoc: a limestone plateau exposed to the rising sun, covered with fragrant garrigues and well-ordered vineyards, dotted with tall pine forests. Picpoul is a very popular white wine for accompanying shellfish and fish.
PDOs and wines from the Thau region:
PDO Languedoc-Grès de Montpellier
PDO Languedoc
PDO Muscat de Frontignan
PDO Muscat de Mireval
PDO Picpoul de Pinet
PGI Collines de la Moure
PGI Côtes de Thau
PGI Pays d'Oc
PGI Pays d'Hérault
PGI Sables du Golfe du Lion
Noilly Prat is a dry vermouth from Marseillan. Its creator, Joseph Noilly, perfected the recipe in 1813. Its fruity flavor and dark amber color are the result of a slow, open-air maturation process. Its taste is due to a clever blend, kept secret, of 20 herbs and spices from around the world.
Unusual meetings
Oursinade, Fête de l'huître or de l'anguille, Estivales, Festival du Muscat, Fascinant week-end... There's no shortage of gourmet events around the Archipelago. A number of joyfully unusual events have also been added to the traditional calendar.
The Emmuscades. In July and August, enjoy an open-air cinema after a brasucade accompanied by a glass of local wine, all at one of Frontignan's wine estates.
Total musclum. In August in Frontignan, this friendly competition puts brasucade in the spotlight. Participants get together with family and friends to prepare and cook mussels in brasucade. Tastings are then open to the public, and the winning team takes home the famous trophy: a giant mussel.
Mediterranean scaling championship. In January, Sète hosted the regional round of the national scaling competition. Quickly opening 4 dozen oysters and assembling trays of shellfish: an atypical show that also included tastings and music.
Macaronade World Championship. Amateur chefs compete every September in Sète. A not-to-be-missed event for lovers of Sète gastronomy, in a popular atmosphere.
Brotherhoods
The Commanderie des Torsades de Frontignan. Created over 30 years ago, its mission is to defend and promote Muscat de Frontignan. Its name recalls the twisted bottle, a sign of authenticity. Legend has it that Hercules twisted the bottle to extract the last drop, so excellent did he find this Muscat.
The Picpoul de Pinet companions. The aim of this brotherhood is to exalt the spirit of companionship. Members work to develop the art of knowing how to drink, how to taste and know-how, while promoting Picpoul de Pinet. They can be recognized by their green cape embroidered with gold braid, their black tricorn and their vine stock wrapped in a green ribbon.
La confrérie des mille et une pâtes, coquillages et tielles du Bassin de Thau. With this triptych representative of local gastronomy and the thousand and one ways of cooking pasta, the confreres united under this banner wish to elevate this traditional cuisine to the rank of culinary art. They are ambassadors for the region.
